Product Description
The easiest way to aim a telescope. The view seen through the window of the Telrad is continuous with the sky around it, not magnified or upside down. Three rings are lighted and appear to lie among the stars. The small ring outlines the Moon-sized area seen in the telescope. The large outer ring outlines the area seen in a standard Finderscope. To point your telescope, just look through the Telrad and move the telescope until the rings are centered on the object. The Telrad is 8 inches long. Weighs 11 ounces and mounts on any telescope without drilling any holes. It unlocks from its base for separate storage. Requires 2 AA batteries (not included).
| Price: | $37.95 |
| as of Thu, 21 Feb 2013 06:02:29 GMT ***Remember, deals price on this item for sale just for limited time*** | |
Product Details
- Brand: Telrad
- Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
Features
- The easiest way to aim a telescope. The view seen through the window of the Telrad is continuous with the sky around it, not magnified or upside down.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
50 of 52 people found the following review helpful.
By Taras R. Hnatyshyn
The Telrad is an easy to use 1x (that is right one power) reflex finder. I use one with my Meade 8" LX200 telescope. The advantage of a reflex finder is that you can aim the telescope at the area you see with your naked eyes. If I had one of these finders when I started out with my first telescope, I would have spent more time looking at objects than looking for them. It can be used as a complement to the "minature telescope" finders, or with a "Go-To" scope as the only finder. How does the Telrad work? it projects three concentric rings of 4, 2 and half a degree on a transparent window that you look through. The key to using it is to point the telescope at a bright object, then align the reticle (rings) to be centered on the object, and then use the rings to point the scope where you want to observe. The biggest advantage is if you aren't on a target, you can see which direction you need to move the scope without having to make the mental calculation... is my image reversed/upside-down, etc.? The one drawback is that you can only use objects (stars) that you can see with the naked eye. That makes it less useful in light polluted areas. The one thing about the Telrad that is a pet peeve, is that it is large. Also, in damp locations, it is suseptable to dew. There are a number of simple solutions to this. Since installing the Telrad on my LX200, I haven't used the 8x50 finder that Meade sells as standard equipment.
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful.
By M. VanTyne
I purchased the Telrad to add to an Orion Skyquest XT-8 Dobsonian scope. Given that the Dob mount is made for manual star hopping and tracking, ease of hopping around the sky is critical. The Telrad is fantastic!
I mounted my Telrad between the focuser and the finder scope and back just a bit. The Telrad allows you to easily find a bright star and locate other objects relative to it. The brightness of the red finder target can be adjusted easily.
All in all, this should be the first thing you add to a scope like this. It greatly enhanced my enjoyment of the scope and overcomes some of the inherent issues of using a Dob mount.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
By insinu8
As many new astronomers have discovered, finding an object to look at can be the most difficult part in the hobby. Due to the small field of view most telescopes provide, a wider field of view "finder scope" (essentially a small telescope) is used in conjunction with the main viewing telescope in order to find the desired object(s) more quickly and easily. However, this may not provide enough assistance for the beginner and they become frustrated and lose interest.
This is where the Telrad, and other so called "Red Dot Finders", come in. It is not a telescope. It only projects a red dot, or in the case of the Telrad, a series of concentric red circles, into the sky, letting you know where your telescope is pointed without restricting your field of view at all. This provides you with a much better idea of where you ARE looking and helps your get your telescope pointed where you WANT to look. Just move your telescope with Telrad mounted to it until the red circles are projected over the part of the sky, or object, you wish to view and then look through the telescope eyepiece. More times than not, you will find the desired object within your telescope's field of view on your first try. It gets you "into the ballpark".
The Telrad can be adjusted left/right and up/down so it is aligned with the telescope it is mounted upon. This is critical and a good feature.
It runs on a 9v battery which seems to last quite a long time (battery not included). There is a switch which allows the user to dim or brighten the red circles, making them easier to see.
My favorite design feature of the Telrad is that it can be removed from the base (which attaches to your scope with double stick tape) so you can use the same finder on multiple scopes without having to buy a whole new finder. You just buy an extra Telrad Spare Mounting Base for each scope (trust me, once you get into this hobby, you'll end up with more than one!) and move the finder from scope to scope. Some folks don't like messing up their scope with the double stick tape. It depends on what is more important to you; easy to use telescope or pristine telescope finish.
Another good design feature is, unlike many of the other red dot finders, such as the Orion EZ Finder Deluxe Reflex Sight (my second favorite), the Telrad can be mounted to nearly any telescope.
The only drawback I can think of is that the Telrad is on the large side compared to other red dot finders. However, when compared to most finder scopes, it is on the small side.
No comments:
Post a Comment