FLO

One Bob's Knobs Celestron / Sky-Watcher Newtonian Collimation Knobs Primary Adjustment & Lock Knobs. Customer Return Wrong version ordered. A-OK but open packet. Full manufacturers warranty. £25.00 £22.00 (saving £3.00)

One Baader Protective T-Ring for Canon EOS T-Ring, 2" Nosepiece & T2/M48 female threads. Customer Return Customer ordered the wrong version. Has been opened / tried but all present, correct and A-OK. Full manufacturers warranty. £49.00 £44.00 (saving £5.00)

One Horizon 8115 2-Way Heavy Duty Tripod. Customer Return Arrived with a faulty part which has now been replaced. Slight usage marks / open box. Full manufacturers warranty. £99.00 £89.00 (saving £10.00)

One iOptron GEM28 German Equatorial GoTo Mount 1.5" Tripod + Case + iPolar. Customer Return Damaged in transit and replaced. The mount is perfect / undamaged and all A-OK but the outer case has been superficially damaged hence the cheap price :-) Full manufacturers warranty. £1,139.00 £968.15 (saving £170.85)

One StellaLyra 6" F/12 M-CRF Classical Cassegrain Telescope OTA. Ex Demo Ex review - perfect condition, slight marks on dovetail from mounting otherwise A-OK. Full manufacturers warranty. £499.00 £449.00 (saving £50.00)

One Baader Morpheus 76° Wide-field Eyepieces 17.5mm. Customer Return Warehouse mix-up meant the wrong model was sent out. Signs of use / open box but all present, correct and A-OK. Full manufacturers warranty. £189.00 £170.00 (saving £19.00)

One Starlight Xpress Off-Axis Guide Head Standard. Customer Return Not required as already supplied with the filter wheel. Unused but Starlight seal broken on box. Full manufacturers warranty. £159.00 £143.00 (saving £16.00)

One iOptron 4.5kg Counterweight for iEQ30 / MT / AZ Pro / ZEQ25 / CEM25 / CEM40. Ex Demo Ex demo, A-OK, slight signs of use. Full manufacturers warranty. £45.00 £40.00 (saving £5.00)

One iOptron 4.5kg Counterweight for iEQ30 / MT / AZ Pro / ZEQ25 / CEM25 / CEM40. Ex Demo Ex-demo. Good condition, slight signs of use, scruffy packaging. Full manufacturers warranty. £45.00 £40.00 (saving £5.00)

One Helios Apollo High Resolution 7x50 Binoculars. Customer Return Customer decided to go a different route. Good condition, pristine optics, complete. Full manufacturers warranty. £219.00 £197.00 (saving £22.00)

Our inventory system allocates stock to customers when available, in date order. So if someone purchases, say, a HEQ5 Pro mount and StellaLyra 6" RC telescope and only the telescope is in stock then the telescope is automatically allocated and reserved for that customer (our website availability indicators don't include stock already purchased/reserved). For the out of stock mount our inventory system keeps track of order requirements and dates (essentially it continuously monitors the customers position in the queue). When more mounts arrive they are automatically assigned, in date order. When complete the order is released for dispatch. Our inventory system handles all this automatically (thank-you Grant). I can think of only two situations where we might manually override this - someone requires a warranty replacement or we 'know' more telescopes (using the above example) will arrive before the mounts. Hope that answers your question 🙂 Steve

The handle is now available separately in red or black anodising 😊 StellaMira Telescope Handle

To keep shipping costs low we dispatch orders when complete but if you need in stock items dispatched sooner please email us. Depending on circumstances we might charge an additional fee to cover the additional postage cost. HTH, Steve

Unfortunately EQ5 mounts are unavailable until the mid-late March shipment arrives. HTH

We'll wait another day or two then will adjust ours to ensure we remain competitive. We are checking Sky-Watcher prices twice weekly and are predicting they will settle some time around next week. Steve

We don't know yet, will speak with them when we reopen tomorrow.

We have just received a new Vixen trade price list. We have updated our website 😧

Welcome to SGL! What you claim is not true. Our price changed back when this discussion was started. It has not moved even £1 today. Oh Malcolm! Consider how many UK astronomy retailers have closed their doors over the years. Telescope House (now owned by Bresser-Germany), Telescope Planet, Venturescope, Scopes'n'Skies, Pulsar Optical, Astronomy & Nature Centre, Astronomia, F1telescopes, Greenwich, David Hinds... Together with others I have probably forgotten. Were they all profiteering too? With stock as scarce as it is we will still be dispatching customer backorders at pre-increase prices well into late summer / early Autumn. Many at little or no profit, because it is the right thing to do. We will not extend this sentiment to someone joining SGL only to complain about a price increase that affects all UK retailers. Steve

I don't think anyone has 🙂

We are aware of the classification but have not experienced or heard of any complications. Probably only marketing. Kinda cool to claim 'military spec' 🙂

I am not sure I understand your question? 🙂 Steve

We are anticipating William Optics prices will rise later this month.

There are no UK specific causes for the price increases that I am aware of. Other than perhaps Felixstowe are experiencing logistical problems that has caused some shipping companies to avoid docking there. None that we have heard. We haven't heard of any price rises at the factory (we source direct from the factory). Baader's UK distributor was DHinds. They closed just before Christmas. Currently we source Baader products direct from Baader in Germany, which is good, but unfortunately they like many other suppliers are unable to provide ETAs for many of their products. We don't stock Tecnosky products. Where FLO is responsible for price rises (i.e. we increased our iOptron prices recently due to increased shipping costs) then those prices will be reduced when shipping costs return to normal. Regarding Sky-Watcher prices, we hope and expect they will reduce when shipping costs fall but some of the increase is due to increased costs at the factory so we doubt they will ever fully return to pre-Feb prices. To be fair, when compared to other EU countries, UK Sky-Watcher prices have been extraordinarily low for a long time. We are good. Thank-you 🙂 We continued to grow through 2020. None of our staff were furloughed. Indeed we increased staff in our warehouse, workshop, admin and heldesk. Clear Outside, Astronomy Tools, IKI observatory, StarGazine and Stargazerslounge are also in good health. Thank-you for your continued support. None of this would be possible without you 🤗 Steve & everyone at FLO.

Regrading HEQ5 Pro mounts, we should be able to fulfil existing orders from shipments arriving March and April. (Not sure thereafter, probably May/June).

It is important as consumers we look for and expect prices to reduce when shipping costs return to normal.