James McCabe Reviews

There are only two advantages to this accessory but they are very significant. One, it threads directly into the Losmandy mount. Two, the star patterns on the reticle allow the user to roughly align the polar scope by observing the position of Cassiopeia and the Big Dipper. This is a plus over the Celestron clock system that I used to use because I always got confused as to which side of the clock Polaris was supposed to be. The fine alignment is done with the alignment using secondary stars very near Polaris which, unfortunately, are sufficiently dim to be wiped out by pollution in my usual viewing area (more on this below). There are two improvements that could be made. One that is imperative is that there be a means to attenuate the brightness of the illuminator. Where the north sky is heavily light polluted, as in any place immediately south of a major metropolitan area, the illuminator brilliance does not allow the eye to adjust and view dim stars used for final alignment of the reticle. I recommend that the maker investigate the circuit that Telrad uses for attenuation and blinking. Another improvement would be a diagonal. An accomplished Yoga would have no problem with the contortions necessary for sighting especially when the height of the assembly is minimized for rigidity. However, old guys with pinched nerves really find it a pain in the neck, so to speak, to crawl under the tripod and squeeze the dickens out of their already herniated C5-C6 cervical disk.