Andrews also has a $29 red dot finder (single dot). It does the job and is small.
The advantage of the Telrad is that it has 4deg, 2deg & 0.5deg circles and runs on 2 x AA batteries which last a very, very, very long time. It is well built and holds alignment well.
The single red dot finder does the job too but runs on a single large button cell but I don't know how long before you have to replace the battery. You can slide the single red dot finder into a standard Skywatcher foot whereas the Telrad has its own base which can be screwed or simply double-sided taped to the tube assembly.
The Telrad is very nice but if you're on a budget the $29 single red dot finder will do just fine. It's far better and safer than a laser and doesn't annoy fellow astronomers at a star party.
Standard single RDF limitations soon become apparent.
Telrad is the traditional visual observers tool, because it integrates well with star charts with Telrad guide circles.
However I chose the unique Stellarvue F2 Deep Sky finder (unfortunately had a recent price hike to USD78 - was USD58). (See Stellarvue website).
The SV F2DS has significant advantages over both the single red dot finder and the original Advanced Multi-reticule Finder (AMRF) - sometimes referred to as the "Williams Optics MRF".
Note the original version of the AMRF was actually designed as a rifle sight with multi-coated lens for day & night use and later adopted for astronomy. Surprisingly the lens coating causes annoying reflections and cannot be dimmed enough under dark skies.
The SV F2 features:
- larger clear lens with a thin frame.
- lower intensity red illuminator, still with 6 levels, intensities which are much
better suited to astronomy use. Not so good in daylight.
- easy to use collimation adjustments.
- four selectable reticule targets patterns. I find the SV F2 center circle
with external crosshairs the preferred pattern.
- Very long battery life, just remember to turn it off = 0!
- Design is otherwise almost identical to the AMRF and build quality is
excellent.
Both the "WO MRF" and SV F2 DS compensate for some paralax error, but you soon learn to get the best accuracy by keeping the target pattern centered in the lens.
My personal preference is to mount the SV F2 part way up a refractor OTA, not at the back as you would a standard finderscope. Rear Cell on SCTs.
Stellarvue has a huge range of stalks and mounting adaptors to suit any telescope. (See Hands On Optics listing).
Kendrick produce a dedicated dew heater which fits both multi reticule finders - SV F2 requires minor trimming of the heater plastic frame. (Available from Bintel).
For medium power visual observing with a CPC8, I prefer to use both the SV F2 DS and a SV F60M (10x60 RACI). The SV F60M (USD 189) and SV F50M2 (USD139) are perhaps the best finderscopes ever produced.
These comments are based on extended use of the "WO MRF", SV F2 DS, Single Red Dot Finder, Takahashi 6x30, and various generic finderscopes.
Remove the words 'tight budget' and many possibilities open up, even the Tele Vue Starbeam. The $20 difference between the Telrad and 4 target finder is not worth thinking about and I'd recommend the Telrad anytime. However the $50 difference between a Telrad and a single red dot finder is significant and I was merely pointing out that the $59 red dot finder is NOT the cheapest.
Wow thankyou everyone for your comments and replys, so many choices now
I have only used my 6" for 3 days and already have a stiff neck from bending down and twisting to look through the OEM finder on the dob.
Still so many choices though, i guess it comes down to what suits the individual in the end
Small town here so no star parties that i know of and for medical reasons i cant travel so thankyou again for all your advice will take it all in and make a choice
Would a laser finder be easier or harder than all the above mentioned?
For the price of a telrad i could get a green laser finder shipped from the US.
Or would warrenty issues etc just be not worth it.
You'll have problems importing it. Any laser worth importing will be over the power limit so will need customs preapproval and probably a police permit.
I bought the $59 red dot laser from Andrews last week and i've been waiting for a few days for some good weather. It slid into my SW's standard viewfinder dovetail easily. Hopefully i will be able to test it out tonight. I'm a bit skeptical, maybe because i reckon my SW's factory viewfinder is an awesome bit of kit so i'm not that hard to please LOL
Hi Chris,
I quickly got fed up with that finder as well as it was so hard to look through, so off it came. I replaced it with a red dot finder which cost me around $80. It has different patterns (cross, dot, etc) that you can choose, but most useful is that I can reduce the intensity of the light on it. When I bought it, Ron at Sirrius Optics told me that particular feature was a good one to have, and he was right. Regarding the batteries, they are cheap enough and easily obtainable from such stores as Jaycar. Make sure you buy a few each time and keep them with your eyepieces. You never want these batteries to run out without backup. They last for ages, providing you remember to turn it OFF when finished observing. I lost a few batteries in the beginning because of this.
I can't comment on the comparison to the Telrad as I don't know enough about the Telrads.
I bought the $59 red dot laser from Andrews last week and i've been waiting for a few days for some good weather. It slid into my SW's standard viewfinder dovetail easily. Hopefully i will be able to test it out tonight. I'm a bit skeptical, maybe because i reckon my SW's factory viewfinder is an awesome bit of kit so i'm not that hard to please LOL
cheers
Red laser will not be visible at all (red light is not scattered in the atmosphere.. that is why green lasers are used).
As far as red dot finders (or red dot sights, of holographic sight - BTW this is totally wrong description) are concerned, they are OK (sometimes they suffer from parallax, especially physically shorter model), and they are cheap. Telrad is good, but quite big and cumbersome... and expensive.
