20th March 2012 - Ian I acquired a Celestron Astromaster 130EQ which on the whole I am very pleased with, but have had what seems to be a common problem with the supplied red dot finder. Despite following the instructions to the letter, and other on line advice - i just could not get it to work adequately. Looking for a replacement - it came down to the ubiquitous Telrad or the Rigel. The Telrad would have been to big and heavy on 130EQ thus with advice from FLO, I ordered the Rigel. After some initial misgivings about the cheapish looking plasticky construction and the fairly minimal instructions, I had my worriies swept away by the important end results. It works brilliantly! I removed the Celestron finder (2 small screws at iether side of the base) and proffered up the rigel base against the strait edge close to where the old finder had been. Attached the supplied sticky pads (extremely sticky) and carefully attached it to the scope. Attaching the Rigel to the base is a simple click away. At dusk, through the eyepiece I lined up on a street lamp across the valley from where I live, and then looking though the rigel finder, using the three adjusters got the light in the middle of the two concentric rings. Within minutes I was lined up on Venus and Jupiter first time out. It works first time every time. The joy of not wasting time simply looking for objects rather than at objects is wonderful! The adjustability of the brightness of the Rigels red concentric rings (1/2 and 2 degrees) and the ability to flash them is also really useful in lining up on less bright objects. The Rigels outwardly simple appearance and construction (which is actually quite sturdy) belies its abilities. I have not used aTelrad but I have read enough to know they are highly rated, and they are not so far removed, price wise, from the Rigel, but if the undoubted bulk of the Telrad could be a problem (ie on smaller scopes like mine, or scopes that have problems with finderscope attchment) look no further. The Rigel lives up its name - Quickfinder!
Rigel QuikFinder Compact Reflex Sight
Rating (max 5):
5
Find your target quickly. - Mark
When you look through the square window of this finder you see the sky at normal size but with flashing red concentric circles superimposed on the view. Once you have attached the finder to your scope and collimated it the bullseye shows where in the sky your telescope is pointing. Collimating is best done in daylight; just point your scope at a distant target then adjust the finder controls until the red circles are also on the target. Simple.
This finder has two other controls for adjusting the rate of flashing and the brightness of the circles (integrated with the on/off switch). The finder is incredibly easy to use... point the scope in the general direction, switch the finder on, look through until you see the flashing circles, adjust your aim until the circles are over the target, look through the scope and admire the view (or start taking pictures).
The only down side is if your target has no bright stars nearby that you can see with the naked eye. In this case I either start at a nearby bright star and then take test shots... star hopping as I go. Sometimes I have managed to use binoculars to look through the finder, so I can see the target and the flashing circles through one half of the binocular... it's very tricky to line up though and usually doesn't work. Still, those would be problems with any finder of this type.
Before I got this finder I would sometimes get frustrated even finding the moon... now I can find it in seconds. Highly recommended!
