I'm trying to find one of those this side of the pond, I can pretty easily get the WO version here. It's a tad pricey though!

 

I have a few RACI finders, they are really useful. Telrads are huge, over 20 centimetres, I got one for my 102mm Mak before I realised it was a bit on the big side for it. It does have the dew shield with the 90° flip mirror.



I eventually bought a Rigel for the Skymax. The Telrad will be good on my Newtonian when I get around to mounting it lol. My 130mm Newtonian only just about copes with an EQ2 mount. It might be worth getting an EQ 3/2 for your Orion.

 

OK cheers Dave. I think this is something like it: http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop...Refractor-focuser---e-g--for-86mm-flange.html

I'll have to email Wolfie and ask him about it. I think he translates German directly to English as syntactically it's a bit like having a conversation with Yoda lol.

 

Wunderbar!

 

I got first light with the 14mm Bresser 60° ‘Plossl’ on the Moon for around 30 minutes until cloud spoiled all the fun. The conditions were surprisingly crisp in between the clouds and there were brisk moments of above average clarity. I used a 90mm Orion StarMax on an alt-az mount.



Observation was from 17:30 - 18:00 GMT, Waxing Crescent, 28.8% illumination, 26.1° azimuth, altitude 35.4°, 375,126 kilometres distant (Pisces). Some very nice terminator detail could be seen.



The Bresser was in use most of the time but I briefly managed to directly compare it with a 19mm TeleVue Panoptic, a 15mm Vixen NPL and a 12.4mm Meade Plossl. The Bresser showed a bright, sharp image and I couldn’t really discern any difference in quality with the other eyepieces. The rubber eyecup is pleasant to use and not intrusive or irritating in any way, I’m not usually a great fan of them, but this was very much like on most Meade Plossls. I have a feeling Meade and Bresser both source from JOC and GSO. On the StarMax the 14mm Bresser gave me 89.2x with 1°, 29‘,17“ TFOV for almost exactly (1.0086) a 1mm exit pupil.

Although the test was brief, the Bresser 14mm looks like a keeper and I’m seriously looking at the 5.5mm version.

Images: VMA & SN7

 

Yeah, GSO make some quality gear. WO can often be rather overpriced. I am still going to look for a UK distributor first though as it's usually cheaper to return stuff.

 

A 32mm EP should be good for low power starfield sweeping. It's always good to have something around the 30x magnification mark. You can even see the rings of Saturn at 30x.

I don't know if there is a problem with your finder or not. Sometimes you have to experiment turning the adjustment screws virtually at the same time. By that, I mean you have to figure out a comfortable zero position of the finder in the mounting bracket and slowly collimate it with a target centred in the actual telescope eyepiece itself. It's best to use a low power EP for this. Turn each adjustment screw a tiny bit, one after the other. Don't turn just one screw and try to adjust solely with one of them first. Experiment with both X and Y axes to judge the range of play in the finder in its bracket.

They can be finicky at best, at worst, total borkers lol. Due to my disability I normally have to use an RACI for anything higher than the plane of the ecliptic. A cheap plastic reflex finder might be a good back-up as well.



You can see an Orion 9x50 RACI mounted on this ST80 (above) pointed at the zenith.



Above, a 6x30 Orion RACI and below, an Orion reflex sight. The X and Y axis adjusters can be seen (red arrow). This sight was purchased to replace the Sky-Watcher reflex sight that was included with my 102mm Skymax. It was borked when it arrived so I just bought a new one rather than send the whole thing back.

 

Manual finders are often problematical. Although, once collimated they can be taken out of the shoe on take-down and should stay collimated to the scope when stored separately until placed back in its shoe in use. It took me a while to figure out why Orion call their reflex finders 'EZ'. In British/Commonwealth English the letter 'z' as usually pronounced as 'zed'. In US English it is 'zee'. So it's a play on the word 'easy' lol. Reflex finders are pretty easy to use up to about 30° for me. I once read that once you've used an RACI you won't be able to understand how you ever got by without one. I agree. When I use my Newtonian again I plan to use a combination of reflex sight and RACI.



I have several of these plastic reflex sights as they are the most common type supplied with scopes. I've even got one that's never actually been used.



I think it came with this Omegon 90mm f/11.3 Mak.



I even have an Astrozap dew sleeve for my 9x50 RACI's. Where I live these are necessary in the autumn or very early in the mornings in late summer. Although the Moon's often easy to find with a dewed-up finder lol.



I'm fairly certain this TS Optics metal reflex sight is GSO. I have a couple of these, they're OK but the reticle/graticule light is often a bit bright for faint objects. They seemed a good idea when I bought them. They're basically a standard NATO military gun sight.



I don't know where Orion source their RACI's from but the reticule is normally an 'x' rather than a '+' type. This can be rectified by just turning the eyepiece part on the Amici diagonal on its thread. Using a small rubber band as an improvised washer works well.



This is the only Celestron RACI I have. I'm pretty sure it's Synta made.

 

Yeah, but do you use a reflex sight on the pistol? lol

 

Like this?