Chuck: For my larger scopes (10-inch and 12.5-inch) I use both a Telrad and a 3-inch F5 Celestron refractor with an erect-image diagonal. I like the larger refractor 'cause it gives a bright image with a wide field for hunting particularly faint objects. The 80mm finders on my 8-inch SCT and my 5-inch refractor are adequate for those scopes. I've found anything smaller to be absolutely useless, as no doubt many others on the list have found. For what it's worth... Kim -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces+kimharch=cut.net@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces+kimharch=cut.net@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Chuck Hards Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2006 10:47 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Finderscope poll I would like to hear more opinions from frequent, seasoned observers. Daniel, Patrick, Don, Brent, Ron, you guys come to mind, I know there are others on the list. Thanks to those who have replied so-far! ____________________________________________________________________________ ________ Sponsored Link $420k for $1,399/mo. Think You Pay Too Much For Your Mortgage? Find Out! www.LowerMyBills.com/lre _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.com ______________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned by Cut.Net Managed Email Content Service, using Skeptic(tm) technology powered by MessageLabs. For more information on Cut.Nets Content Service, visit http://www.cut.net ______________________________________________________________________

Until a year ago I used only the Telrad Sky Atlas 2000 field edition. If I can find two mag 5 or better stars within 5 degrees of an object, I can almost always bring it in. I the barren wasteland of Camelopardalis, I use my 10x50 binoculars to see stars down to 8th mag and note there relationship to the few 5th mag stars available. This lest me get close enough to do a wide field spiral search. I logged over 700 objects this way. Since last year, I've gone to the Argo Navis digital telescope computer. This is a new generation of digital setting circles that wasn't available 5 years ago when I bought my telescope. What first thing that sold me was the 10K encoders which are capable of 2.16 arc minute resolution. I also wanted the pointing error correction software. What do you think the professional astronomers do when a new facility is built and shows that axes are not square by 8 arc minutes and the truss tube sags by 12 arc minutes? They don't rip it out and start over, they just program the pointing software to deal with it. With the AN my raw pointing errors are 12 arc minutes but the fitted error is 4.5 arc minutes. That's well within an eyepiece field at 200x and is getting close to the encoder resolution. I've found other benefits that had not been anticipated. The scroll wheel is easy to manipulate in the dark and with heavy mittens on. The whole Messier list is within a half dozen turns of the wheel. For public star parties at an urban site, I might stay on that one catalog most of the night. The touring options allow me to bring up a list of 6 planetaries and view them all at a leisurely pace, all within the time it would have taken to chase down the first one with the Telrad and charts. I can then change the eyepiece or add a filter and go the whole list again. This increase in productivity has left me often sitting in a chair thinking up more things that I want to see. The pace is now recreational, before it was rather frantic and a chore. But the best is that I no longer use the red light to read charts. With the white on black field edition using the lowest red light setting where I can still read the numbers my dark adaptation would be diminished. It would take 15 minutes to get it back. This was a major reason for my slow pace with just the Telrad and charts. Each item took a use of the light to read the number. Now I can turn the display brightness down to suit my dark adaptation. I'm very pleased with this product. DT ____________________________________________________________________________________ Sponsored Link Compare mortgage rates for today. Get up to 5 free quotes. Www2.nextag.com

Chuck Hards wrote:

...

I would like to hear more opinions from frequent, seasoned observers. Daniel, Patrick, Don, Brent, Ron, you guys come to mind, I know there are others on the list. Chuck.

I have never had a finder scope being content with reflex finders and avoiding the balancing issues involved. Altho. since I have had my 25'er I have been in the market for a 120mm f/5 to mount on the mirror box like Steve Dodds has on his 33'er. He uses a 40mm Meade SWA and it is a very impressive start to locating an object. These 120mm f/5's are wide field scopes sold by Orion and a few other import distributors. Now that I am thinking about it one of the winter projects will involve a laser holder so I can use my green laser as a finder. I had a crude mock-up of one at Cap. Reef last month and it makes a big difference over the course of the night being able to stand erect and guide your scope (another step in the evolution of the astronomer ; ) as opposed to bending over sideways and planting your face against the cold moist tube and awkwardly guiding the scope from this position to your target before your contact lens slides into the nether parts of your eyeball.... Anyway, those are my current assessments on finders and thanx for asking. Ron Vanderhule