I just ordered a (refurb) Nikon P1000 superzoom point-and-shoot camera - 24mm to 3000mm equivalent focal length.

My intended uses for the camera include capturing distant bird photos, aircraft in flight, the Moon, etc.

I discovered that Nikon sells a dot sight that has a fitting that mounts in the flash hot shoe - but AFAIK, it does not electronically mate with the host camera, rather it simply uses the hot shoe as a physical mounting point. There's also a 1/4" tripod threaded mounting option underneath the flash shoe bracket. It apparently supports both a red and a green dot.

Nikon's offering is the DF-M1 Dot Sight: https://www.nikonusa.com/en/nikon-products/product/miscellaneous/df-m1-dot-sight.html

DF-M1 manual: https://crossgate.nikonimglib.com/dsd_redirect/redirect.do?P=JXWYC44&R=1lJPR20&L=a2Ux504&O=IidF200

(Could they possibly have made the instruction text any tinier? Yeah, it's a PDF so you can zoom in, but the English text is separated from the callout diagrams by the Japanese text, and even though I can read some Japanese, it's a tough slog for me to do that, LOL. I've opened two copies of the PDF in adjacent browser tabs so that I can rapidly switch between the text and the illustrations.)

I see that other camera and camera accessory mfgs. also offer dot sights intended for photo use.

It occurs to me that since I already have a few inexpensive dot sight optics for my firearms (which I have not yet mounted or experimented with - yeah, I have too many toys for my own good), maybe I could consider either fashioning a bracket holder with picatinny mount or a hot shoe adapter that I could use to mount one of my sights for use with my camera. I haven't yet checked printables or thingiverse, but it wouldn't surprise me if there are already 3D-printable models available for just that purpose that I could grab and print.

What I haven't yet examined is usability - things such as field of view (including matching the reticle view with the lens focal length and field of view) and other ergonomics, eye relief considerations, reticles, overall brightness and contrast, placement and usability of illumination and other adjustments or controls, dot size, 'shake awake', battery life, convenience of installation and removal, bore alignment and/or alignment repeatability issues, minimum usable target distance, or whatever.

Is anyone here using such a tool for speeding up rough (or fine) aiming of their long telephotos to help with rapid target acquisition or tracking of moving targets?

If so, what are you using, and what has been your experience with it? Likes? Dislikes?

You're over thinking it.

If it's that big a problem, try finding your subject at reduced zoom, then zoom from there.

A "red dot" won't help one bit with tracking a moving subject

What Fred said!

Yes, but… Clearly I’m not the first to think about such a use case - and camera manufacturers such as Nikon and Olympus make and sell dot sights for use in aiming cameras with long telephoto lenses, so it’s evidently not a frivolous or ridiculous proposition.

Dot sights are also used to assist in aiming telescopes, either for terrestrial use or for astrophotography. Sure, there are also telescope aiming alternatives ranging from crude to sophisticated, including everything from the equivalent of “dead reckoning” to laser pointers to goto mounts to spotting scopes to astrometric guiding and beyond, but those alternatives hardly invalidate the use of dot sights where they may provide sufficient utility.

So I’d be interested in hearing about first-hand experience using such devices in such an application.

I'm sure a lot of seasoned (insert whatever hobby applies)-ers will be skeptical on certain things. I'd say try it out yourself to see if it works for you.

I'm unfamiliar with telescopes, but I've seen similar application of red dots being used on spotting scopes.

That may be the case, but I’ve never seen anyone using an RD on a super zoom. Not in person, not in sporting event televised coverage, not in print or online media.

And, if I may say so, I think I’ve observed my fair share of gear that’s out there.

I can MAYBE see the utility in some extremely specialized cases (fixed non moving subject, extremely long range) but the fact of the matter is that magnification provided by even the longest photography lenses (Canon put out a 1200mm lens, and Nikon had a 1200-1700 zoom) and the nature of using those lenses doesn’t lend itself to what, on a telescope, would be a finding scope or dot.

If memory serves, @MFingar does on his airshow setup but I don't know the specifics other than his photos are amazing.  I've considered it, but don't know where to start.  OM System (formerly Olympus) makes the EE-1 that's a pop up sight and even built one into their Olympus Stylus SP-100 supertele bridge camera.

I was a pro for Lockmart in flight test for quite a few years. I used to shoot air to air with a 3 camera rig that included an SLR, high speed motion picture camera and a video camera. The biggest difficulty was boresighting all the cameras at a given focal length. We tried to keep things as wide as possible but in an air to air application that is tough due to proximity of the aircraft and things like, missiles, coming off that aircraft with a mind of their own. Getting that boresighting correct with something like a red dot dot, that has no functional frame to reference, at telephoto coverages would be tough. Not saying you couldn’t do it, but the trial and error would be a bitch.

I have a cheap RD on mine.  I even mounted up a section of pic rail for it.

Yes, a 300mm lens on a 4/3 camera is a 600mm on FF. Have a cheap RDS with a flash shoe adapter to aim better when doing astro photography. A) there is no zoom when using fixed focal length lenses and B) you don’t want to handle multiple lenses when sitting in total darkness. You don’t want to lose your night vision which takes 20-30 minutes to achieve.

I use a primary arms red dot on a telescope.

I found a dovetail mount, but it only let me install some airsoft grade shit. So I took a file and cut out a slot for a cross bolt.

Edit: I replaced it with a Votatu that has 50k battery life/auto off.