Here is the place to talk about all those equipment(Telescope, Mounts, Eyepieces, etc...) you have. Not sure which scope/eyepiece is best for you? Trash it out here!
A personal experience: I normally use a 13x80mm finderscope in Singapore as I find the 50mm does not show enough to reveal any DSOs.
However, when I brought it to Sedili the finder was overwhelmed by the sheer number of objects visible hence it was near useless and a red dot finder was all that was needed, even when using an 8" MCT at 2000 mm focal length.
There are illuminated reticle finders and some finders with removable eyepieces so you can add the illumination. However, most tend to be crosshair style rather than circles.
I find the most useful aid to star hopping is a laptop with Stellarium
@cloud. Well said bro. I feel you. Getting overwhelmed with stars in a power finder is something really fun to experience especially for the first time.
Even at lowest brightness with night mode on, my netbook running stellarium is still quite bright and spoils my dark adaptation. May wrap a red filter paper around the screen next time. Bought a Pocket Sky Atlas recently, can't wait to use it under dark skies again with a red flashlight.
But I love the mirror reverse feature of Stellarium.
Getting back to topic, although telrad gets dew up easily, there are many cheap DIY solutions to delay the dewing - e.g. wrapping a transparency over the top of it.
In the book I mentioned in my first post in this thread, there is an article about how a female astronomer using a cardboard tube from a roll of gift wrapping paper taped to a Meade 8" SCT and found 97 objects during a messier marathon! There's a photo of her standing beside that setup to prove it.
On the same page, there is also a a diagram showing how to DIY a finder with some wire coat hangar, large diameter washers and some threads for cross hair.
"The importance of a telescope is not how big it is, how well made it is.
It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
-- John Dobson.
I use both Quickfinder and Telrad, and IMO the Telrad is much better as it has far less parallax (easily half, I measured it) that of the Quickfinder; which means the reticle does not shift as much as your head position moves. Also, it has the 4 deg circle which makes it easier to starhop from bright stars and star charts and software apps allow Telrad overalays.
Generally, I feel the 'best' way to starhop in Singapore is to use a Telrad and a wide AFOV and long focal length eyepiece (giving about 1.5deg or more). Through this 'finder' eyepiece, it becomes easy to spot the DSO of interest. Much easier IMO than through a 9x50 finderscope as you are utilizing almost the full power of your telescope as a finder. I do not use a 9x50 finder at all to do starhopping for many years; but one has to be familiar at identifying where one is pointing at through the eyepiece (identifying the star field with respect to the star chart) and then star hopping to the DSO of interest.
Each of us have different personal preference and it also differ for different types of scopes, different types of objects viewed, different levels of experience and different style of starhopping. Also the finder-to-scope proportion is also important to some people. Though I concur that the Telrad is generally the best unit-finder, one usually would not place that on a 80mm short-tube refractor or for a small travel scope.
I used to starhop just using a Telrad and finder eyepiece on my 11" and 15" dob too. I am comfortable using a finder eyepiece from 1.6 deg down to 0.7 deg TFOV. But a beginner with a C8 using 1.25" eyepieces with 0.7deg TFOV may find it difficult just using a Telrad without a powered finder. However once I start searching for more elusive fainter objects in my 15" dob, using a 15x80 finderscope together with the Telrad becomes very useful indeed. Some serious deep sky observers use two powered finderscopes on their dob.
So you have to try out different ways to see which suits you best. I keep and use several different kinds of finders for different scopes and functions:
Telrad
Quikfinder
Red Dot Finder
Laser Pointer with Laser Bracket
8x50mm RACI Finder
11x60mm RACI Finder
15x80mm RACI Finder
19x113mm RA Finder
40mm XW Finder Eyepiece
(note: all my powered finders use interchangeable eyepieces)
