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.

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 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.

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.

El buscador estaba deteriorado y en mal estado. Un equipo de precisión tiene que estar haber pasado un buen control de calidad y precintarlo bien para que después funcione correctamente. El segundo que me mandaron estaba igual.

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.