A New Finderscope!

The more or less constant cloudy evenings have resulted in me spending many evenings perusing an amazing website called AstroBuySell UK. This site is basically a bulletin board full of people trying to sell their 2nd hand Astronomy equipment which is both a godsend and a curse for me. It is a godsend because it lets me pay lower amount of cash for equipment I want but the problem is that there are so many good deals on there that I struggle to stop myself buying everything I see!

Anyway, I have a basic list of equipment that I would like to buy in the future and so I keep an eye out for any deals that may pop up. This week someone decided to put their 8x50 Right Angle Correct Image Finder Scope on sale for almost 2/3 the cost of a new one. Considering half the time a few of the online stores I use don’t have them in stock either I jumped at the chance of picking this up.

Anyway I have been after one of these little contraptions for a couple reasons which are as follows:

1. The straight through finder I currently have causes me a couple of issues when I am aiming it at the zenith. The first is that I sometimes have to get down on my knees in rather damp and muddy environments which doesn’t endear me to the wife when I come home all dirty and wet! The second is that even when I don’t have to crawl on the floor I usually have to crane my neck at horrid angles which isn’t the most comfortable thing to do. The right angled element to the new finder means I should be able to avoid these issues now.


2. The current finder is only 30mm whereas the new one is 50mm. This simply gives the finder more light gathering powers and I can therefore see fainter objects easier. I had discovered with the 6x30 finder that I wasn’t always if I was in the right area for some of the dimmer targets.


3. I hate the fact that the up/down and left/right are back to front in my original finderscope. I am sure I could learn to cope with this in the long run but I keep moving the scope the wrong way far to often for my liking! The RACI corrects this but putting right, left, up and down in the correct places!

So I am hoping this will now make my entire alignment process and the confirmation of positioning via the GOTO mount much easier and less painful. Of course I need some clear skies before I can really see if this is really going to be any better!