| This lightweight (6.4 ounce) quick-release Antares finderscope bracket is designed to mount 80mm Antares right-angle finders on all Celestron and Meade catadioptric telescopes 7" in aperture and larger, but will also hold virtually any 80mm finder on almost any scope. The internal diameter of the rings is 91mm. The plastic collimating screws will hold tubes as small as 75mm in diameter, but 80mm is a more practical lower limit to allow some screw travel for collimation purposes. The quick release base has two slots that line up with the finder bracket mounting holes on the rear cell of a catadioptric telescope (Schmidt-Cassegrain, Maksutov-Cassegrain, “Advanced Ritchey-Chrétien," etc.) It attaches semi-permanently using the bolts supplied with the original telescope finder bracket (new bolts are not supplied with the quick release). The quick release base can also be attached to a reflector’s Sonotube or metal optical tube by using nuts and bolts (not supplied). The 9" diameter curvature of the quick release base will fit virtually any catadioptric or reflector telescope 8" in aperture and larger. The curvature of the finder base will not let it fit completely flush on 10" and larger diameter scopes, but the small gap under the center of the bracket and the telescope rear cell will only be cosmetic and will not affect finder performance or collimation. The ring portion of the bracket has two finder mounting rings, spaced 2.35" apart, each with three hand-tighten plastic collimating screws. The ring portion slides into a dovetail slot in the base and is held in place by one plastic hand-tighten knob. A stop in the base fits into a groove in the ring portion to lock the ring portion in place and prevent the finder from sliding out of the bracket. Die-cast metal, painted black.
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