Hi Rod
A bit of a ramble, but here goes. I have an Orion 9x50 RA finder scope I purchased from Bintel a couple of years ago for use on my Vixen 4” f9 refractor. The finder bracket/stalk has the standard dovetail that fitted the Vixen mount, although the fit was not as good as the Vixen finder bracket/stalk.
I really thought that the RA would be the answer to all my “finding” problems, but it wasn’t. The main reason is that with the Vixen straight through finder scope, I can squint along the 7x50 tube whilst pressing my motor movement buttons, to get to the field that I want. With the RA finder, the RA assembly blocks this view and also, the tube is much shorter so squinting is not as accurate and reliable.
In the end, I fitted both finders to the OTA as the focuser has two extra pre-drilled and tapped holes to fit a dovetail shoe on the RHS as well as the already fitted shoe on the LHS. So, now, I squint along the straight through finder to get the field I want and then I centre the alignment object using the RA finder.
I suspect the combination of a Red Dot finder and a RA finder would also be quite useful.
The Orion finder is okay and good value for the money, but the fit and finish are well below the Vixen supplied finder and I have heard of people having to file down the stalk dovetail pin to allow it to slide into the dovetail bracket – there is a lot of paint on this gear, so maybe the raw metal to metal surfaces fitted okay, but the paint layers cause binding. One thing I really like about the Orion finder is the use of 2 nylon adjustment screws, with the third point being some kind of spring loaded piston, so the finder is a dream to align.
The only RA illuminated finder I know of is the one at
Scopestuff by Antares.
I also have a beautiful 9x50 finder that I purchased from Ron at
Sirius Optics. It is illuminated but is unfortunately straight through only. The optics are really nice and the illuminated reticule terminates in a small circle at the centre, so that when you place a star in this circle, the cross hairs do not hide it as in my Orion and Vixen finders. Also, the Sirius unit has very fine cross hairs with ticks at 1 degree intervals. It cost me around $300 but it has proven its worth over the years. Unfortunately, the last time I was in the shop, Ron had sold out.
Hope that helps.
Cheers
Dennis