I have a bad back and could not use the straight through finderscope. So, I bought a right angle finder scope. Still, most deep space things I wanted to photograph were not visible through a finderscope and some were not visible through my OTA eyepiece. And then I found I could use the real time plate solving feature of Sharp Cap Pro, so I quit using viewfinders entirely. My stuff always breaks down or needs adjustment, so I always watch your videos.
I agree most 50mm finder scopes don't have a bright enough image. so I built my own using old binocular objectives My main one is a 60 mm but I have made them up to 90mm and the differences a much brighter image!
I bought a secondhand Meade Starfinder dob about 3 years ago. The previous owner had made a straight through finder from binocular parts, a bit like Red’s Double Plossl. I got into eyepiece making courtesy of this channnel and Red’s, bought too many old binocs from eBay. Modified the straight through to a RACI with one of the numerous prisms I now have and a hot glue gun. Works well.
No kidding, this past weekend I went to use my dob and something appeared to be seriously wrong with my 9x50 RACI finder. It has an illuminated reticle and the crosshairs looked like they had not only shifted, but something was seriously out of line because I could see the side of the finder. I did not recall any damage to the finder, but it was 3 degrees F that evening. I thought maybe something came loose. I brought it in to warm up over the next day or so and honestly, you were the person I thought of as I prepared to dive into the thing on Monday and find out what happened. Turns out it was fine and if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Maybe my eyes were frozen. Thanks for giving me the confidence to even think about attempting a repair.
@@AstronomyGarage That or the glass shrunk and came loose. I did have a dew heater on the finder to keep frost off the objective. Either way, I may have found a limit on just how much cold my Dob can tolerate. It was a lousy night anyway with a full moon and 70% humidity but when you only get a few hours a month of clear skies you just have to try.
Despite growing up in the Midwest, I quickly lost my tolerance for cold weather after moving to Texas. Below 45 degrees and I'd rather stay inside. All the more reason to buy a remotely-operated smart telescope?
When I first saw the thumbnail I thought you would be converting a straight-through finder into a RACI finder. But this was very helpfull since one of my finders also has a cracked o-ring!
Thanks for the video, very informative as usual. My 6 inch Dobsonian came with a straight viewfinder, and I also did find it to be a bit painful to use; so I bought a RACI finder. There is an issue, though. With a straight viewfinder I am forced to look towards the sky, and can easily switch from the finder to my eyes to point the telescope more quickly. With the RACI finder, I am looking towards the ground; to point the telescope, I twist my neck to see where the telescope is pointed at, then "untwist" to look through the finder, rinse and repeat until I narrow down the approximate location where the target is. Hopefully I just need to get used to the RACI finder 🤷
I think I understand. Most of my telescopes also have a cheap red-dot finder up toward the nose. I use the red-dot to get a really rough aim at the target, then I use the RACI to zero in.
I need a RACI for the polar scope on my AVX mount. Will the one on those finders fit or do you have any other idea(s) for attaching one to an AVX polar scope?
You can buy dovetail mounts that will screw and or attach to the outside of nearly any telescope. They make smaller RACI viewfinders too if that works out better for you.
1:50: Hi there, it's the pedantic "actually" guy. 😂 Actually, it has two purposes. First is indeed to locate in the groove, to help keep the tube in place together with the two screws. But also: push back against the tube for when you loosen the set screws when collimating.
I literally just had to do this same repair on an Orion RACI connected to a used XT8 Intelliscope that a friend gave me last week upon quitting the hobby. Alongside a whole set of 2" eyepieces. Optically it's almost as good as my Terry Ostahowski-figured 6" f/8 bought in 1998, which is high praise. For a while I had an old XT8 classic that I had purchased used for cheap, but unfortunately the mirror had a badly turned-down edge. It needed an aperture mask down to 6" to get acceptable images so it was redundant to me and I gave it to someone struggling with a department store scope. It's nice to get an ACTUAL bump in aperture for the first time in 26 years! I tested out the Intelliscope controller and it works fine, but I don't think I'll use it. I even unplugged the cables from the encoders on the base so they won't get in the way. I use a Starsense Explorer dock on a 3D printed finder-shoe adapter. Using the SSE functionality in SkySafari 7+ on my phone. It has better pointing accuracy with less rigamarole. Also I'm able to use an old iPhone without a sim card as a dedicated Starsense Explorer device. I run it and the 5v cooling fan on the cell off a single USB power bank.
