UK Astro Show

[AlistairW]

Thinking of going to the UK astro show tomorrow - what can I expect - will vendors be doing discounts possibly ?

http://www.ukastroshow.com

[Pan Euro]

Plenty of scopes to look at and some discounts on some items. Worth going to.

[Cjg]

Will be the first astro show I'll have attended - looking forward to hearing from Dr. Megan Argo and seeing a couple of eyepieces too, am guessing that the retailers would rather not have to repack EVERYTHING at the end of the show if they can sell it 

Chris

[Tim]

I went this morning. Mixed feelings. £8 seems a lot to look round a shop in effect, personally I dont feel the show is worth the entrance ticket price, or that the visitors should be charged to visit. Talks, etc fine, but we just wanted to look round the stalls, and maybe purchase a couple of eyepieces. Most stands are doing 10% off on eyepieces, Widescreen are saying 20% but quoting the higher starting price, although this did still make them the most competitive on the day for Televue gear.  (£576 for 21mm Ethos as opposed to £593 at the others.)  As it happens, most of the traders will do the show deal online for the duration of the weekend. I put my CC away and will do the deal online if at all, and enjoy the benefits of protection of online purchases.

I know the venue well, and visit several times a year, but for newcomers it was badly signposted and even with the grounds of the show the signage to the IAS was not great.

Martin and Graham have done well to organise the show and get everything together, but something seems to be lacking, sadly. Not the best £16 (2 tickets) I've spent in my life......

Still, it was nice to see some familiar faces from SGL

[jambouk]

I think £8 is a reasonable fee for what was on offer. I suspect the venue is quite expensive, and the cost for exhibitors might deter some from attending, which would limit the appeal of the day.

It felt very quiet today, but a good venue though agree about the sign posting, very poor.

It's nice to wander amongst such a variety of traders and exhibitors under one roof.

James

[A40farinagolf]

I was undecided about attending, I paid last year to see one of the presentations but the tent was so light that none of the images were visible even from the front row, that put me off a bit hence my indecision. I should have asked for a refund.

I've now decided not to attend taking into consideration the comments above, if the reviews had been better I would have driven down.

Petrol + admission would have added up to circa £45 so I'll save that to buy some kit online.

[Guest]

I would've paid £8* just to hear Dr. Allan Chapman - fantastic guy - me and a few scientist chums bumped into him in Blackwell's in Oxford one Saturday afternoon and he talked to us for a good 20min about the hypothesis we had met up to talk about - is there a connection between epidemics and the solar cycle....such a great guy, really added to the day :-)

...by the way ...within the first few minutes of our chat at a pub called The Turf in Oxford the ecotoxicolgist amongst us produced a few graphs that sort "closed the door" on the hypothesis LOL! We let the beer flow to forget about it :-)

David

*£8? I spend more than that on coffee at work each day har har!

[mcolbert]

some thoughts;

it seems to me that the time of the 'Great Exhibition of 1851' and all those that follow may be drawing to a close.  SGL and others of its kind are like a daily exhibition in some ways - conversing with others in the know or socially, reviewing new models of equipment, seeing images and so on.

Another thing is that, for me, the commercialism ruins the event.  Yes I do acknowledge costs of presenting events is an always present problem but for many events it is taken too far with guest speakers etc. who are invited purely to draw the crowds.  Sad really.

On the other hand, there are events such as Spiegel (for gamers) which each year increases attendee numbers - but here there is active participation in games not simply strolling along and looking at the new product lines.

The trick to get the balance for any event is elusive to say the least.

michael

[A40farinagolf]

Michael (mcolbert)

I agree with your observation and in some ways I think that it's shame that exhibitions are waning, the buying process for goods has changed and the tumbleweed blowing down most town centres reflect this. 

I work in a sales role and know that customers expectations are changing all the time; these expectations need to be understood; at least met and ideally exceeded - if I don't do it then someone or something else will - some call it progress.

Sounds like Spielgel (whatever that is) understands this and adapts it's offering.

[mcolbert]

A40farinagolf sorry, I sometimes forget which forum I'm on.

Spiegel is a rather large games show in Essen held annually.  I wrote spiegel rather than spiel so my error.  Check the link

http://www.merz-verlag-en.com/

There is probably a significant factor in the German culture as boardgames are more frequently played by families according to the stats.  But my point is more about the 'hands on'

aspect as I'm sure you're well aware of being in sales.

michael

BTW I like the image of tumbleweeds - it rings so true!

[malc-c]

£8 is on par with the international Astrofest held in kensington each year, however that is a much larger event than the IAS show, so maybe the entry fee could of been a tad lower, but then they have their overheads to cover.

Nice to see a good friend of mine came second in the imaging contest... Well done Dave !

