Looking for Right Angle Finder suggestions

Hi,
I am the new owner of an Intes Micro 7" f15 Maksutov OTA and a medium sized Losmandy mount (GM100). I have had a little experience with GEMs, my old GM-8 held a 4" f8 refractor. Compared to my current OTA, the 4" refractor had a very wide field and I found it very easy to locate objects.

With the new tripod fully extended and the OTA pointed high in the sky, I find myself in an uncomfortable position and very low to the ground looking through the finder. The combination of the OTA's narrow FOV and the stock 8*50 straight through finder makes locating objects a challenge.

I am going to make a few additions to my telescope. First, I plan to acquire a 2" EP so I can see more then a .6 degree view. Secondly, I would like to get a nice right angle finder.

Please recommend a high quality right angle finder. I would like something about 50mm in diameter that will fit my 60mm finder bracket. Magnification of 8x or 10x is fine.

I have seen a few finders with a prism that project a corrected view. If I purchase a prism finder, will I loose some image brightness making it harder to find dim objects? Does the prism reduce the image quality?

Thanks in advance,
Paul G.

Russell Optics (an Astromart sponsor) has 60,70,and 80mm right angle finders with 9x and higher mags. with crosshairs, and all the finders fit into standard 50mm brackets. All are less than $90.00. I have the 70mm with 10x and it works like a charm. I believe I picked up mine for $59.00 and it's worth every penny. My straight thru finder was driving me nuts... and breaking my neck.

Gary

Paul,

A finder scope is a means to an end. Pay as much as you want, :S but all you are looking to do is use stars to get you from one point in the sky to another. I don't think there is such thing as a high-quality finder. 8O Most of the optics on these are made in Japan (or wherever) so they are all going similar in quality. Think about all the inexpensive binocular choices out there with fuzzy star images 60% of the way out from the center. :S

I think the best value going right now is the finders made by Orion (and Antares, I believe) with the X/Y alignment. It's really quick and easy to use. So much faster than six-point adjustments. The optics are on par with the others out there, and you don't have to worry about eyepieces. Once again, it's just a means to an end.

Matthew Sherman

I have the Orion 9x50 correct image finder. Optically it is fine for my purposes but mechanically it has a major drawback. If the diagonal portion of the finder is rotated to a more comfortable position it loses its alignment. Do all right angle finders do this or is it just Orion?

The only way I can use this finder is to make sure the diagonal is threaded on all the way tight and just position the finder tube in sort of an intermediate position, align with the telescope and just live with that position. I thought you were supposed to be able to rotate the diagonal a bit for convenience without losing alignment but apparently that is not the case.

Vars,
Do you think it would work well in my 60mm finder rings?
Thank you for the feedback,
Paul