FLO

Speaking with Sky-Watcher's UK distributor, we have learned the mount/tripod bundles in the shipment scheduled to dock Aug have already sold out. All our existing customer backorders (except two!) of mount/tripod bundles will be fulfilled from the August shipment. Currently there are a small number of mount heads available but we expect those too will sell out in a week or two. Unfortunately, due to component shortages, there will not be another shipment with Star Adventurer GTi until around first-quarter 2023 🙁 We have removed the mount/tripod bundle form sale and will do the same for the mount head when that sells out. Thank-you for your patience and understanding. Steve

Ah, I see you recently started another separate conversation at our Helpdesk. No problem. We'll arrange collection for tomorrow 🙂

I replied four hours ago at 11am 🙂 We offered to collect and collimate the telescope, or accept it back for refund via our 30-day return policy. You replied saying you prefer the former. We now only need know which weekday is best for us to send DPD? HTH, Steve

@Tomatobro is right. "Notify me when available" emails are sent only when an item is genuinely available to buy. If the number received exceeds those already sold (in this instance we received nowhere near enough) then there are none available to buy. Looking at the current rate of sales I suspect the next shipment will also sell out before it docks so @Jiggy 67 it is good you have placed an order. Bundles are proving more popular than mount-only but not by much. Probably around 60 / 40. Thank-you for your order 🙂 Steve

It is good to hear one is on its way to you 🙂 To those wondering if their order will also be dispatched - if you don't receive our dispatch notification email before end of day then your order will most likely be fulfilled from the shipment arriving mid-late August. Tomorrow, we will email everyone with a backorder to ensure they know. HTH, Steve

The StellaMira 90mm ED triplet telescope is back in stock 😀

Meade is however now wholly US owned and their efforts to 'reshore' manufacturing to the US are real and genuine. We wish them well. Steve

I wondered about this then learned Mexico is in North America, so they can legitimately say “Designed and Manufactured in North America”. Steve

In our defence - our open times (Mon-Fri 9.30-4.30) can be found at our Contact Us page and the focuser wasn't faulty. You emailed us Saturday 4:39pm. Normally we would reply when we reopen Monday but a colleague was doing some email housekeeping so saw and replied to your email same-day 7:10pm. We like to help. It was. But it had loosened during its journey from Taiwan to UK. This is not unusual and is easily solved (a quick tweak of the focuser tension adjustment screw). HTH, Steve

We are especially looking forward to receiving this 'new' mount 🙂 Steve

Meade Acquisition Corp (aka Meade Instruments) is celebrating its one year reorganisation of Meade Instruments and Meade’s 50th year anniversary 🙂 The following is from their newsletter received at FLO this morning: In our first year, the new company has been focused on: Ramping production at our North America factory Meade’s Mexico telescope factory is the largest consumer telescope factory outside of China manufacturing telescopes and mounts for advanced and expert amateur astronomers. We have made significant investments of funds and bandwidth reshoring the factory’s raw material and parts supply chains, and in manufacturing tooling. The Advanced Coma-FreeTM (ACF) telescope primary, secondary and corrector plate mirror blanks have been and continue to be manufactured exclusively for Meade by a trusted partner in the USA. For the factory production, we continue to invest in our personnel. We have increased both the size of the production workforce and have also cross-trained in order to increase our production capacity. Critically, we are rebuilding the North America - USA and Mexico - supply chains in order to source essential parts. We have made quite a bit of progress and began ramping production in Q1 2022 of the LX90, LX200, LX600, tripods, respective OTAs, and select Coronado® telescopes. We still have a few issues with the supply chains for StarLockTM and select Coronado models, which are being actively worked and we expect to resolve by October. Improving Product Quality Next, we have invested in Quality Control engineering and staff resources. Our product quality confidence is reflected in the increase of the warranty period for Meade-branded product for the original purchaser from one to two years on sales from a Meade Authorized Reseller on or after June 1, 2021. We are also tackling parts availability and pricing for warranty and non-warranty support. Improving Customer Support For customer support, we have invested in increased staffing, workflow software, metrics setting and tracking, product and cross-training. Adding Products and Product Lines In addition to rebuilding the supply chain for the existing products, we have launched and relaunched new telescopes, accessories, and binoculars. For example, the number of PolarisTM and InfinityTM products and accessories available through our Direct Import program increased in Q2 from four to seven telescopes. We also will be launching additional accessories and a new 20x80 astronomy binocular in late June. Moreover, we are pleased to announce the relaunch of the popular LX85 EQ mount. We have re-shored this product and its supply chain to our factory, and we can proudly now call this product “Designed and Manufactured in North America”. We are on track for first shipments in late August which will include 6” and 8” ACF, and 6” and 8” Reflectors. We have quite a bit more in the pipeline for 2022 and 2023 and will make future announcements as we get closer to launch dates.

