Antares 50mm Quick Release Bracket for SCTs

This inexpensive finderscope quick-release bracket is designed to mount 50mm Antares right-angle finders primarily on Celestron and Meade Schmidt-Cassegrains 8" in aperture, but will also hold virtually any 50mm finder on almost any scope 6" in aperture and larger. The internal diameter of the rings is 62mm. The collimating screws will hold tubes as small as 46mm in diameter, but 50mm is a more practical lower limit to allow some screw travel for collimation purposes.

The quick release base has two oval slots that line up with the finder bracket mounting holes on the rear cell of an SCT. The mounting slots will let you mount the bracket on rear cell holes with a center to center spacing range of approximately 1.2" to 1.45". The bracket attaches semi-permanently using the bolts supplied with the original telescope finder bracket (new bolts are not supplied with the quick release). The quick release base can also be attached to a reflector's Sonotube or metal optical tube by using nuts and bolts (not supplied), although it may require drilling a new hole in the optical tube if the existing tube hole spacing does not match the mounting hole spacing in the quick release base. The curvature of the quick release base will fit virtually any telescope from 6" in aperture and larger.

The quick release ring portion has two finder mounting rings, each with three hand-tighten plastic collimating screws. The ring portion slides into a dovetail slot in the base and is held in place by one plastic hand-tighten knob. A stop in the base fits into a groove in the ring portion to lock the ring portion in place and prevent the finder from sliding out of the bracket. Die-cast metal, painted black, with plastic collimating screws.