FLO

One Sky-Watcher Classic 200P Dobsonian. Customer Return The base was damaged in transit and there is some minor damage to the bottom corner of one panel that can be repaired if you are handy with some wood glue and wouldn't affect the usage :-) The tube / optics are all great with all accessories. Grab a bargain if you don't mind a bit of DIY! Full manufacturers warranty. £369.00 £295.20 (saving £73.80)

One StellaLyra 10" f/5 Dobsonian. Customer Return Too large for customer. Good condition, base shows signs of assembly but otherwise all good with all accessories. Full manufacturers warranty. £649.00 £584.00 (saving £65.00)

One iOptron Hard Case for GEM45. Customer Return No longer required. Scruffy outer box, otherwise good condition. Full manufacturers warranty. £109.00 £98.00 (saving £11.00)

One Sky-Watcher Startravel 102T OTA. Customer Return Customer changed their mind. Complete in good condition but slight signs of use. Scruffy outer boxes. Full manufacturers warranty. £199.00 £179.00 (saving £20.00)

One Sky-Watcher Heritage-150P Flextube Dobsonian Telescope. Ex Demo Ex demo, complete and in good condition. Scruffy outer box. £238.00 £214.00 (saving £24.00)

One iOptron CEM26-EC Center Balanced Equatorial GoTo Mount with Encoders 1.75" LiteRoc Tripod + Case + iPolar. Customer Return Suspected faulty with some power related issues - we have throughly checked, reseated all the internal connections and ran for a long period of time and everything is working as it should and tracking correctly. All looks OK visually with some minor cosmetic marks from use and scruffy outer boxes. No power supply included. Full manufacturers warranty. £2,099.00 £1,889.00 (saving £210.00)

One iOptron Tri-Pier Portable Pier Tripod. Ex Demo Ex demo, heavily used with quite a few cosmetic marks on the main chamber, scruffy outer box. Functions fine and is complete. Full manufacturers warranty. £569.00 £512.00 (saving £57.00)

One Sky-Watcher SkyMax-127 AZ GTi. Customer Return Customer didn't get on with this so went a different route. Slight markings on dovetail from use otherwise all present, correct and in good condition. Scruffy boxes. Full manufacturers warranty. £515.00 £463.00 (saving £52.00)

One Takahashi FC-100DZ (OTA) tube only with 50.8/31.75 adapter. Ex Demo Ex demo, super, as new condition. Open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £2,554.00 £2,298.00 (saving £256.00)

One TS-PHOTON 6" f/6 Advanced Newtonian Telescope with Metal Tube. Customer Return Didn't suit customers requirements. Signs of use, small paint chip on underside of tube and a few small cosmetic works but otherwise A-OK. Full manufacturers warranty. £249.00 £224.00 (saving £25.00)

One Sky-Watcher HEQ5 PRO Go-To Astronomy Mount. Customer Return Too large for customers needs. Scruffy boxes but in good, unused condition. Full manufacturers warranty. £955.00 £859.00 (saving £96.00)

One Celestron Starsense Explorer DX 5". Customer Return Customer changed their minds. Still in original packaging, looks unused. Scruffy outer box. Full manufacturers warranty. £570.00 £513.00 (saving £57.00)

One Celestron 34" Tripod Bag. Customer Return Didn't suit customers scope. Good condition, open bag. Full manufacturers warranty. £95.00 £85.00 (saving £10.00)

One iOptron CEM60-EC Center Balanced Equatorial GoTo Mount with RA Encoder. Customer Return Original had some tracking issues, firmware updated and mount professionally tested and tuned and guiding checked. A-OK. Slight signs of use but complete and working great. Full manufacturers warranty. £2,599.00 £1,999.00 (saving £600.00)

One Bresser Messier 6" Tabletop Dobsonian. Customer Return Didn't suit customers needs. Complete and in good condition. Scruffy outer box. Full manufacturers warranty. £320.00 £288.00 (saving £32.00)

One iOptron CEM70 Center Balanced Equatorial GoTo Mount with iGuider. Customer Return Customer changed their minds, open box, small cosmetic signs of use but otherwise complete and in good condition. Full manufacturers warranty. £2,899.00 £2,609.00 (saving £290.00)

One Sky-Watcher Explorer 200P-DS OTA. Customer Return Unwanted gift. Looks new / unopened, scruffy outer box. Full manufacturers warranty. £379.00 £341.00 (saving £38.00)

One Sky-Watcher Classic 150P Dobsonian. Customer Return Unwanted gift. Complete, good conditions with some minor cosmetic marks. Full manufacturers warranty. £295.00 £265.00 (saving £30.00)

One Sky-Watcher Classic 200P Dobsonian. Customer Return Too large for customer. Signs of assembly / use, some rough edges on the wooden base and minor cosmetic marks on the finder. Battered boxes otherwise complete and ready to go. Full manufacturers warranty. £369.00 £332.00 (saving £37.00)

One Sky-Watcher Skyliner 300P FlexTube Dobsonian. Customer Return Too large for customer. Battered boxes but complete with accessories ready to go and in good condition. Full manufacturers warranty. £1,049.00 £944.00 (saving £105.00)

We don't know. It often takes a long time to bring a new scope to market. I am guessing someone leaked photos of the Evolux long before they were ready. Steve

Bresser is a distributer. I think you are saying for the Explore Scientific EXOS-2 mount we should delete the specification provided by Explore Scientific and use instead the specification provided by the German distributor and German retailer. But neither say if their 13kg specification (same as Explorer Scientific' specification for imaging) is for imaging or visual and we do not believe German retailers have access to more information than UK ones. My colleague Chris used an EXOS-2 mount for imaging with an 8" Newtonian. His experience suggests 10kg for imaging (his scope/camera/etc weighed 9kg) and 15kg for visual is about right, so we will edit our page to show that. HTH, Steve

For the Explore Scientific EXOS-2 mount we say '12.7kg imaging / 18kg visual'. This specification is provided by the manufacturer so should be correct ... Manufacturers often exaggerate mount payloads so if we hear from owners the specification should be reduced then we will happily do this (we have already done this for most Sky-Watcher mounts at our website). HTH, Steve

If you had contacted us you would have found us receptive and grateful. Before we pick it apart let's remember how Astronomy Tools came into the world: In 2014 Grant offered to build a set of tools for our colleagues working on FLO's Helpdesk. We wanted them to have easy access to reliable information, rather than using various separate online tools. The project also enabled us to develop and improve some of those tools. When built we decided to make 'Astronomy Tools' publicly available so everyone could use it. Free of charge. Regarding the Astronomy Tools CCD Suitability Calculator: In 2014 (nearly eight years ago!) the guidance available to us was more basic than it is today. Much of the information included was based on lookup tables provided by leading camera manufacturers. The explanatory text was largely written for us by a prominent astrophotographer. I won't mention his name because he is a respected forum member and it isn't his fault we haven't updated his text with the new thinking and information available today. When launched, Astronomy Tools was heavily scrutinised both on and off SGL then edited until it properly represented the best knowledge and information available at that time. But telescopes, cameras and best practices have evolved. Of course it needs updating. We should have done it sooner but it never seemed to rise far enough up the todo list. Today we are a larger company with more resources and the pandemic is easing so I am confident we soon will. When we do, it will continue to be available free of charge. HTH, Steve

Yes, of course. Have you ever contacted us regarding your concerns? Steve