Celestron Illuminated RACI Finder Scope, Black (93781)

A pending 4-star... UPGRADED Dec 2015 to 5-stars: I retired my factory finder in favor of this RACI + Definitely easier for matching charts to the cosmos for navigating. + Definitely appreciate the parallel reticle, you can place your intended target in the center box. + Definitely appreciate the illumination, thought it would not be bright enough, but have been using lowest light and then turning off (saves the batteries) All seems OK with this finder, with the major exception there are NO INSTRUCTIONS. Not a big thing for those familiar with eyepieces, focusers and other telescopic equipment, but it would be nice to have SOMETHING, whereas the finder arrived with NOTHING. At the very minimum someone needs to ID the batteries for eventual replacement! Newcomers will find this exasperating. After 30 minutes of fiddling, the finder is now ready for some star-time; will update this review after ward, but it looks like a nice finder. I have been using a Telrad finder on my 8-inch SCT, and like it for the illuminated reticle and wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) view for star-hopping. It is however, not magnified, still very ok for general celestial navigation (planetary, constellations, major galaxies, nebulaes and clusters), but I wanted to try this magnified, illuminated and "upright" wysiwyg finder for a large telescope with deeper capabilities. Pros: 1) double crosshairs, meaning parallel vertical and horizontal lines (etches actually) so that you can place your target inside the crosshairs for a precise alignment. This means of course that your new snazzy RACI and your optical tube are 100% in agreement. Not always the case, and stars being what they are keep moving on us, or us moving relative to them. 2) Having your intended object appear "correctly" (upright, wysiwyg) as shown on star atlases and charts makes star-hopping easier for us amateurs. 3) I use an 11" Celestron SCT that has a big optical tube, so having the right-angle makes sighting (ie, "targeting") far easier than with the original factory in-line finder. ps on the absent instructions: this RACI uses the same mounting method as the factory finder -- 1 fixed set-screw (spring loaded), and 2 adjustable set-screws for exact adjustment. If your RACI body moves, notice a hex allen set-screw within the fixed spring loaded screw, one that can be tensioned for a more secure placement and alignment of the RACI. I had to increase that adjustment tension as the RACI body was "too soft" and easily moved. Not a big thing, just look for that buried allen screw. Cons: none technical. My RACI arrived with some scuffs and smudges and a noticeable scrape down to the bare metal near the mount, and it appeared to be somewhat put together but sloppy. Also a number of dirt/dust particles here and there inside the optics as if this unit had been partially disassembled. "In" as is requiring partial disassembly and blowing out the foreign debris. This leads me to believe this was once someone else's and they returned it. I hope to add positive feedback after it's been in service a while.

I bought it to use on my Meade 10" Lightbridge telescope. As others have mentioned, it will affect the balance of your telescope. It weighs about two pounds. So plan on balancing it somehow. But it is completely worth it, and really...it's also completely necessary to do good deep sky observing. I also have a hand made (by my own hands) 6" newtonian reflector. I bought a red dot sight for that and thought that was a huge step up as I was finding things so much quicker. And then I bought this for my 10" scope and I realized why this is so much better. In this finderscope you'll see the fuzzy patches. With a red dot sight, there's no magnification. You're using your naked eyes..so let's say you're trying to find andromeda. You point your red dot at the area you think it's in, and then you have to look away and defocus your eyes to see the fuzzy patch. It's a lot of extra work. With this finder scope, you just point it to the area, and you'll see the fuzzy patch in the finderscope ! There's no having to defocus your eyes and trial and error. It's there, and it makes finding deep space objects so much easier. It doesn't come with any instructions unfortunately.