Ok i had a chance to test it out last night. The weather was terrible again last night, not a cloud in the sky but lots of dewy foggy haze. I could only make out bright stars, I couldn't even see orion's belt with naked eyes or barely with binoculars for most of the night but there was the occasional clearer patch. I still managed to see a lunar eclipse on Jupitor
I had already fitted it to the scope's dovetail on friday. I took the scope outside and started to 'line up' the red dot finder. This is the $59 red dot finder with 4 selectable laser patterns from Andrews. The service from them as usual is excellent and the build quality of this unit looks very good with an all metal body. I started to line up the horizontal alignment with the supplied allen key and this worked fine. I then stated on the vertical alignment and this didn't work at all. No matter how many times i turned the allen key left or right it did nothing. A few more turns and "POP" out came a retaining piece from the finder. It hit the strut on the scope and bounced back onto the ground where i found it. I'm glad it didn't pop into the scope and land on the primary!
Off to the shed i went to use a clamp to hold it steady while i re-fitted the retainer. Still, no vertical adjustment. At this time i remembered that there was a smaller allen key supplied but not mentioned in the manual. I looked closely and found a small hole directly behind the horizontal adjustment screw. I stuck the small allen key in there and loosened the bolt and the rear of the finder sprung up. It appears that this it a 'major' vertical adjustment - just not mentioned in the manual. Within a few minutes i had the red dot finder back on the scope and using my thumb and finger i squeezed the rear of the red dot finder until it was lined up and then tightened the small allen key. Still not ideal as there was no 'fine adjustment' but at least i could get the dot into the 'vicinity'.
It was very easy to line up jupitor and any other star which i could make out in the poor conditions. It was easier than using the viewfinder. The glass viewer stops the laser from penetrating but it's also easy and clear to see through and the laser is very visible on the glass. It has 4 selectable patterns but i found the easiest was the smallest dot. It also comes with a cleaning cloth and a rubber dust cover for the glass. Here is a picture. Notice the vertical allen key adjustment on top of the finder which was ineffective:
I have called andrews and asked them if this is a known problem and/or if they have any solutions to the vertical adjustment issue. I spoke with Luke who said that they've sold hundreds without any issue and none coming back and he wanted me to send it to him straight away (i'm in QLD) and he'll express post another out immediately.
You are talking about laser, but this is NOT a laser - it is LED, placed in a focus of curved mirror (glass lens).
What you are seeing is the image of the dot (or pattern) projected on the sky.
Telrad works in the similar way - the difference is, instead of one one concave semitransparent mirror, it has a lens and flat semitransparent mirror.
I like the Telrad for the graduated 'circles' that help with charts. But too big and cumbersome for me.
I like the dinkie little RSF. I have TWO. One sits on my 8" f/4 dob. The other on top of my BIG 3" finder of my 17.5" dob. The 8" is a rich field scope, so the accuracy of the single dot RSF is just fine.
Hickny has a Telrad & a 3" finder together on his 13.1"!
Hickny & I find that a red dot/Telrad are great as "gross" finders, yet the light gathering of an optical finder is a great help with fine tuning, or when the target is just not easily locatable.
If your scope already has an optical finder, I suggest just a single dot finder is a fine addition. Most times the RSF is sufficient. Yet, the optical finder gives me a little more 'guts'.
As an example, from my home, to find the Tarantula nebula last night, with my light poluted skies just using just the Telrad on Hickny's scope or the RSF on mine would have been a very, very difficult task. The optical finder had enough "beef" to actually show the Tarantula, and make locating it in the scope a piece of cake. The optical finder doesn't need to be like my overkill 3"er. A 30mm would have done just a good a job. Even if I can't see the object, the finder will show sufficent surrounding stars to assist with star hopping to the target.
The pics below show the RSF & 3" finder arrangement (I still need to take a photo of my completed 17.5" scope fully decked out with all its bells & whistles).
You are talking about laser, but this is NOT a laser - it is LED, placed in a focus of curved mirror (glass lens).
What you are seeing is the image of the dot (or pattern) projected on the sky.
Telrad works in the similar way - the difference is, instead of one one concave semitransparent mirror, it has a lens and flat semitransparent mirror.
Cheers thanks for correcting me It's not listed on the andrews website or the manual. The battery, switch setup etc is identical to my laser collimator. If it is an LED then the battery should last longer!
It's definitely small and light. I might see if i can place it next to my current viewfinder when i get another sent out (if it works )
Cheers thanks for correcting me It's not listed on the andrews website or the manual. The battery, switch setup etc is identical to my laser collimator. If it is an LED then the battery should last longer!
It's definitely small and light. I might see if i can place it next to my current viewfinder when i get another sent out (if it works )
cheers
No worries mate
Battery lasts but you should still switch the unit off after use, as Suzy suggested. I have the same battery for a year already..
You may also consider changing the resistors that limits the current through the LED - battery will last longer, and what is more important, the brightness will be reduced further (those units are designed for rifles and pistols, not for astronomy).
The resistors are placed on a small pcb below the battery, it is not that hard to dismantle the whole thing.
I used the values up to 15 kohms to sufficiently reduce the glare of the dot.
