Unboxing and Reviewing the 9 x 50mm Skywatcher RACI Finder Scope

This article is an unboxing and review of the Skywatcher 9 x 50-millimetre Right Angle Correct Image (RACI) finder scope. I originally decided to upgrade my finder scope because the 6 x 30mm Celestron finder scope I was using in London’s light polluted skies was having great difficulty in seeing anything faint.

In fact, with my 30mm finder scope it was very difficult to see anything faint the best I was able to see with it was just about glimpsing the Andromeda galaxy. The fainter stars were pretty much indistinguishable from the background light pollution.

Turning to the Skywatcher 9 x 50mm RACI finder scope finder scope, it is well constructed, with a full metal body. You focus the finder scope by twisting the front lens. It is important to note that if you have a Maksutov or Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope and want the image orientation to match you need to choose the non-erect image version.

This is a great upgrade over the more standard 30mm finder scopes, which has about two and a half times the objective lens size allowing you to view much fainter stars. While the diagonal makes the finder scope much easier to use especially when looking at targets that are higher in the nights sky. 

The only bad thing is that the rear is a hard ABS like plastic, this has dislodged for me if I have hit banged into it two hard. However, if you would like to turn this finder scope into a guide scope it is possible as the rear plastic section of the finder scope unscrews to allow an adapter to be attached which makes the guide scope compatible with most astronomy cameras.

If you would like to view the full review, please watch the episode below.

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