[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

For fast slewing or star-hopping (off a map) quickly to a point you estimate in the sky, the RDF is a real boon at 1:1 - mainly because you don't have to be looking through it to see where you are going. While you have an estimated position within in a field in your external sight, you can move the red dot into view without averting your vision and losing your objects estimated position. You can keep your eyes on the object area while you're slewing, and just move the dot into your external view to coincide with it.

I much prefer them to a Telrad which do their level best to obliterate the target with 3 concentric circles that just plain get in the way. They're ok if you use them in reference to a star chart that utilises their FOV for relative positioning, but for everything else they're a real pain - and overly large. A nice dim single dot is my fave - especially if you then have a straight-through 50mm finder as well to give you 7x mag when you get there.