Star pointer finderscope

Hi all

I have a Celestron Astromaster 90EQ. I have a problem with the star pointer finderscope which is basically a red dot finder. The problem I'm having is that the light on the finderscope is too bright and I cannot see anything through it. There is no way to adjust the brightness of the led light. Has anybody had a similar problem? Would I be better off buying a better finderscope?

Thanks.
Pat.

I had the exact same problem with the same scope, theres nothing you can do with that finder really. I took the same battery from the remote for my media centre because it was nearly dead and put it in, that made the light less bright but it was only a slight improvement. The problem with that little round Astromaster finder is that it doesnt make you look in the same place twice, your head could be anywhere in an area the size of a dinnerplate behind it and you'd still think you were looking straight through, also the fact that the adjustment knobs for lining it up with the scope barely do anything means its completely useless.

I got a finder like this from Ebay for around a tenner:



And it made a huge difference. Attaching it was hard though because theres no screwholes or anything, I had to wedge it in between the 2 grooves left after unscrewing the original finder with some double-sided tape. Id did make using the scope way more enjoyable before I sold it and upgraded. The finder on them is so bad that an empty toilet paper tube glued to the side of the scope would have been an improvement as long as it was straight though :lol:

Hi Thargor

The finder makes it really difficult to find anything in the sky. I think I'll have to invest in a new finder. Although the toilet paper tube might be an idea :laugh:
I'm not sure what to look for in a finder. Any advice would be great. I'm still really on;y learning hence the novice questions.

Not much else I can say to be honest, Im a novice myself. Like I said though, the design of the Astromaster finder is critically flawed so anything you replace it with will be an improvement, the only problem is that you'll have to figure out a way of attaching the replacement to the scope yourself because there arent any facilities for a new finder on the scope like there are on others, have a look on Ebay for red dot finders or finderscopes or make a thread in the Wanted section of this site and someone will probably have something lying around in a drawer somewhere, if you'd made this thread a month ago I could have sorted you out as I was selling off a lot of stuff.

When I was asking the same question as you about my Astromaster most people reccomended a Telrad finder:

cgi.ebay.com/NEW-TELRAD-TELESCOPE-Finder..._trksid=p3286.c0.m14

(That^ was just the first link I found on Ebay by the way, Google around for more info and better prices)

I never used one but they have a great reputation for ease of use and accuracy and everyone seems to love themno matter the scope so I think that might be your best bet, you'll have it forever and it has the major bonus in your situation of being designed to attach to any flat surface (I think with double sided tape) so you can just whack it on top of the tube itself and away you go, I was going to get one myself but I upgraded to a GOTO instead so finding stuff wasnt a problem anymore. Good luck and post how you get on anyway.

Thanks Thargor!

The telrads come highly recommended.
As for attaching it to your tube, you could always use something like tie-wraps, worked for me.