| This blue 12 x 80mm right-angle erect/right-reading image multicoated achromatic doublet finder is an excellent larger aperture/more convenient replacement for the straight-through 8 x 50mm finder supplied as standard equipment with many Meade catadioptric telescopes, such as all past and present LX200 models. It also is available as an upgrade for the 6 x 30mm finder supplied with many other Meade catadioptric telescopes, such as the standard LX10, an older 2080, etc. It allows you to comfortably use the finderscope without having to turn your head upside down to view near the zenith, as you do with a standard straight-through finder. The image-erecting amici prism built into the right-angle diagonal gives images that are correctly oriented (upright and right-reading), so that star patterns are seen exactly the way you see them on star charts and with your bare eye. This makes centering the scope on a target or star-hopping from object to object using the finder easier and more intuitive than with a mirror-image or inverted finderscope view. Its large 80mm aperture has a limiting magnitude of 12, fainter than the stars on any commercial star chart, making it easy for you to locate faint nebulas and galaxies. The field of view is 4.33 degrees wide and the eye relief is a substantial 15mm. There's a rolldown rubber eyecup for eyeglass use. The finder weighs 44.5 ounces, without optional finder bracket. It will not fit into the 50mm finder dovetail supplied with those Meade scopes that come with a straight-through 8 x 50mm finder as standard equipment. The finder comes without a mounting bracket, but an 11-ounce SCT-type quick release dovetail bracket that fits the finder mounting holes on Meade scopes is available as an option. The 88mm diameter body of the finder is aluminum, painted in Meade blue, and internally baffled for higher contrast. The black anodized aluminum lens cell has an extra long integral shade to retard the formation of dew and shield the objective from ambient light. The supplied crosshair eyepiece is removable and has a standard 1.25" barrel. It is held in place by a thumbscrew to allow easy orientation of the crosshairs to match the optical axis of the scope. You first rough-focus the finder by loosening the thumbscrew in the diagonal’s eyepiece holder and sliding the eyepiece in and out of the diagonal until it is focused on infinity. The thumbscrew is then tightened to hold that focus. A diopter ring on the eyepiece allows you to fine-tune the focus for individual observers without having to loosen the thumbscrew or move the eyepiece.
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