Sky & Telescope - February 2024 - 74
BEGINNER'S SPACE by Sean Walker
What Is a Finder?
NAVIGATING THE NIGHT SKY with
a telescope in the digital age is much
easier than in the past. Go To technology
makes it simple enough to plug the
object you want to see into your controller,
then off your scope goes until it
centers your target. When you look into
the eyepiece, it's right in the field. What
this scenario doesn't mention is that
almost without exception, you'll need
to align the telescope first before it can
find all these wonderful objects. That's
where a finder comes in.
Most every telescope needs a finder
of some sort to help you accurately aim
the main optics, with or without Go To.
That's because your telescope magnifies
the view, often much more than, say,
a pair of binoculars will (in fact, large
binoculars also need their own finder).
The narrow field that an 8-inch f/10
Schmidt-Cassegrain (SCT) telescope
sees makes it the equivalent of looking
through a soda straw while trying to
find your car keys. Unless you fortu74
FEBRUARY 2024 * SKY & TELESCOPE
itously happen to point directly at the
keys, you likely won't find them without
seeing a wider area to put the straw's
aim into context with its surroundings.
It might sound odd, but even a solar
telescope needs a finder because you
can't simply sight along the side of the
tube to point at your target.
Finders can be anything that helps
you aim the main scope accurately. They
can be the most basic
approach, such as using
two screw eyes lined
up on the side of your
telescope tube. A step
up from this is a reflex
sight or red-dot finder
that projects a bullseye
target or a point
of light (typically red)
onto a piece of glass,
making it appear at the
same focus as the stars.
Another common finder
is a miniature telescope
FINDING YOUR WAY Every telescope used
for visual observing needs some way to accurately
aim it. Here are several common designs
of finders, including two reflex sight finders
and a straight-through 8 × 50-mm refractor
finderscope.
BULLSEYE Reflex sight finders
project a red dot or bullseye
target on glass, showing the sky
without additional magnification.
(called a finderscope) mounted alongside
the main telescope that has a crosshair
that pinpoints the center of the field.
The advantage of a finderscope over
a reflex sight is that
it gathers more light
than your eye, revealing
fainter stars and
often the object you're
hunting down directly.
The reflex sight relies on
your eye's visual acuity
to see the stars you're
aiming at. Finderscopes
are particularly useful
for aiming long-focallength
instruments,
such as that SCT mentioned
earlier. They're
ALL PHOTOS BY SEAN WALKER / S&T
Sky & Telescope - February 2024
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - February 2024
Contents
Sky & Telescope - February 2024 - Cover1
Sky & Telescope - February 2024 - Cover2
Sky & Telescope - February 2024 - 1
Sky & Telescope - February 2024 - Contents
Sky & Telescope - February 2024 - 3
Sky & Telescope - February 2024 - 4
Sky & Telescope - February 2024 - 5
Sky & Telescope - February 2024 - 6
Sky & Telescope - February 2024 - 7
Sky & Telescope - February 2024 - 8
Sky & Telescope - February 2024 - 9
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Sky & Telescope - February 2024 - 11
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Sky & Telescope - February 2024 - Cover4
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