Astronomy Hacks

Install a Unit-Power Finder

Find deep-sky objects quickly and easily.

Installing a unit-power finder, often mistakenly called a zero-power finder, is the best single upgrade any Deep-Sky Object (DSO) observer can make to a scope. A unit-power finder provides no magnification. Instead, it allows you to view the night sky naked eye with a superimposed dim red target-locating pattern. By orienting that pattern relative to the background stars, you can locate most deep-sky objects in a fraction of the time needed if you use an optical finder alone.

A unit-power finder is simplicity itself. No computers, no fancy optics—just a dim red bulls-eye pattern superimposed on the night sky. Figure 4-18 shows a simulation of using a Telrad unit-power finder to point the scope at the Great Orion Nebula, M42.

Figure 4-18. Using a Telrad unit-power finder to put M42 in the eyepiece

Red-Dot Finders

Rather than a bulls-eye pattern, a red-dot finder superimposes a simple (you guessed it) red dot. Red-dot finders are available in a wide range of prices, from the $21 StellarVue model (http://www.stellarvue.com) to the exquisite $205 Tele Vue Starbeam (http://www.televue.com). Some astronomers even mount the inexpensive red-dot sight made for Daisy BB guns as a telescope finder.

Any red-dot finder allows you to point your scope quickly and accurately. The problem is, that’s all they do. Because they don’t ...