[Shark Bait (Stu)]

Vaztr, if you are still thinking about a pointer it is not that expensive or difficult to attach one to your scope. I wish I had done it earlier.

I picked up a $10, 1mW green laser pointer from ebay to experiment with. Suzy had success with the same item, so I was confident that the supplier and product would be good. The beam is visible at night but not so bright that it will gain the attention of your neighbours.

To make BAS public viewing sessions easier I have zip tied a piece of PVC pipe to the stalk of the finder scope. Small threaded bolts have been positioned at each end of the tube to allow adjustment of the pointer. Another was positioned over the momentary switch in order to turn it on for as long as necessary. Some more work will need to be done to position the tube a little better but the whole setup works. It can now be used to point the scope and let people know exactly where the object they see through the eyepiece is in the sky.

The second photo is a 30 second exposure to allow the beam to be seen in the image.