FLO

One IDAS D1 Light Pollution Suppression Filter 72mm. Customer Return Wrong item ordered. Filter looks good, clean and ready to go. Some marks on the plastic packaging box. Full manufacturers warranty. £309.00 £278.00 (saving £31.00)

One Pentax XW 10mm. Customer Return No longer required. Excellent condition, open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £299.00 £269.00 (saving £30.00)

One Pentax XW 10mm. Customer Return No longer required. Excellent condition, open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £299.00 £269.00 (saving £30.00)

One Sky-Watcher Explorer 150P-DS OTA. Customer Return Too heavy for customers mount. Some slight marks on dovetail from use, scruffy packaging otherwise complete and good to go. Full manufacturers warranty. £285.00 £256.00 (saving £29.00)

One ZWO ASI 2600MC-PRO USB 3.0 Cooled Colour Camera. Customer Return Developed a fault with oil during the warranty period. We swapped for a new camera and this has now been repaired by ZWO and the underlying fault rectified. In excellent condition, complete with accessories. Open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £1,899.00 £1,709.00 (saving £190.00)

One iOptron CEM40-EC NUC CEM GoTo Mount with iPolar, LiteRoc Tripod & Case. Ex Demo Brand new, unused open box demo. Full manufacturers warranty. £3,445.00 £2,756.00 (saving £689.00)

One iOptron CEM70 Center Balanced Equatorial GoTo Mount with iGuider. Customer Return Developed a fault with the power connector and needed the tension adjusting. Tested and now working as it should complete with handset, cable, counterweight and counterweight shaft, GPS receiver, PSU and USB cable. Some minor damage to the case (bumps / scratches). Overall good condition but some signs of use. Open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £2,949.00 £2,654.00 (saving £295.00)

I am vertically challenged, so 'Ursa Minor' is more apt 😊 Steve

You can probably tell I am a visual astronomer (almost all my colleagues at FLO are imagers) so when it comes to Dobsonians and eyepieces I have a tendency to wax lyrical 😊 Steve

Yes. The StellaLyra 6 was the same as the Ursa Major 6 shown here but had different specs' to other StellaLyra models. So when it came to reordering, we decided to make it a separate stand-alone product. And then we added the 8". I own a 10" f/5 StellaLyra Dobsonian (the largest I can comfortably move around the garden). Still, the Ursa Major 6" f/8 has a longer focal-ratio with a smaller secondary mirror (central obstruction only 22%), so higher contrast. Not significantly higher, but noticeable if looking critically. The longer focal-ratio also has a narrow light cone, so it works very well with affordable eyepieces. Indeed if you were to position one at a star party alongside someone with an expensive 4-5" apo triplet, then compare views, you would not be popular! The performance provided by a good 6" f/8 Dobsonian (i.e. Ursa Major, Sky-Watcher, Bresser) is much higher than most people realise. Having said that, the 8" f/6 model will outsell the 6". It is arguably the best all-rounder and its larger aperture gathers nearly 1.8x more light. Steve

I remember my wife took one look at it and said "You're not keeping that indoors!" 😆 My wife, incidentally, chose the 'Ursa Major' brand name for these affordable Dobsonians. Steve

I am feeling nostalgic because my first 'serious' astronomy telescope, around two decades ago, before FLO, was a GSO (sold as Revelation) Dobsonian purchased from Telescope House. The models shown here have better mirrors and focusers but are essentially the same. If I had known then how my wonderful new hobby would progress ... 😀 Steve

More Dobs! 🙂 Ursa Major Dobsonian telescopes are from the same stable (Guan Sheng Optical 'GSO' in Taiwan) as our StellaLyra Dobsonians, but are more affordable. To achieve their low prices, these Ursa Major models have a more traditional Dobsonian base (Teflon pads & spring tensioner), a single-speed focuser and straight finder. UPDATE: From 21st April 2023, both models have been upgraded to include a robust azimuth roller-bearing assembly 🙂 Key features (compared to other similarly priced models) are: Same GSO parabolic mirror sets as equivalent aperture StellaLyra models. Roller bearings for Azimuth movement CNC-machined Crayford focusers (not cast metal). Supplied with fully multicoated 9mm and 25mm GSO Plössl eyepieces. Ursa Major 6" f/8 Planetary Dobsonian Ursa Major 8" f/6 Dobsonian

Ade Ashford was similarly impressed. “Jupiter, despite its current low altitude from the UK, revealed considerable detail when seeing conditions permitted. On 21 October 2021 at 10:50pm BST, I watched the close appulse of Jovian moons Ganymede and Callisto, while the Great Red Spot approached the planet’s central meridian. Later that same night, the Moon was one day past full and presented a wealth of crisp, fine detail along the waning terminator. I noted a string of mountain peaks in the heart of 177-kilometre-wide crater Gauss catching the last rays of sunlight. They looked like a string of beads at the limit of the instrument’s resolution, something I had not seen in this region before during four-and-a-half decades of observing.” Review by Ade Ashford for BBC Sky at Night (pdf) Steve

One Sky-Watcher Handset Cable for AZ Goto & AZ GTi. Customer Return No longer required, cable working as it should. Repackaged. Full manufacturers warranty. £25.00 £22.00 (saving £3.00)

One SharpStar f/4.5 0.8x 61EDPH Reducer. Customer Return No longer required, good condition, minimal signs of use, open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £198.00 £178.00 (saving £20.00)

One Astro Essentials Canon EF Lens to T2 Adapter for CMOS/CCD Cameras. Customer Return Customer decided to take a different approach. Good condition, minor signs of use, open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £59.00 £53.00 (saving £6.00)

One Astronomik L-2 UV+IR Blocking Luminance Filter 2". Customer Return No longer required, looks in great condition, open box / QC seal broken but filter looks perfect. Full manufacturers warranty. £89.00 £80.00 (saving £9.00)

One Lynx Astro Heated Flexible Dew Shield for 5" Telescopes. Customer Return Wrong size ordered. Some minor marks / scratches but not very noticeable. Repackaged. Full manufacturers warranty. £38.00 £34.00 (saving £4.00)

One Carry-handle for StellaMira Telescope Black. Customer Return Didn't suit customers scope. Some small marks / paint chips which would not be visible when attached and some other slight signs of use otherwise good condition. Full manufacturers warranty. £29.00 £26.00 (saving £3.00)

One Askar Multi-connection Finder Plate 150 for FRA600/5.6. Customer Return No longer required, open box, excellent condition. Full manufacturers warranty. £39.00 £35.00 (saving £4.00)

One Astro Essentials Variable Polarising Moon Filter 2". Customer Return Wrong size ordered. Excellent condition, open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £29.00 £26.00 (saving £3.00)

One Astro Essentials Variable Polarising Moon Filter 1.25". Customer Return Didn't suit customers requirements, good used condition, scruffy box. Full manufacturers warranty. £19.00 £17.00 (saving £2.00)

One ADM Vixen Dovetail Plate Adapter. Ex Demo Ex demo, used condition but working as it should. Marks around screw holes and dings / marks on surface. Open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £29.00 £26.00 (saving £3.00)

One ADM Vixen Dovetail Plate Adapter. Ex Demo Ex demo, used condition but working as it should. Marks around screw holes and dings / marks on surface. Open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £29.00 £26.00 (saving £3.00)