William Optics Red Dot Finder Kit with Vixen Style Mounting Base - M-RDF-P-VBII

It's a gun sight, not a telescope finder

The biggest problem with this is that it is too bright at night, even at the dimmest setting. The reticle produces a lot of scattered light that obscures fine targets like stars, and it depends on bright ambient lighting to conceal. So, forget using any reticle other than the dot because you won't be able to see the star under the mess of red light. There is also no hollow circle reticle that would mitigate this problem. The dot is still quite scattered and not a fine point unless you are using it in the day. In addition, using it with both eyes open when staring at the night sky leads to double vision that makes it hard to tell whether it is lined up or off to the side. I cannot see the star under the bright reticle with my right eye, but my left eye does, which causes parallax confusion. I have to close my left eye and move my right eye in and out of the sight to see if the star gets replaced by the reticle. It is also a bit of challenge to keep the reticle itself in focus with my eye since it only comes into focus when focusing on something far away. But, there is no reference point in the night sky that the reticle isn't blocking. Of course, none of this is a problem in the day when there is plenty of light information for my brain to resolve the image. Calibrating the sight is also troublesome to do in the dark because it uses hex keys instead of thumb screws. It also uses two different sizes of hex keys, one for the adjustment screws, and the other for the locking screw. You will be fumbling around with the keys while trying to slot them into the screws in the dark. But the good thing is that it doesn't get knocked out of alignment easily. The sight itself is of solid metal build quality, so that's a plus. Red dot finders are only good for GoTo alignment where you need a lightweight solution to verify whether the scope is pointed at the right star. For manual star hopping, a straight-through correct-image finder scope with an illuminated reticle is a better option for both-eyes-open star targeting.