I just installed and got my first use with this RACI finder scope last night. It is an excellent little scope and a big step up from a dot finder, but I can echo what others have said.....this finder should have included some documentation on how to mount, assemble, adjust and focus it. I figured it out in about ten minutes, but it took some experimentation. That said, the scope feels well-made and the mount was easy to attach to my 8" SCT tube. I was able to easily place the finder on its mount at night by feel and tighten it down. The focus ring on the scope's eyepiece works well and I was able to sharply focus the field of view with it. The double-cross hair illuminated reticle tube required three small watch batteries, which came with it and once I threaded the reticle into the eyepiece tube, it worked well. Once in the field, this finder was a huge step up for me. No more craning my neck sideways trying to find the red dot and line it up with a star or planet. This finder is right where I want it and its field of view is the perfect size for locating and pinpointing objects. I particularly like the illuminated double cross-hair reticle system that allows you to put an object exactly in a small box. It is extremely accurate. Once I had the finder tuned to my scope, I was able to switch from my big 40mm EP right down to a 10mm and I was still able to immediately put Saturn directly in the center of the 10mm's extremely tight field using this finder. This is the kind of centering accuracy that you can't get with a dot finder or a Telrad. It's why you pay more money for a RACI finder scope. Simply put, it gives you much greater, repeatable centering accuracy. Having read other reviews of this scope before buying, I was aware of a few caveats for use, which I will address here. First, there are three adjustment screws for tuning the finder to your scope. Two are regular thumb-screws, the third larger screw on the bottom is an Allen-head screw inside a sleeve screw. This larger gross adjustment should be set correctly from the factory, but it seems that for many people it is not, and that was also the case with mine. I needed to readjust this larger screw first, then use the two thumb screws for fine adjustment. This was not initially obvious and is the main reason that Celestron needs to supply documentation with this finder scope. Second, although the 50mm aperture of this finder is really the perfect size for a finder scope, it can still be difficult to initially get an object in its view by dead reckoning, as it really shows only a tennis ball sized portion of the sky at arm's length. To make this easier, I have an inexpensive green laser pen mounted on my tube, which makes it MUCH faster to put an object in the finder scope's view on the first try. In conclusion, this is not a finder for a "put in the gas and go" hobbyist. You will probably need to play with it a bit to figure it out. For some people, that's the fun of it, for others, it's an annoyance. However, once you get it setup, this finder will become indispensable to you for accurate, repeatable finding and centering of celestial objects.

The Celestron Illuminated RACI finder works great. When I first got it, the illuminator was missing. Before I was going to hassle with Amazon for a return, I double checked the box one more time and found the illuminator in the bottom. Assembly was easy except I got a metal burr in my thumb when adding the illuminated reticle. By removing the included base bracket, which took some manipulating to find the sweet spot in the lock screws, it slid right in place of my old finder with no extra work. As for using it, the illuminator is extremely touchy and comes on sometimes just looking at it. I’ve unnecessarily drained the battery figuring all that out. As for aligning it, it just took a few adjustments with the two variable screws to get it right in there. No need to try the more permanent screw which is admittedly, tucked down so it’s hard to get a screwdriver on it. The reticle is just right with double lines and a nice square in the middle to set the alignment star. I still need to zero it in using Polaris but it was good enough with a nearby light pole during daylight. Right now, I’m struggling to learn how to operate the main telescope mount. The field is nice and wide and in combination with the illuminated reticle, does the job. Once I’ve star aligned the scope, if I ever get that far, I won’t even need the finder until the next session. Overall, a great product even though there are no instructions, which I have to admit, I didn’t need anyway. Highly recommended.

