Product Reviews
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- LED light device
- cross hairs
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United StatesGreat Finder Scope A+
Build quality is excellent and optics on this are much better than any finder I've owned. Get the optional LED light device for the cross hairs, it really helps out. I would highly recommend this finder scope.
United StatesVery nice scope.
Overall a beautiful light weight scope! Well built and the rings that they made fit beautifully on my ota.
Not "just a finder"
This is an excellent small fast achromat. I have used it as a spotting scope on a camera tripod with a 20mm wide field eyepiece giving 10.5x. Lightweight, and very portable. Works great as a finder too, and the eyepiece that comes with it will take an optional $20 red illuminator.
Excellent small telescope
This is the best finder I have ever had. It can also be used as as a small spotting scope by putting it on a camera tripod. It will use regular 1.25" eyepieces in addition to the reticle eyepiece supplied. The optional Stellarvue illuminator adds even more versatility. This is a small telescope in its own right, not simply a utilitarian finder.
nicely made, great finder
I replaced the stock finder that came with my Celestron 9.25 EdgeHD. This finder has a nice field of view, is lightweight and well made. It also came with recommendations from OPT and I'm very happy with it.
A cure for zenith neck
I like the finderscope Meade includes on the LX200, but my neck and back disagree. Not only disagree, they finally rebelled a couple weeks ago while I was zeroing in on the Pleiades almost directly above my head. So I ordered the Stellarvue F50-2 9x50mm Deluxe Finder scope from Oceanside Photo & Telescope (OPT because it has a diagonal with a rotating back, so you can easily look through the eyepiece, whether your telescope is aimed at objects near the horizon or straight up, simply by loosening the rotator locking screw to adjust the eyepiece to the angle you want. All that stops it from rotating a full 360 degrees is my optical tube. Support staff at OPT said my current Meade mounting rings will work with the Stellarvue finder. They were right, saving that expense. That doesn't happen often. Also, the Stellarvue finder comes with a 1.25 23mm eyepiece with reticle, but no illuminator. You have to buy the illuminator seperately... or not. I have had a Meade 9mm eyepiece with illuminate reticle for a couple of years, but don't use it much due to its narrow true field of view in my telescope. I was happy to find that its illuminator ******* into the new Stellarvue reticle eyepiece and works perfectly. So now I have two reticle eyepieces with different powers and fields of view that can share an illuminator. And, because the Stellarvue finder accepts other 1.25 eyepieces, I can use its 23mm reticle eyepiece on my telescope as well. Here are my first impressions based on two nights of observations. The Stellarvue finder scope appears to be solidly built. It looks good, feels good, and the moving parts work smoothly. The eyepiece has a focuser for the reticle crosshairs. The finder has a helical focusing ring which moves very smoothly. There is a learning curve involved in using this finder, because it has so many moving parts grouped together in such a small area. My Meade finder scope has only one moving part, the focuser. The Stellarvue has six (once you add an illuminator. But you get the hang of it quickly. Here's a rundown of those moving parts, starting where the scope ends and the diagonal begins: (1 Locking rotator screw to hold the diagonal at the angle you want for comfortable viewing (2 rotator (this is done by turning the diagonal (3 helical focuser (4 screw to lock the eyepiece in place (5 focuser for the reticle crosshairs, and (6 on/off brightness knob for the illuminator. It does take an hour or so to get used to all of these and to find them easily in the dark without looking. That's particularly the case for the helical focuser and the reticle focuser, because they are so close together. But they are spaced almost an inch apart, and the knobs have a very different texture. This is not a complaint. It is exactly because of all of these moving parts that the Stellarvue finder scope is so versatile. And more moving parts on the Stellarvue means fewer moving parts in my neck and back.