asimov
03-09-2005, 09:50 PM
Sick of breaking my neck to get to the finder on the refractor at zenith so I came up with this quick mod.
When I purchased my refractor awhile back, I received a 1.25" star diagonal with it. One look thru it on the refractor was enough to put it back in it's box & stow it & buy a decent 2" one. Today I un-boxed it & fitted it to the straight-thru finder. Luckily it slid straight over the finder EP snugly & won't fall off when the scope is pointed at zenith. I slid it on until the finder EP touched the mirror. I unscrewed the chrome sleeve to get my eye closer to the 45 deg mirror. I can rotate the diagonal on the finder axis to any position.
The only draw-back is it halves the FOV..making it sometimes hard to find objects. It's also an aquired thing to get used to a 90 deg finder.
The whole capped chrome sleeve is screwed back on after use as the dust cap.
When I purchased my refractor awhile back, I received a 1.25" star diagonal with it. One look thru it on the refractor was enough to put it back in it's box & stow it & buy a decent 2" one. Today I un-boxed it & fitted it to the straight-thru finder. Luckily it slid straight over the finder EP snugly & won't fall off when the scope is pointed at zenith. I slid it on until the finder EP touched the mirror. I unscrewed the chrome sleeve to get my eye closer to the 45 deg mirror. I can rotate the diagonal on the finder axis to any position.
The only draw-back is it halves the FOV..making it sometimes hard to find objects. It's also an aquired thing to get used to a 90 deg finder.
The whole capped chrome sleeve is screwed back on after use as the dust cap.