ETX PREMIER EDITION TECHNICAL TIPS Last updated: 24 March 2005

Home-made hi-economy finder for ETX

Sent:	Wednesday, March 23, 2005 14:55:21
From:	Hugh Series (hughseries@waitrose.com)
Here's a very simple, very cheap design for a finder which works well
for that initial alignment when you're wondering if the star you can see
in the finderscope (in my case a Meade 8x25 which was supplied with the
scope) is really Polaris, or whatever you're sighting on.

Cut a 7" long piece of L-section timber moulding.  Each side of the L
should be about 1" in length.  Sizes are not at all critical.  Screw two
metal eye hooks about 0.4" in diameter just within each end of the ridge
of the wood, sticking up in the air.  Mount the device using 2 rubber
bands on the ETX, eyes upwards, inside angle of the wood downwards on
the barrel of the OTA.

That's it!  The shape of the wood automatically aligns itself along the
length of the scope (it's sensible just to jiggle it a little to make
sure it's lying properly flat).  It helps to paint the eye hooks white
for better visibility at night.  You may have to align the eyes
(vertically by screwing/unscrewing them a little, horizontally by
bending them sideways with pliers), but this only has to be done once.

It's not accurate enough to replace the finder, but it does help
enormously for checking that you are looking at the right star in the
finder.





Thanks for a great site.  Happy viewing.

Hugh

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