Astromania Guide Scope 50mm Compact Deluxe Finder Guide Scope Kit with Double Helical Focuser Compatible with 1.25 inch Eyepiece for Astronomical Telescope & Auto Guiding Cameras for Astrophotography

This finder scope was exactly what I was looking for, it was a significant upgrade over the scope I had previously. I had to replace the custom mechanism for the telescope to a dovetail connector base to make it fit, but most accessories use that standard dovetail, so I would have needed to do so anyway. Once I've replaced the base with the dovetail one, this fit perfectly.The image through this finder is clear, it is easy to align (although, you'll have to align it as perfectly as you can on as far of an object as you can). I've used it a few times for finding planets and stars and have had no issue with viewing the night sky in terms of brightness, and finding what I wanted to focus on.I've seen a few reviews indicating it would be nice to have crosshairs to make it easier to see the centre, but on the scopes I've seen those crosshairs, they're on the side of the eyepiece, so it should be possible to add your own, it's also better to be able to choose crosshairs that are visible at night, because quite a few have crosshairs that are effectively invisible at night on the dark sky.Just to note, this is not an all-in-one, the eyepiece adapter is a standard one that fits 1.25" eyepieces, so make sure you have an eyepiece of your own. This has the upside of making the magnification of the scope modifiable as desired.

had a small problem with missing screws. Contacted MFG they shipped replacements immediately.First class service!Highly recommended!!

The build quality of this scope is outstanding for the price. Easy to focus and calibrate to your telescope.

Optics are decent, not good enough for a standalone scope, but OK for a guide scope.Workmanship, machining, and finishes are top notch ... the coarse and fine focusing are excellent.Mount rings are effective and well made.Major issue ... it does accept 1-1/4 eyepieces, but don't think you can use a 90-degree diagonal ... it just doesn't have the focusing range for this. This leaves a somewhat awkward viewing posture with the scope mounted flush with the telescope tube.

I have owned a 50mm version of this scope for a while, which is great, and used to guide refractors with apertures between 80mm and 102mm. I got the 60mm version, but needed to acquire an additional part. I use a Starlight XPress Lodestar X2 for guiding, which is made to slip into 1.25" focusers like these guidescopes. In order to achieve focus with the 60mm scope, I got a Baader C-thread to 1.25" piece that screws securely onto the Lodestar. The Baader adapter runs about $30, but is not widely available, so shipping will be another $12-$15 (note: the Baader adapter can't be used with the 50mm and the Lodestar X2, as it places the camera outside of focal range). Orion sells an extender, but it places the camera just inside the focal range - close enough to see fuzzy bloaty stars, but maddeningly just out of focus. The Lodestar X2 is used to guide a 9.25 Schmidt-Cassegrain with a focal reducer, as well as a 102mm APO. I have used this on a AVX mount and a CGX mount. I have used NexStar, StarSense, and CPWI, at different times, to interface with the mount; all of these interfaces work fine with PHD2 and this guidescope. Astrophotography data looks good, and subframes pre- and post- process well. Much of the time I'm doing narrowband AP from home, so subframe exposure times are typically between 5 and 20 minutes, with around 30 subframes (2.5 to 10 hours total) per narrow band. Results are typically good.

Perfect for guiding my Celestron 8SE. No issues with getting enough stars for PHD2 to guide. Connected via the Astromania universal dovetail.

This is a wonderful device and would be so at double the price. Build quality is outstanding. The focuser employs both a drawtube and helical unit, for coarse and fine focus respectively. Both have fine gradations so focus can be dialed in directly. The construction is metal throughout, and the aluminum adjuster screws have nylon tips that will not mar the satin black finish of the tube. Coatings on the cemented 60mm achromat are a deep green and very uniform. One assumes this is basically a binocular objective so it remains to be seen how well it will perform at high power visually, but of course as an auto-guider or finder such considerations are irrelevant. One complaint, the drawtube inner surface is quite shiny and required flocking. The unit can be used with a prism diagonal if one inserts a Barlow between it and the diagonal. This allows the scope to function as a high-power visual right-angle guide scope. Note however that the unit will not focus at infinity with any diagonal unless a Barlow is inserted before the diagonal. When I insert a Meade 2x Barlow and prism diagonal + 40mm Plossl eyepiece, I measure a 4mm exit pupil, giving an effective f/ratio of 10 and effective focal length of 600mm, which is right in line with a typical 60mm x 700mm traditional guide scope. One can substitute a roof prism diagonal for a naturally oriented image. Used this way the scope becomes a passable spotting scope. The one obvious improvement to the scope would be to make the tube from two pieces, one of which could be removed to allow focus with a diagonal without inserting a Barlow. This is a minor point in my opinion, one has a finder after all for low power views - this is a versatile, well-made device and I highly recommend it.

I'm positively surprised by this guide scope. Despite being not expensive at all, it is well built and - more important - stays in focus night over night.