Demand for this new mount remains very high. We are doing best to determine likely numbers and share info. Currently, we have already sold more than the small number available from the shipment received by Sky-Watcher's UK distributor. We also strongly suspect the next shipment (mid-late August) will sell out before end of week so have preemptively reset our website dispatch estimate to 30-40x working days (6-8x weeks). Even this is a guess because we don't yet know when the third shipment will dock. Please be assured this situation (high demand / low availability) affects 'all' UK retailers, regardless of what is sometimes posted on Facebook. HTH, Steve

Please email us your order number, we will then be able to locate your order and estimate dispatch.

Looking at sales so far, most are ordering the mount bundled with tripod and extension pillar but if you already own a suitable photo tripod then that will do nicely.

We should know our allocation later today but lots of customer orders were placed over the weekend so we fear there might not be enough to go around. With this in mind we have changed our dispatch estimate to 20-25x working days (another shipment with Star Adventurer GTi is scheduled to dock mid-late August). HTH, Steve

One TS-Photon 254 mm f/5 Newtonian Telescope with Steel Tube. Customer Return Customer changed their mind. Unused, perfect condition. Scruffy box. Full manufacturers warranty. £599.00 £539.00 (saving £60.00)

One DayStar Quark Combo H-alpha 'Eyepiece' Chromosphere. Ex Demo Ex Demo, superb condition. Tested by Gary Palmer. Full manufacturers warranty. £1,195.00 £1,075.00 (saving £120.00)

One Celestron C8-N Newtonian VX GOTO. Open Box Open box / scruffy packaging. Brand new / complete inside. Full manufacturers warranty. £1,399.00 £1,259.00 (saving £140.00)

One Takahashi Focal reducer QE for FSQ-106ED / FSQ-130ED (0.6x). Open Box Open box, ex-demo. Pristine. Full manufacturers warranty. £1,598.00 £1,438.00 (saving £160.00)

One ZWO 5 Position 1.25" Manual Filter Wheel. Customer Return No longer required. Complete and in excellent condition. Open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £69.00 £62.00 (saving £7.00)

One Sky-Watcher SynScan WiFi Adapter. Customer Return No longer needed. Looks new and unused but open / torn box. Full manufacturers warranty. £69.00 £62.00 (saving £7.00)

One Celestron X-Cel Barlow 2x magnification. Customer Return Customer changed their minds, excellent condition, opened but unused. Full manufacturers warranty. £99.00 £89.00 (saving £10.00)

One Sky-Watcher 2" Di-Electric Star Diagonal. Customer Return No longer required. Good condition, open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £119.00 £107.00 (saving £12.00)

One Ocal Electronic Collimator. Customer Return No longer required. Good condition. Open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £169.00 £152.00 (saving £17.00)

One ZWO ASI 485MC USB 3.0 Colour Camera. Customer Return Camera developed a fault during the warranty period so we replaced with a new one and this has subsequently been repaired. Complete with all accessories, Good condition, working as it should. Open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £385.00 £346.00 (saving £39.00)