It sounds like your friends former hobby is quite the treasure for you. The XT8 is such a fantastic telescope. Sorry to hear that your old one had the defective mirror (I haven't heard of that for any of the XT series so far). I'm a big fan of the Intelliscopes. It has all the helpful guidance of a computer telescope, but without the worry that it will all go sideways when a motor starts to fail. I have the XT8i version. I've heard excellent things about the Starsense Explorer. I also have two identical smartphones - one is my regular phone and the other is sim-less that is used only as a camera and WiFi web browser. Clear skies!
@@AstronomyGarage it was literally the only bad XT I've ever seen. It was one of the really early GSO-sourced ones from around 1999 or 2000, before the quality control really got nailed down. Starsense Explorer is deadly accurate. More accurate than the Intelliscope. My issue with encoder based systems with keypads is that I spent thirty years star-hopping manually. To me, using an Atlas and star-hopping is like taking a road trip to someplace fun. Using a keypad and encoders and complicated alignment is like going to the department of motor vehicles, standing in line, filling out forms, and then walking out to someplace fun. The Starsense Explorer, by contrast, feels like that same road trip to someplace fun, only with a really nice GPS nav unit in the dashboard.
Are these some projects you might do? I made a stand alone RFT for sweeping dark skies by mounting a 1.25" focuser to a damaged 50mm straight finder. I can get a 2.5°-6° field @ 20x-8x. Any alt-az or photo tripod carries it. 60×350mm and 70×300mm-400mm refractors make great combo lighter-weight finders + RFTs. I took a 60×350mm scope to the last RTMC it is amazing how well scopes perform in black skies @ 7000'. Your 80mm Firstscope with a 2" focuser would make a great superfinder/RFT/G&G. Thx L
You have any thoughts on the ZWO Seestar S50?? I got mine last week and Im still a newbie, but I've gotten some great images. I kind of feel like Im cheating.
I've heard great things about the Seestar and other smart telescopes. They aren't cheating at all. Lots of folks use GoTo telescopes and the smart telescopes are just GoTo's that have a camera permanently mounted. One bonus of smartscopes: You don't have to wait outside and get frostbite to use them! You can sit in the comfort of your house or car and enjoy the sights. Have fun and share the fun with other folks. Clear skies!
Hi, What is the largest of your scopes have been out to dark skies with? The 14" Orion? What % of your observations are at dark sites? Have you optimized any scopes for urban use? L
Unfortunately the 14" never made it out to a dark sky, due to extenuating life circumstances. :( The largest that I've ever truly taken to dark skies was my 8 inch. I did take the 12 inch to a dark sky location, but it had a full moon directly overhead. I have so many streetlights and neighbors driveway lights that I have a magnetic blind that I attach to the front end of my big Dobs.
Do you want a telescope that is better than Galileo's ? Then set-up the 6×30 to operate @ 25mm and @ 30x. A scope that is WAY better than Galileo's ? Stop the 8×50 to 30mm and operate @ 30x + . Thx for the vids L
![How To Clean A Telescope Mirror: The Step By Step Guide [ 8" Reflector Telescope ] by Reflactor](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wtc53Br_96g/mqdefault.jpg)
![How To Clean A Telescope Mirror: The Step By Step Guide [ 8" Reflector Telescope ] by Reflactor](/img/tr.png)
Great to see you back!
Thanks! I do enjoy these short videos. The long one I'm working on now has been in the works for nearly two years now.
My Flo astro essentials raci is the same too John
I'm starting to think that they all bought from the same manufacturer!
I have a bad back and could not use the straight through finderscope. So, I bought a right angle finder scope. Still, most deep space things I wanted to photograph were not visible through a finderscope and some were not visible through my OTA eyepiece.
And then I found I could use the real time plate solving feature of Sharp Cap Pro, so I quit using viewfinders entirely.
My stuff always breaks down or needs adjustment, so I always watch your videos.
