Interesting new product Monday: Baader Skysurfer V
This week I’m doing more of a product review than writing speculatively about upcoming new products (or bitching about how much some things cost), so I’m hopeful that the usefulness of today’s post will be enhanced by this approach.
I purchased a Skysurfer V a few months ago, but I’d been thinking about getting one for a while. When I first purchased my 8″ Celestron SCT, the finder that came with it was a very cheap and basic “red dot” style finder (this is the thing that lets you know what you’re pointing the scope toward, like the scope on a gun). Replacing it was the first thing I did to that scope and it made it much nicer to use. After I started using my scope more frequently though, I found some things about it bothered me, though I’ll note these things didn’t make it less functional.
So, after some financially induced procrastination, I pulled the trigger on the Skysurfer. It’s non-magnified, all metal and pretty big. In fact, it’s bigger than I thought it would be, but that makes it very nice to use. The style of the thing really brings the gun analogies home as well, it reminds me of the crazy looking scopes you see on sniper rifles in the movies. In reality, it’s more like a black metal paper towel tube, but has an adjustable red dot (once you figure out how to adjust it) and two clear dew shields, which are held on with black elastic cords.
All black metal, all the time! Makes you want to bang your head just looking at it.
The pic links to a product site with more details.
This is a nice, but not necessary item. I suppose you could argue that telescopes aren’t necessary either though. If you have a telescope, the whole point is to use it. Equipping it in a way that makes it more useful is absolutely worth it, I think. If you have a medium sized scope and want a non-magnified finder, I don’t think you’ll find one nicer than this.
History is made at night 