[Rodstar (Rod)]

As I become a more experienced observer, I want to go more and more off the beaten track. While the Argo Navis computer has a wonderful list of user-objects and can be uploaded with user lists of yet further objects, I rather enjoy opening a page of Uranometria, and searching out objects like unidentified double stars, or little known galaxies. For this sort of work, I am heavily reliant upon a finderscope for star hopping and field orientation. I decided it was time to get a bigger and better finder than the 50mm GSO finder I have previously been using.

I have also been wanting to have greater opportunity to view some of the large scale objects which simply cannot be seen through the narrow gaze of a large dobsonian telescope. Enter the 80mm finder, which with the SV supplied 23mm crosshair EP offers a 4 degree FOV at 13x. The crosshair EP has a detachable red light illuminator.

The finder comes with a helical focuser and can fit any 1.25 inch eyepieces. At f/3.5 the SV will perform best at the edges with a better corrected wide field ocular, such as a Nagler. I am planning to purchase a 13T6 at some stage, which will give me a 3.5 degree FOV at 23x.

The SV80 finder also has a straight through function, which takes 2 inch eyepieces. I am yet to work out how this operates, the but the thought of being able to look at rich Carina starfields through a 31 Nagler in the SV80 has me salivating!

Peter has balanced the scope beautifully to allow for the weight of the SV finder. It required about 4kg of extra weight in the mirror box!
The finder has a lovely black matte finish which I think complements the black of the delrin blocks rather nicely.