I agree most 50mm finder scopes don't have a bright enough image. so I built my own using old binocular objectives My main one is a 60 mm but I have made them up to 90mm and the differences a much brighter image!
Your use of Sharp Cap Pro as a viewfinder is way more advanced than anything I've ever done. I may try that this season.
I bought a secondhand Meade Starfinder dob about 3 years ago. The previous owner had made a straight through finder from binocular parts, a bit like Red’s Double Plossl. I got into eyepiece making courtesy of this channnel and Red’s, bought too many old binocs from eBay. Modified the straight through to a RACI with one of the numerous prisms I now have and a hot glue gun. Works well.
That is really cool. I'd never thought of using half a binocular as a viewfinder. It would be corrected too.
As always great instructions and tips thanks John!
Thanks Steve. This may win the award for fastest video from start to edited to published (roughly 2 hours total).
Another awesome job with a short and to the point repair video!
Thanks! This might win the award for my fastest produced video from start to finish, lol.
@AstronomyGarage 😅
thanks for sharing John
Hi Joe, Thanks for watching! This may be my fastest ever video from start to finish, lol.
No kidding, this past weekend I went to use my dob and something appeared to be seriously wrong with my 9x50 RACI finder. It has an illuminated reticle and the crosshairs looked like they had not only shifted, but something was seriously out of line because I could see the side of the finder. I did not recall any damage to the finder, but it was 3 degrees F that evening. I thought maybe something came loose. I brought it in to warm up over the next day or so and honestly, you were the person I thought of as I prepared to dive into the thing on Monday and find out what happened. Turns out it was fine and if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Maybe my eyes were frozen. Thanks for giving me the confidence to even think about attempting a repair.
It's also possible that the metal got tight and flexed due to the super cold temperatures?
@@AstronomyGarage That or the glass shrunk and came loose. I did have a dew heater on the finder to keep frost off the objective. Either way, I may have found a limit on just how much cold my Dob can tolerate. It was a lousy night anyway with a full moon and 70% humidity but when you only get a few hours a month of clear skies you just have to try.
Despite growing up in the Midwest, I quickly lost my tolerance for cold weather after moving to Texas. Below 45 degrees and I'd rather stay inside. All the more reason to buy a remotely-operated smart telescope?
When I first saw the thumbnail I thought you would be converting a straight-through finder into a RACI finder. But this was very helpfull since one of my finders also has a cracked o-ring!
I can see why you thought that. I do apologize. That would actually be a fun video to make!
Thanks for the video, very informative as usual. My 6 inch Dobsonian came with a straight viewfinder, and I also did find it to be a bit painful to use; so I bought a RACI finder. There is an issue, though. With a straight viewfinder I am forced to look towards the sky, and can easily switch from the finder to my eyes to point the telescope more quickly. With the RACI finder, I am looking towards the ground; to point the telescope, I twist my neck to see where the telescope is pointed at, then "untwist" to look through the finder, rinse and repeat until I narrow down the approximate location where the target is. Hopefully I just need to get used to the RACI finder 🤷
I think I understand. Most of my telescopes also have a cheap red-dot finder up toward the nose. I use the red-dot to get a really rough aim at the target, then I use the RACI to zero in.
I need a RACI for the polar scope on my AVX mount. Will the one on those finders fit or do you have any other idea(s) for attaching one to an AVX polar scope?
You can buy dovetail mounts that will screw and or attach to the outside of nearly any telescope. They make smaller RACI viewfinders too if that works out better for you.
1:50: Hi there, it's the pedantic "actually" guy. 😂 Actually, it has two purposes. First is indeed to locate in the groove, to help keep the tube in place together with the two screws. But also: push back against the tube for when you loosen the set screws when collimating.
Correct
As an engineer, I appreciate the "actually" guy who has useful information. Thank you!
I literally just had to do this same repair on an Orion RACI connected to a used XT8 Intelliscope that a friend gave me last week upon quitting the hobby. Alongside a whole set of 2" eyepieces. Optically it's almost as good as my Terry Ostahowski-figured 6" f/8 bought in 1998, which is high praise.
For a while I had an old XT8 classic that I had purchased used for cheap, but unfortunately the mirror had a badly turned-down edge. It needed an aperture mask down to 6" to get acceptable images so it was redundant to me and I gave it to someone struggling with a department store scope.
