Being relatively new to this hobby I am having some troubles aiming my telescope where I want it. This is in part due to it being very hard to see the cross hairs in my finderscope. Also I find it a bit difficult going from looking at the sky to looking at a magnified view through the finderscope (All those extra stars throw me off).
Anyhow I am thinking about getting a new finderscope and was wondering what people think. I have been looking around and have no idea whether I should get a red dot finder, an illuminated finder or perhaps look at getting a laser. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I also also used to become somewhat disoriented when scoping out a general area by eye while under the guidance of a star map. Translating positional data from the page and then looking up I had no trouble with. I could recognise markers, asterisms and general angles and lengths to find where I wanted to point the scope. Once I looked through a finder everything changed. The field of view was far smaller, so references that I stored in my head dissappeared out of view and i became lost.
I fixed this disorientation in two ways.
1) A red-dot finder is 1:1. No magnification to throw you off, and you can just peer through it from behind to position the infinitely-focused red dot where you wanted to be while you still remember.
2) Open your other eye when using your straight-through finder. By using both eyes, you can see where you're going with your free eye in open space at 1:1, and as you approach your target (while slewing) you can see that target start to converge with the magnified version through your other eye. As they merge it becomes very obvious.
I use a Telrad with a 45degree mirror - works fine in a outer suburban site. the mirror is not as reflective as the 'straight-through' view of the telrad, but it sure makes alignment a lot easier and I can find objects pretty easily in an outer suburban sky. It revolutionised my use of the scope and eliminates a lot of aerobics under the scope....8" SCT
After much consideration I decided to get a Telrad ($97 delivered). Got to use it for the first time last night and it was FANTASTIC!!! Made finding things much much easier.
I think I will get the dew shield so I can view it from 90 degress but other than this it is a fantastic piece of kit.
Have spend much of today downloading and printing star charts with the telrad circles on them ready to go out an have another go tonight.
Amazing how such a small piece of kit has dramatically improved my viewing pleasure.
Glad it works for you .......I love mine! If you want the 90degree switch, make sure you ask for it with the dew shield....i find that the dew shield is not as effective as one might hope, but I only use it once I am aligned and if I got really desperate, I would make up a simple dew zapper that didn't draw a lot of power and add another one to my setup...(two existing dew zappers...)