[Mark at Beaufort]

I went yesterday and enjoyed myself looking at the available equipment and going to a lecture. I bought an eyepiece with a discount. I also looked at a Dobsonian which allowed me to make a decision not to buy it.  I meet so many friends from SGL not to mention staff, reps from companies like Celestron which you don't normally have the chance to chat. The lecture room was much better than last year and they provided bluetooth headphones making it easy to hear the talks.

I agree with Tim the signposting was poor. I have never been to the location so I simply used the code CV82LG in my satnav which took me around the back with closed entrances. When I eventually parked I had to walk through a garage with no signposting to gain access to the entrance.

Would I go again - yes. I go every year to Astrofest and it was nice to walk around this venue without being crushed.

[pyrasanth]

I was disappointed with the event. I saw very little innovation which is required to push amateur astronomy forward. I had never visited the sire before and I agree that the sat nav directions were exceptionally poor as I spent 20 mins navigating in another direction to get in following the main road signs and not the sat nav. The signs on site were very poor .

I enjoyed the talk by Nik Szymanek and a chat with a director of Celestron. There will have to be a compelling reason for me to go back next year- and the food in the canteen was vastly over price & tasted awful!

[Ouroboros]

Pity if commercial shows like IAS are on the wane because there's nothing like getting your eyes and hands on real kit to see if it is what you want. Browsing and shopping on-line has amazing advantages, not least being able to research the market, but it has its limitations.

[jambouk]

I'm not sure what innovations were missing or expected. The internet means there is seldom anything novel on show as we've been watching the prototypes evolve and already read reviews online before things are available to buy.

I just view the IAS as an opportunity to look at all the retailers stands, chat to the people I have emailed, and get ideas from them and other people I meet.

I think £8 is a reasonable charge for such a day out; it can cost that much to park the car in a town centre where there isn't even one astro retailer, let alone 40 or so of them.

James

[Ouroboros]

Yeah. I found my lengthy discussions with the two CCD suppliers - Atik and Starlight Express - particularly useful. Also to able to pick up and look at potential CCD cameras, filter wheels etc too ..... feel the weight, kick the tyres. :-)

[Gasman]

Hi guys

So regarding this and the Kensington astro shows whats the consensus of opinion?  better/worse? I went to the Kensington show once and it was that packed you couldn`t walk where you wanted which spoilt it a bit for me.Couldn`t make it myself to this one as I had to call in a favour so I can attend Sidmouth next week   

cheers

Steve

[redfox1971]

Had a look around myself today plenty of room to move about was tempted to purchase the williams optics star 71 on display on the widescreen centre stall for £899 but decided against it a £50 saving but it being out of the box and not knowing the company to well i will probably place a order with flo,was a bit disapointed no skywatcher neq6 mounts for sale as i would have bought one,anyway was good to see the gear up close,cafe must have done well seemed full most of the time,my sat-nav took my straight to the venue and all incidents were on the over side of motorway so no hold ups.

[David Smith]

I went today,  my third year straight. I have to say I was disappointed by the new venue, more difficult to find and the venue itself seemed a little run-down. Much prefer the old venue and not just because it was closer to home

My £8 entrance was worth it as it allowed me access to view but also ask questions about the kit on offer. The event also offered me the chance to catch-up with some fellow members of SGL which to me is worth the £8 anyway.

I came away without purchasing anything but knowing what I need to know and having enjoyed the day.

[Cjg]

Made the (long ) journey from Norwich and enjoyed the day. Was good to be able to meet Ian King and admire the bigger Taks. Likewise the guys from Green Witch came away with an eyepiece at a discount too.

[trazor]

Well, for new innovations I quite liked this mount....

http://trackthestars.com/telescope-mounts/tts-300-mammoth-telescope-mount

I am considering the TTS-300 AZ mount which can carry upwards of 60KG.

And for imaging can be fitted with a field de-rotator.

[Space Hopper]

Yes, the mount at the "Track the Stars' stand looked amazing.

I enjoyed the show, no problems with the entry free.

I thought things seemed a bit subdued though, not sure why ??

BUT, seeing Alan Chapman and Damian Peach in one afternoon made it something not to be missed.

ALSO........anyone know what happened to FLO ???

Thought they would be there again this year...........?

[FLO]

ALSO........anyone know what happened to FLO ???

Thought they would be there again this year...........?

Sorry we weren't there. We wanted to be but we recently moved into larger premises (originally planned for next year). Our busiest season begins in only 3-4 weeks so we are working hard to install more racking, a workshop, some electrical wiring, new IT and a new order processing system. 

We'll make amends next year

[Space Hopper]

Arrrr, that explains it thanks.

And i had a shopping list too, and was hoping for some nice juicy discounts 

Missed the Jaffa cakes too !

[ChrisLX200]

Perhaps with these new spacious premises FLO can run their own show...? :-)  A FLO open day sounds good.

ChrisH