[Chaos-l] new finder

[Michael Hrivnak]

I have an Orion EZ Finder II, which is a red-dot finder.  I like it a
lot, although if I could do it again, I think I'd buy a telrad.  Having
circles of defined diameters in degrees I think would make star hopping
that much easier.  Orion has a new red-dot finder, called something like
the "EZ Finder Delux", with 4 target settings.  One of them is
concentric circles, but I don't think they've advertised that the
circles are any particular diameter.

Maybe I'll upgrade to a telrad in the future, although I like the idea
of having only the standard Orion dovetail mounts that so many companies
use.  I have two of them on my scope now, which gives me flexibility to
try lots of different finders in different combinations.

In any case, I'm having lots of luck with the 3-step finding process of
putting the red dot on the right part of the sky, using the 8x50 RACI
finder to get an accurate position, and then looking through the scope
to see the object.  I'm not convinced yet though that the red-dot finder
I have is really much more valuable than mounting a straw on the scope.
 At least the red-dot finder is easy to align I suppose.

Based on my limited experience thus far, I don't think I'd want to go
out with only a non-magnifying finder.  Especially around here with
light pollution, there are too many parts of the sky where there just
isn't much visible to the naked eye to go on.  A great example last
night was NGC 7789, near Cassiopeia.  It was so faint, that if I were to
just try to aim south of the Southern star with the red-dot, I'm not
sure I would have recognized the object.  With the 8x50 RACI finder, I
could clearly recognize Sigma and Rho, stuck the crosshairs right
between them, and there was the object centered right in the scope.

Michael

Chuck Cook wrote:
> I'm curious if you have a Telrad or other type of non-magnifying finder.
> Throughout all this chatter about finderscopes, no one has mentioned the
> Telrad as an option.
> 
> Chuck
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: chaos-l-bounces at rtpnet.org [mailto:chaos-l-bounces at rtpnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Michael Hrivnak
> Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 2:24 AM
> To: Chaos-l at rtpnet.org
> Subject: [Chaos-l] new finder
> 
> Tonight was my first time out with my new GSO 8x50 RACI finder.  I initially
> purchased a 6x30 Orion RACI on the advice of a young guy working at Big
> Bang.  However, tonight revealed a world of difference between the two!
> 
> Finding is now MUCH easier.  My views through the new finder match the
> pictures in "Turn Left at Orion", whereas before it was a stretch to
> reconcile the two.  I tried both finders mounted on the scope side-by-side
> for comparison, and the level of detail was dramatically higher on the 8x50.
> 
> All of the piddly clusters and such in Cassiopeia have given me trouble in
> the past, but finding them was a breeze tonight.  I was also amazed to
> clearly see the Dumbbell nebula through the finder!
> 
> In case any of you have an undersized finder on a reasonably sized scope
> (mine is an 8" Dob), I highly suggest trying one of these out.  This 8x50
> RACI finder from GSO cost $55 including shipping, which I think is about
> what I paid for the 6x30.
> 
> As for the observing, it was another very clear night.  I was quite
> literally all over the map.  Incidentally, I think I found a typo in "Turn
> Left at Orion".  I was confused to see on page 170, in the finderscope view,
> a star labeled "CBS 511".  Having never seen that prefix, and not being
> familiar with other star catalogs, it took me about 15 minutes of google
> searches to finally reveal that it should read "BSC", which stands for
> "Bright Star Catalog".
> 
> I'm planning to go out again tomorrow night.  It should be very clear, with
> no Lunar interruptions until very late.
> 
> Clear Skies,
> Michael
> 
> 

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