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Old 13-03-2013, 10:05 PM
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absolut (Rob)
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Location: Coffs Harbour, Australia
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Clear night in Sydney!!!

Hey all!

Managed a short session from my friend's balcony this evening!
The night was as clear as I've seen it (for Sydney) in quite a while!!

Unfortunately a few of my chosen targets were stubbornly below the horizon, however I did manage to see some bands on Jupiter as well as the 4 main Jovian moons - even looking through the amazing light pollution Sydney has on offer!

I've come to realise with my mount/scope combo, my straight through finderscope is very annoying/useless the closer I get to Zenith.
I think I'll be investing in a right-angled finderscope, any recommendations?

Clear seeing to you all!

Rob
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Old 18-03-2013, 09:36 PM
Graffy
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Hi Rob,

I'm a newbie, just like you... I've had my scope for all of a month and had had almost no time to use it! That said, I've finally got off my butt and ordered enough toys to keep me interested, hopefully they'll arrive this week in time for me to get home this weekend and stay up all night!

Anyway like you I find my finderscope is useless... I'm planning on replacing it at some point but in the meantime I've taken various peoples' advice and ordered a telrad... I figure that between the telrad, the finderscope and the scope that I'll be able to make heads or tails of something, lol.

Oh, and I feel your pain with the Sydney light pollution... I'm out towards Castle Hill!

Good luck...
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Old 19-03-2013, 08:32 PM
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Suzy
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Hi Robert
Boy haven't those few clear nights been rareities of late on the eastern side of Aussie! I just spent the weekend doing two nearly all night sessions, making the most of it as they don't come by too often! Sleep in this instance mattered not.

My 2c worth....
Agreed, those straight thru fnders are big pain in the neck. Oh pun I just realised. I got rid of mine and bought a 9x50 Stellarview right angle (RA) finder. Worth every single penny and todate my singlest best investment EVER. The finder build quality is superb- it's actually a refractor telescope in it's own right and can be carried across on to a tripod just by spending a little more and getting the correct dovetail mount. If you decide to choose, be careful choosing your mounts for it, there's a lot of options there on the website. The contrast thru them is amazing which allows me to pick out those really faint fuzzies. The eyepiece that comes with it has a larger field of view than than the straight thru finders. And you know what else? You can swap your eyepieces on them if you want higher magnification! I'm a huge advocate of this finder, I love it to pieces. DO IT- trust me, it's worth the extra money. Oh and another thing, you can easily turn the eyepiece on the finder or flick it out the way without losing where you're pointing!

Oh and another big plus! I spend as much time looking thru this finder taking in the glorious widefield views as I do looking through the scope- honest!

Here's a pic of my 9x50 Stellarview finder mounted on a tripod (remember, that I got the correct dovetail mount for it to do this). The eyepiece on it is my 15mm 68 deg Orion Expanse wide view, but the 22mm (or is it 25mm, around that anyway) that comes with it, has got a fantastic field of view as well). Sheer awesomeness! Now go go go buy it now, don't waiste any more time I say man!
So.... bought it yet???
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Old 20-03-2013, 02:29 PM
Kunama
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Another vote for the Stellarvue F50W2 finder

I bought one recently to replace the Tak straightthru. It really is as Suzy stated, a refractor on its own, I tried mine last night with the Vixen LVW13mm, it is excellent.
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  #5  
Old 24-03-2013, 04:48 PM
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absolut (Rob)
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Thanks for the feedback!

Suzy that Stellarvue looks great! I think I'll have to work on my neck exercises with my current finder until I can order one.

Going to pick up the extension pole (adds height) for my new mount - that will straighten out my pretzel impersonations while looking near zenith!

Clear skies to all!
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