FLO

One Sky-Watcher 9x50 Finderscope. Customer Return Customer decided to change to a RACI. Looks good, has a tiny speck / mark on the inside near the edge of the optics that will not affect usage. Full manufacturer warranty. £52.00 £46.00 (saving £6.00)

One Sky-Watcher Heritage-90 Virtuoso. Customer Return Customer changed their minds after having some issues with alignment. We have tested the tracking and alignment and all looks good. Open box but everything looks as new, a few tiny specs of dust on the optics from use but otherwise A-OK. Full manufacturers warranty. £245.00 £220.00 (saving £25.00)

One ZWO 31mm OIII 7nm Unmounted Narrowband Filter. Customer Return We mixed up the barcode label on these when they were previously returned by a customer. Perfect condition but open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £131.00 £117.00 (saving £14.00)

One ADM Mini Dovetail Guidescope Rings 90 mm. Customer Return Wrong size ordered. Open box with some very tiny marks but otherwise perfect, A-OK. Full manufacturers warranty. £94.00 £84.00 (saving £10.00)

One ZWO Off Axis Guider (OAG) v2. Customer Return Not suitable for customers needs, looks unused / perfect. Complete with all parts but open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £106.00 £95.00 (saving £11.00)

One PrimaLuce Lab Eagle 3 S Advanced Telescope Control Unit. Overstock Overstock - we are tidying up our shelves in preparation of our upcoming warehouse expansion. This item is brand new, unused stock but has been on the shelf longer than we would like so, grab yourself a bargain! Full manufacturers warranty. £1,209.00 £1,088.00 (saving £121.00)

One PrimaLuce Lab Eagle 4 Pro Telescope Control Unit. Overstock Overstock - we are tidying up our shelves in preparation of our upcoming warehouse expansion. This item is brand new, unused stock but has been on the shelf longer than we would like so, grab yourself a bargain! Full manufacturers warranty. £1,949.00 £1,754.00 (saving £195.00)

One William Optics SWAN Eyepiece 25 mm 2". Ex Demo Ex demo, pristine, perfect condition. Full manufacturers warranty. £109.00 £98.00 (saving £11.00)

One William Optics v1.5 RedCat 51 APO f/4.9. Customer Return Developed a fault with the focuser - subsequently repaired / reconditioned by William Optics and now perfect and good to go. Slight signs of use on the dovetail and open box but optically and mechanically perfect. Full manufacturers warranty. £699.00 £629.00 (saving £70.00)

One ZWO ASiair Pro Wireless Astrophotography Controller. Customer Return Arrived with a faulty power board, we replaced with a new unit and have subsequently repaired and replaced the power board on this one so it is now A-OK. Open box, signs of use. Full manufacturers warranty. £289.00 £233.00 (saving £56.00)

One Astrodon Photometrics Sloan Filters z' (>826nm) / 31mm Unmounted. Ex Demo Ex demo, pristine, perfect condition. Full manufacturers warranty. £225.00 £180.00 (saving £45.00)

One Astrodon 3nm Narrowband Filters - NII for 658.4 nm 31mm Unmounted. Ex Demo Ex demo, pristine, perfect condition. Full manufacturers warranty. £581.00 £464.80 (saving £116.20)

One MoonLite Motor Attachment Bracket CS / CF - With Shaft Lock. Customer Return Customer ordered the wrong version. Has slight marks / scratches on the bracket from fitting but otherwise A-OK. Full manufacturers warranty. £39.00 £35.00 (saving £4.00)

One Astro Essentials Right Angled Camera Viewfinder. Customer Return Not suitable for customers needs. Slight marks from usage but otherwise A-OK. Full manufacturers warranty. £33.00 £29.00 (saving £4.00)

One Takahashi FS-60Q f/10 Doublet Fluorite APO Refractor. Ex Demo Ex demo, pristine, perfect condition. Full manufacturers warranty. £1,029.00 £977.55 (saving £51.45)

Unfortunately Paul requested his review be posted even though we have explained both his negative points are incorrect. Hopefully then he won't mind us posting our response. We received Pauls query late Wednesday so replied when we reopened Thursday morning. There was no delay and we received no email bouncebacks so cannot account for why he did not see our reply. We have not received a response from him, other than his negative review here today. (Though his review was posted on a Saturday my colleague responded directly to him within minutes). We have checked every conversation with Paul so can say with confidence we NEVER failed to respond promptly. We have suggested he check his spam folder and email filter settings because we can find no issues our side to account for him not receiving our responses. Regarding the missing part: It is NOT missing. Finder-shoes fitted to GSO manufactured telescopes have one thumbscrew (this is shown in our product photo). One is enough to secure the finder-scope. There is another threaded hole so an additional thumbscrew can be sourced and supplied if requested. HTH, Steve

We have lots of thoughts regarding future products but none we can share publicly today 🤐 Please follow the Sponsor Announcements and Offers for updates 🙂 Steve

