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???