First of all, welcome to the forum! I've only been at this forum for a month (been at a few other astro forums for years). Everyone here seems very friendly and helpful. I'm sure you'll like it here too!
Anyway, on to your question. Not only can you easily replace the finderscope, you can add a Telrad or other red dot type finder too. The finderscope base is mounted to the tube, a single thumbscrew loosens the finderscope, you slip it out of the base, slip another one in (the right angled one), tighten the screw, you're done. Takes about ten seconds.
Teh Telrad can be used along with the right angle finderscope. These things are worth their weight in gold. The Telrad is a 1x finder.... it doesn't magnify a thing. What it does is when you look through it you see an unmagnified area of the sky and a series of concentric red circles. You can point it right in the area of where you want to be, then look through the finderscope to narrow nown the area, then the telescope eyepiece.
I'll point you at a couple of links on my web site which might help explain it better, and show you a photo of both a 9x50 RA finder, and a Telrad mounted to a SkyQuest 8" scope.
The first link here gives a short review of the 9x50 finder, and just below that, the Telrad:
http://home.comcast.net/~astrohammer/opinionspage2.htm
And a photo of both mounted to the OTA:
http://home.comcast.net/~astrohammer/Telradand9x50RA.jpg
Hope this helps!
Any ideas re: dob finder