Apologies for misunderstanding your question. I wasn't expecting a question about TS Newtonians. I thought you probably meant Newtonian optics in TS Dobsonians that relate to the StellaLyra Dobsonian telescopes being discussed. Apologies again. Johninderby is right, TS Newtonians use mirror-sets manufactured in Taiwan by Guan Sheng Optical (GSO). I am confident they are at least equal to the Chinese-made mirror sets used by Sky-Watcher and Bresser. HTH, Steve

I am not sure I fully understand your question but will do my best to answer 🙂 I cannot find a TS branded 6" f8 Dobsonian so am unable to make a comparison. They do however offer a GSO branded 6" f8 Dobsonian that I believe is equivalent to the StellaLyra model. Regarding Sky-Watcher and Bresser 6" f8 Dobsonian telescopes, they are not 'versions'. They are not manufactured in the same factory. The StellaLyra model is manufactured by Guan Sheng Optical (GSO) in Taiwan. Sky-Watcher and Bresser Dobsonians are manufactured in China by Synta and Jinghua Optics. All three have good f8 parabolic mirror-sets so optical performance will be similar but - mechanically - they are different. The same is true for StellaLyra, Sky-Watcher and Bresser 8" f6 Dobsonians . They are optically similar but manufactured by three different companies so design, features and build are different. Regarding TS Newtonians vs Sky-Watcher and Bresser Newtonians. That is too broad a question and not related to this discussion. If you start a new discussion in the Discussions - Scopes / Whole setups board I am sure you will receive plenty of feedback from owners. It is important to understand changing a Newtonian telescopes focal ratio changes its optical characteristics. An 8" f6 Newtonian will perform and behave differently to an 8" f4 Newtonian. Generally speaking the faster f4 Newtonian will require higher maintenance and more sophisticated (expensive) eyepieces to achieve its full potential. HTH, Steve

The 10" and 12" models have sold out. More are in the pipeline but these are extraordinary times so they might not arrive until around December. We have good stocks of the 6" and 8" models 🙂 StellaLyra 6" Dobsonian telescope StellaLyra 8" Dobsonian telescope

Please see our website for prices: StellaLyra Dobsonian telescopes We want to make the 6" f/8 model affordable without compromising optical performance so have fitted it with a 1.25" single-speed focuser (still CNC machined) a smaller straight finderscope and traditional Teflon pads in both axis. We hope it will attract beginners into astronomy. Speaking as a retailer, the 6" f/8 is a difficult model to position. Experienced astronomers with an understanding of optics will know per-cm-of-aperture it has highest performance. (Longest focal ratio, smallest secondary obstruction, holds collimation very well, is less sensitive to miscollimation, quickest mirror cooling and the long narrow light-cone works well even with budget eyepieces). But most experienced astronomers already own a larger aperture telescope and beginners might see only the smaller 6” aperture (compared to its larger sisters) so overlook it. If at a star party you place the StellaLyra 6" f/8 Dobsonian alongside a premium apo' triplet and compare them, you will be pleasantly surprised. (The same is true for 6" f8 Dobsonians from Bresser and Sky-Watcher). HTH, Steve

Photographing a black telescope interior using a camera set to Auto causes over exposure. This is why the interior in omo's photo looks grey (omo says this himself in his post). In reality the interior is darker. Having said that, I think any Dobsonian telescope will benefit a little if flocking is applied opposite the focuser and around the mirror (bottom of the tube). HTH, Steve

It is becoming increasingly clear that, due to a shortage of semiconductors, there will be a shortage of GOTO astronomy mounts for the remainder of this year and early 2022 😧 This applies to all brands. All are similarly affected. We always do our best to update customers but the sands are constantly shifting so providing reliable ETAs is very difficult. If you have ordered a mount from FLO you can be confident our inventory system has allocated you a place in the queue and will auto-release stock when available. If you plan to buy a GOTO mount and our product page shows it in stock then we recommend you place an order ASAP. If our product page shows out of stock then please be prepared to wait for at least the time displayed on our product page. On a positive note. Interest in astronomy is still very high and FLO continues to be in good health with more staff, premises and stock than any other UK astronomy retailer. Thank-you for your patience and understanding during these extraordinary times. Adrian, Alex, Andy, Annette, Ann, Chris, Cody, Dave, Grant, Ian, James, Katie, Lisa, Matt, Rob & Steve 🤗

All sorted 🙂 The remaining part of the delivery was on a different van.

Sky-Watcher have released two compact tabletop telescopes that provides computerised GOTO and 'Freeedom Find' wirelessly via your smartphone or tablet. Though intended for tabletop use both have a regular 3/8" tripod bush so can be used with the Sky-Watcher 3/8" tripod or an any other suitably sized photo tripod. Sky-Watcher Skymax-127 Virtuoso GTi Sky-Watcher Heritage-150P Flextube Virtuoso GTi