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Originally Posted by sandusky
bought used scope but missing view finder and counterweight anyone out there help, also need user manual if one available thanks sandusky.   |
Hi Sandusky,
Welcome to IIS!
There's a lot you can do and see, even with a 'toy' scope (though I tend to disagree with that discription).
To answer your questions;
As a cheap counterweight solution, I've had great results with regular fitness weights. You can get them in various sizes for a few dollars at BigW or KMart (or any other sports supply store). They fit nicely around most rods. If the center hole is too big, line it with some anti-skid furniture strips.
For a viewfinder, you could potentially get away with not having a viewfinder for a while, if you get yourself a 40mm eyepiece. The effective magnification for a 900mm scope would be about 22x, which is *just* about usable (a viewfinder is usually around 8x magnification). The upshot of using an eyepiece is that you can also use it to get nice views of nebulae, plus spot galaxies and clusters (I rarely use my smaller eyepieces!). Most things are faint, not small, so you'll want one sooner or later.
These suggestions assume that you're on a budget ofcourse...
Hope you too catch the bug!