OUT OF THE BOX, THIS PRE-ASSEMBLED FINDER LOOKS GREAT AND IF PROPERLY ADJUSTED WORKS GREAT. GETTING THERE CAN BE AN ISSUE FOR SOME. FIRST, THE MOUNT TO SCOPE AND TO THE FINDER ADJUSTING MOUNT IS VERY SOLID AND AS A FRONT LOADER WON'T ALLOW THE SCOPE TO FALL BACK AND OF THE MAIN TELESCOPE IF IT SOULD BECOME LOSE IN THE BASE. ORION AND OTHERS BRANDED WITH THEIR DOVETAIL MOUNT HAVE BEEN NOTED TO LOOSEN AND FALL TO THE GROUND. HOWEVER, THE FIRST THING I NOTICED ON ALL THREE OF MY CELESTRON RACI FINDERS IS THAT THE DOUBLE CROSS HAIR FINDER HAS A COUPLE OR SEVERAL BLACK 'SPOTS' ON IT THAT STAND OUT IN THE DAYLIGHT, OBVIOUSLY A MFG. DEFECT. NOT DETECTABLE AT NIGHT AND NOT IN THE DOUBLE CROSS HAIRS, A COSMETIC BLUNDER THAT SHOULD BE CORRECTED ON FUTURE MODELS. THE ALIGNMENT SYSTEM FOR THE FINDER STARTS WITH A VERY LARGE RUBBER 'O' RING ON THE FRONT. TWO OF MINE CAME ASSEMBLED LOOSE AND IT WAS DIFFICULT TO GET THESE PRESSED IN SO THAT THEY GRASP THE FRONT OF THE FINDER SCOPE TUBE TO MOUNT AS THEY SHOULD. THE BASE WAS A PERFECT FIT FOR BOTH MY CELESTRON 6" AND 9.25" SCT OPTICAL TUBES AND THE FINDER AND ADJUSTING ASSEMBLY SLID RIGHT IN. I FIND THAT REMOVAL AND REINSTALLATION DOES NOT AFFECT THE FINDER'S ALIGNMENT. HOWEVER, AND HERE IS A SIGNIFICANT PROBLEM. THE ALIGNMENT SYSTEM CONSISTS OF TWO FINGER TIGHTENING BOLTS WITH NYLON NON-MARRING TIPS....GOOD. HOWEVER THE THIRD ALIGNMENT UNIT IS A CHROME PLATED BARREL THAT CONTAINS A 3MM ALLEN SCREW, A SPRING AND A SMALL PLUNGER. THE ALLEN SCREW IS DIFFICULT TO FIT A WRENCH INTO WHEN IT'S MOUNTED ON THE MAIN SCOPE. SINCE THE RACI COMES WITH NO INSTRUCTIONS ONE MUST GO TO YOUTUBE OR TO CLOUDY NIGHTS TO GET A SENSE OF HOW TO ALIGN THIS PROPERLY. ONE MUST TENSION THE PLUNGER FULLY (IT STILL HAS SOME SPRING LEFT TO IT), THEN AFTER THE OBJECT IS LOCATED IN THE EYEPIECE AND THE FINDER, TO ENSURE A PROPER COLLIMATION BETWEEN THE MAIN SCOPE AND THE FINDER, THE FINDER NEEDS TO BE MANUALLY PUSHED INTO PLACE, DOING THE WORK OF THE SMALL PLUNGER AND THEN TIGHTENING THE FINGER BOLTS. WHEN DONE THE FINDER SEEMS TO RETAIN PROPER ALIGNMENT. HOWEVER WITH THE DIMINUATIVE PLUNGER AND UNDO FRICTION ON THE FINGER ADUSTMENT SCREWS THIS IS FAR MORE DIFFICULT THAN THE SYNTA BRANDED, (VARIOUS, ORION JUST FOR AN EXAMPLE) LARGE SPRING LOADED FINDER ADUSTMENT MOUNT. SUGGEST THAT CELESTRON REPLACE THE SMALL PLUNGER/SPRING AND 3MM ADJUSTING ALLEN SCREW WITH THE SYNTA TYPICAL PLUNGER AND ENSURE THAT THE OTHER ADJUSTMENT SCREWS TO NOT HANG UP ON THE COLLIMATION CHANNEL. IT WAS A BIT FRUSTRATING. ONCE UNDERSTOOD AND ADJUSTED IT WORKS AND THE ILLUMINATOR PROVIDES A REASONABLE LIGHT SOURCE, NOT TOO DIM AND NOT TOO BRIGHT. A BEST BUY AT $139.XX PLUS TAX AND SHIPPING, HARDLY. IF YOU GET A GOOD ONE, THEN A REASONABLE PRICE TO PAY. SUFFICE TO SAY THAT QUALITY VARIES BETWEEN ONE AND ANOTHER. A COPY OF THIS HAS BEEN SENT TO CELESTRON FOR CONSIDERATION IN FUTURE MODELS TO YET TO BE PRODUCED. NOTE: AS A FINAL ADDENDUM TO THIS POST. CLEARLY THE MASS ON THE REAR OF THE FINDER IS EXCESSIVE TO THE SMALL 3MM TENSIONED PLUNGER ASSY. THUS THE WEIGHT OF THE FINDER WILL ALWAYS REQUIRE THE AUGMENTATION OF THE SPRING PLUNGER TO PUSH THIS UPWARD AND INTO PLACE. THE ALIGNMENT WILL ALWAYS BE SUSPECT AND NOT TOTALLY SECURE UNTIL THE PLUNGER ASSY IS EITHER BEEFED UP TO COUNTER THE HEAVILY WEIGHTED OCULAR END OF THE FINDER OR REPLACED WITH SOMETHING LESS COMPLEX AND CAPABLE OF OFFSETTING THE ADDED WEIGHT OF THE ROTATIONAL EYEPIECE. ONCE A PERMANENT CORRECTION HAS BEEN DONE, EITHER ON A DYI BASIS OR BY THE MFG. THIS WILL PERFORM QUITE WELL. I'M KEEPING MINE AND WILL DEAL WITH IT SINCE I KNOW THE CAUSE AND THE CURE AND I AM CAPABLE OF MAKING THAT FIX PERMANENT.

