How to Align Your Finderscope (It's Easier Than You Think)

A finderscope really helps you find your astronomical target by showing you a wider field of view of the night sky of where your telescope is currently pointing. However, for the finderscope to be useful it must be aligned with your main telescope.

To align your finderscope with your main telescope you should follow these simple steps:

1. Put a low power eyepiece like in your main telescope.
2. Focus on an object located far away. In the episode below I have chosen a church spire.
3. Change the alignment of the finderscope by tightening or loosening the two or three knobs located on the finderscope. Each screw will push the finderscope in a different direction allowing you to alter the direction the finderscope is pointing. To complete the alignment you need to move the crosshair in your finderscope onto your target object, you selected in step 2.
4. Use a higher-powered eyepiece to get a more accurate alignment, repeat the process in step 3.

Your finderscope is now aligned! For a visual representation of this process please watch the episode below. If you are wondering what finderscope you should get I can highly recommend the 9 x 50mm Skywatcher finderscope as I cover in this review.

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