Rifle scopes as finders

Hi all --

There are a lot of riflescopes out there with low to high price tags. Some have illuminated reticles. Are they practical for astro use?

Bob Polcyn

Bob Polcyn said:

Hi all --

There are a lot of riflescopes out there with low to high price tags. Some have illuminated reticles. Are they practical for astro use?

Bob Polcyn

Bob,

You can certainly use a rifle scope. I left the finder to one of our scopes home by mistake once when we went up to camp. I adapted a rifle scope for use as a finder rather than drive three hours home and three hours back. The field and aperture was a bit limited, but the large amount of eye relief and correct image was nice.

Clear skies, Alan

I have a Red Dot rifle scope that I use on a pair of Binoculars. It is smaller and lighter than those available, but has a 30mm aperture and 11 different settings from brightness. It is made by BSA and is available even at Wal-Mart, where I got mine. It uses a rifle mount, a type of dovetail, and I bought a rifle dovetail at a local shop which mounts to the barrle of a gun or in this case a bracket by screws.
The one I am using was for a shotgun I believe.