This five degree width of field finder telescope with an illuminated reticle is a superb piece of equipment for use with a reflector or refractor telescope. It is particularly easy to mount on a home-built Newtonian Reflector telescope with a fibreglass optical tube. I simply drilled two holes through the tube with the finder scope in a good position, then tapped the holes with the size of the threaded connectors convenient to use. The optics are coated with anti-reflective material and the illuminated reticle has a red LED light source which has adjustible intensity. This is a convenient feature for centering an object of interest in the center of the eyepiece of the primary optics of the telescope. The upright view is extremely effective in aiming the telescope because the object of interest moves in the same direction as the front of the telescope moves during the aiming procedure.

The Finder scope that came with my Celestron telescope was really bad and I was not able to find anything in the sky with it because The telescope and the find your scope would not Center. I looked online and found this scope. It seemed like an answer to my problem. I was still having problems and was wondering if it was 1. a bad telescope or 2. I don’t know how to use it. I live in a college town and requested that someone from the university help me. I got a call back from a COLLEGE PROFESSOR, PhD who TEACHES ASTRONOMY and the use of a Telescope. He came out to my house and proceeded to try and try to line up the telescope with the finder scope. After about 15 minutes of working with it, he said that the finder scope could not be adjusted to line up with the telescope. He watched a small You Tube video to see if there was something he was missing about the setup. Apparently he was doing just as the instrunctions said. NO LUCK. I don’t recommend this finder scope. The only positive thing I will say about this finder scope is that I love the lit up crosshairs in the viewfinder. The next step I am taking is ordering the Celestron Auto Align Scope. I hope that works or I will be looking for a new telescope.

I purchased this finder scope to replace the original that came with the Celestron 11" GPS. I find it is very easy to use and to align with the main scope, and its magnification helps me find objects in the sky invisible to the unaided eye. Basically I get the same view as with my 10X50 binoculars, but since it's attached to the scope, I can then look through the scope, narrow the field, increase the magnification, and glory in the wonders of the night sky. I appreciate the corrected image and the illuminated double crosshair reticle, aiding in orientation and centering. The quality of construction is excellent, making it a fine match for the telescope. My only complaint to Celestron would be that this finder should be the one the telescope ships with. It seems crazy to sell a $3,000 telescope with a finder that requires the neck-craning of the original straight-through finder. Let's not skimp on the details, even if you need to raise the price of the big scope a few bucks. I was also impressed with the shipping of this item. It was extremely well packaged with great cushioning and no rolling around in the box. It also arrived in a very timely fashion. Good job!

Cercatore di ottima qualità, immagini pulite e molto luminose. Si ha la possibilità di mettere a fuoco sia sulla lente primaria e sia sull'oculare. La diagonale è raddrizzata sia sopra-sotto che destra sinistra, il crocicchio è orientabile, peccato che venga fornito solo con supporto per SC e non per barra vixen. Bello robusto fa proprio una bella impressione. Una nota che devo fare è che non c'è uno straccio di istruzione nella scatola.

Muy cómodo

This finderscope is just so much easier to use than the red dot finder supplied with my scope. Well worth the investment.

Una mejora sustancial sobre el 6x30 original. La imágen es clara y nítida. Fácil de instalar y el retículo iluminado funciona bien. Buena construcción, es de metal... considerar que agregará peso.

Vraiment pratique de pouvoir viser à 90° avec un oculaire éclairé.