I have been using my 20X Vixen Big bino's for a few years now, but need a somewhat unique finder. The bino's give a 3 degree FOV. Although I have used a Rigel on it, I occasionally find myself in a sky area without enough bright stars to start the Rigel from, and need a few more stars to align to. I also have a 6X30 correct view finder, but the FOV is not a whole lot bigger than the bino's.
So for fun I modified a 45 degree diagonal by adding a 25mm binocular lense inside the front tube of the diagonal. This allows a 25mm Plossl to focus, and gives a correct view, 4.5X, 11 degree FOV, very long eye relief finder. Although there is some edge of field illumination drop off, the view is very nice. It pulls in the little mag 7 and 8 stars that allow easy star hopping and alignment to a star chart. It fits inside the Chinese finder scope mount pretty well also.
So for fun I modified a 45 degree diagonal by adding a 25mm binocular lense inside the front tube of the diagonal. This allows a 25mm Plossl to focus, and gives a correct view, 4.5X, 11 degree FOV, very long eye relief finder. Although there is some edge of field illumination drop off, the view is very nice. It pulls in the little mag 7 and 8 stars that allow easy star hopping and alignment to a star chart. It fits inside the Chinese finder scope mount pretty well also.
Attached Image:
David Simons