It's nice to get an ACTUAL bump in aperture for the first time in 26 years!
I tested out the Intelliscope controller and it works fine, but I don't think I'll use it. I even unplugged the cables from the encoders on the base so they won't get in the way. I use a Starsense Explorer dock on a 3D printed finder-shoe adapter. Using the SSE functionality in SkySafari 7+ on my phone. It has better pointing accuracy with less rigamarole. Also I'm able to use an old iPhone without a sim card as a dedicated Starsense Explorer device. I run it and the 5v cooling fan on the cell off a single USB power bank.
It sounds like your friends former hobby is quite the treasure for you. The XT8 is such a fantastic telescope. Sorry to hear that your old one had the defective mirror (I haven't heard of that for any of the XT series so far). I'm a big fan of the Intelliscopes. It has all the helpful guidance of a computer telescope, but without the worry that it will all go sideways when a motor starts to fail. I have the XT8i version. I've heard excellent things about the Starsense Explorer. I also have two identical smartphones - one is my regular phone and the other is sim-less that is used only as a camera and WiFi web browser. Clear skies!
@@AstronomyGarage it was literally the only bad XT I've ever seen. It was one of the really early GSO-sourced ones from around 1999 or 2000, before the quality control really got nailed down.
Starsense Explorer is deadly accurate. More accurate than the Intelliscope. My issue with encoder based systems with keypads is that I spent thirty years star-hopping manually. To me, using an Atlas and star-hopping is like taking a road trip to someplace fun. Using a keypad and encoders and complicated alignment is like going to the department of motor vehicles, standing in line, filling out forms, and then walking out to someplace fun.
The Starsense Explorer, by contrast, feels like that same road trip to someplace fun, only with a really nice GPS nav unit in the dashboard.
Are these some projects you might do? I made a stand alone RFT for sweeping dark skies by mounting a 1.25" focuser to a damaged 50mm straight finder. I can get a 2.5°-6° field @ 20x-8x. Any alt-az or photo tripod carries it.
60×350mm and 70×300mm-400mm refractors make great combo lighter-weight finders + RFTs.
I took a 60×350mm scope to the last RTMC it is amazing how well scopes perform in black skies @ 7000'.
Your 80mm Firstscope with a 2" focuser would make a great superfinder/RFT/G&G.
Thx
L
I think your technical skills are way beyond mine in this regard.
You have any thoughts on the ZWO Seestar S50?? I got mine last week and Im still a newbie, but I've gotten some great images. I kind of feel like Im cheating.
I've heard great things about the Seestar and other smart telescopes. They aren't cheating at all. Lots of folks use GoTo telescopes and the smart telescopes are just GoTo's that have a camera permanently mounted. One bonus of smartscopes: You don't have to wait outside and get frostbite to use them! You can sit in the comfort of your house or car and enjoy the sights. Have fun and share the fun with other folks. Clear skies!
My ideal asto buddy is most assuredly a chiropractor =)
It's amazing how much using a straight-through viewfinder can really tweak those neck muscles!
Hi,
What is the largest of your scopes have been out to dark skies with? The 14" Orion?
What % of your observations are at dark sites? Have you optimized any scopes for urban use?
L
Unfortunately the 14" never made it out to a dark sky, due to extenuating life circumstances. :( The largest that I've ever truly taken to dark skies was my 8 inch. I did take the 12 inch to a dark sky location, but it had a full moon directly overhead. I have so many streetlights and neighbors driveway lights that I have a magnetic blind that I attach to the front end of my big Dobs.
Do you want a telescope that is better than Galileo's ? Then set-up the 6×30 to operate @ 25mm and @ 30x. A scope that is WAY better than Galileo's ? Stop the 8×50 to 30mm and operate @ 30x + .
Thx for the vids
L
Attending star parties? Lucky you.
Ironically, despite being December, it was the first one of the year, lol. Full moon directly overhead was a bit of a challenge.
My telescope's finder scope is a straight view
If it doesn't hurt your neck to use it, then you should be okay.
@@AstronomyGarage but using my finder scope is hard for me when it's pointing up