Hioptic 6" Maksutov Cassegrain NMC1900x152

HiOptic 152 > Viewfinder

THE RETICLE VIEWFINDER

UNPACKING

The first thing noticed about the viewfinder after unpacking was how dirty it was. The picture below shows exactly how it arrived with what can only be described as the bottom of someone's pocket attached to the eye cup.

However, surprisingly, after having a good clean up this viewfinder turned out to be one of the best this reviewer had ever used! Much nicer than anything I've ever had from Meade or Celestron. It's like a small 8 x 50 refractor telescope in it's own right, if only it had a standard interchangeable eyepiece, it could almost double up as a guide scope.

The glass in it seem to have the same blue tint of optic coatings similar to other parts of the scope. The front of the tube unscrews to provide access to the inside. It was a nice surprise to find it contained baffles inside to help stop stray off axis light reaching the eye. The rubber on the rear eyepiece can be removed which might allow the attachment of a guide camera but it is a weird size of 28mm/1.1". The eyepiece can be removed by unscrewing it but anything you replace it with will require an odd size 28mm/1.1" thread.

FITTING AND ALIGNMENT

The viewfinder is held in place by a very substantial and high quality metal bracket with 6 adjustable screws. It makes aligning the viefinder with the scope very simple unlike a Sky Watcher Pro Mak I once tried.

TERRESTRIAL VIEWS

Looking through the view finder presents a nice sniper gun sight type of view (reticle). There was a little colour fringing in the image but not enough for my 2 mega-pixel camera to pick up on. Please excuse the quality of the images, I was using the horrible wobbly EQ3 mount and hand holding the camera!

ASTRO VIEWS

The view finder has a curious stalk protruding from it. This houses a red light projector that illuminates the gun site (reticle). A dial on the end allows the user to vary the strength of the red light.

The picture above shows how large the moon appears in this in this 8 x 50 viewfinder.

SUMMARY

An excellent finder scope that this reviewer would not hesitate to recommend to anyone. It's much better than anything I've ever used be it from well recognised names like Meade, Celestron or Skywatcher!