FLO

We don't know. It is too soon to say. They might... 😁 Steve

No, our StellaMira ED and ED2 triplets are manufactured for us by Long Perng. Also in Taiwan. StellaMira for ED refractors, StellaLyra for reflector telescopes. We have more from both manufacturers in the pipeline... 🙂

Thank-you for noticing 🙂

You can now buy Classical Cassegrain & Ritchey-Chrétien telescopes at FLO 🙂 StellaLyra Classical Cassegrain & Ritchey-Chrétien telescopes Manufactured by Guan Sheng Optical in Taiwan. All models in stock!

We are not sure but think mid-late November. Currently we are expecting enough stock to fulfil all existing backorders. BST StarGuider eyepieces are 'very' difficult to source. The factory appears always to be 2-3x weeks away from dispatching, but often don't. Regarding Sky-Watcher UWA Planetary eyepieces, the distributor says December. We have a large Sky-Watcher delivery arriving in 1-2x weeks, there might be some in that. We don't know. They haven't mentioned anything. But if someone were to buy a ZWO camera from FLO then find it 10% cheaper within 30-days, we would refund the difference in FLO Gift Vouchers 😇 Steve

When we spoke with them they said late-Sep / early-Oct for the 8" and November for the 10". HTH

Thank-you 🤗

Yes 🙂

Sales of astronomy equipment during the pandemic continue to be significantly higher than normal while manufactures struggle with materials shortages and fewer shipping channels. Obtaining reliable ETAs from manufacturers and distributors is understandably very difficult. Even when they do have an ETA, it often changes overnight and it is not unusual for entire shipments to sell out before they dock. We believe this perfect storm will continue at least until a vaccine is found and made readily available so, with this in mind, we have made some changes at FLO that we want to share with you: We have employed five additional staff (two in the warehouse, two at the Helpdesk and one in the workshop). You might already know one of our new staff, Dave Eagle 😎 We have invested significantly in stock. When stock is available, we buy it. Lots of it! So whilst stock is scarce our warehouse has never been so full. We have also made a significant change to our website's stock availability information. We now share precisely how many of each item is in stock at our warehouse. (Over 95% of products sold at FLO are dispatched from our warehouse. We rarely drop-ship). Thank-you sincerely for your continued support 🤗 Alex, Andy, Annette, Ann, Cody, Dave, Grant, Ian, James, Katie, Lisa, Martin, Matt, Rob & Steve.

I have removed the Vixen link from my post 🙂 Thank-you for your order.

That is 24x 🙂

Not sure where you are looking. We have plenty of stock 🙂

If you have ever wanted a Japanese-made Vixen SG 2.1x42 widefield binocular but didn't like the price, you will like this 🙂 Helios have released a very similar product at a significantly lower price. Only £89! Helios 2x40 Star Field Binoculars The low 2x magnification and multicoated optics provide huge, bright, high contrast views of the night sky. Perfect for observing the Milky Way and star fields. I like them, but binoculars like these are undeniably a Marmite product. They are not like regular binoculars. They use a modified Galilean optical system so do not have a clearly defined circular field and the viewing area is not sharp and flat to the edge. That is not what they are designed for. Indeed I am not sure they should even be called a binocular. They occupy ground somewhere between spectacles and binocular. Perhaps they are best described as a visual aid. They do however provide wonderful views of the night sky. Everything is easier to see and appreciate vs naked eye, whether you view from a city or under a dark sky, and they cost only around the same as a decent eyepiece. So we recommend them 🙂 Steve

PS: Synta have also released a 6" Newtonian with a non-collimatable primary mirror. Sky-Watcher Star Discovery 150i WiFi

Hi 🙂 We asked ourselves the same back in 2011 when Synta released the Heritage 100p (a smaller telescope) with a non collimatable mirror cell. We used one for a while, the views were good out of the box and it appeared quite robust so we added it to our website. The Heritage 100p is now one of our bestsellers with a low return rate. We were admittedly more concerned when they later released the non-collimatable 130mm Newtonian discussed here but, considering the 100p's success, we decided to sell them for three months then review the situation... We did however add this cautionary note to our website product description: ------- NOTE: The 130PS telescope has a non-collimateable primary mirror. Please contact us for more info. ------- We were and are the only retailer to include that note in our product description 😇 We sold our first Explorer 130PS AZ GTi September 2017. Three years later, we have received only three customer returns (two because the mount wouldn't connect to the owners wifi and one unwanted Christmas gift). That is a remarkably low return rate! Owners are delighted with the views, which is remarkable when you consider the OTA features a 5" parabolic mirror yet costs only £74. 🙂 Some owners will of course outgrow the telescope and upgrade to a more advanced (more expensive) model. This is only natural. @cwis If you have concerns about your telescope's performance then you need only contact us. We will be pleased to help. Regards, Steve

😲😁🤭 Steve

Oops. Sorry. Typo corrected 🙂

Sky-Watcher have released a Field Flattener for the Evoguide 50 ED 🙂

^ 🙂

The telescope would be rejected and returned to the distributor. Es would not normally split lens elements to remove dust. Incidentally, Es also checks our William Optics and StellaMira triplets. (He is currently checking StellaMira doublets too because StellaMira is a FLO brand so receives special attention). HTH, Steve

Mostly 1 & 3 🙂 Steve

Please email us. Stock is in such short supply during the pandemic.

It is unfortunate they didn't offer to replace it because Esprit-100 are currently in very short supply. We have a small number of Esprit-100 telescopes arriving next week. You would need to place an order soon to secure one of those. When they are sold the next shipment will arrive mid-late October. Unfortunately the next ship with Flatteners for Esprit-100 will not dock before Dec/Jan. If you order an Esprit telescope at FLO (any of them) it will include an Es Reid bench test. We no longer offer them without the test. HTH, Steve

Shining a high intensity light into telescope optics is always a frightening experience. The unnaturally bright light and high contrast always reveals 'something'. Even so, I think the amount of dust/specks revealed in your photo is not acceptable for a new telescope. You are right to contact your supplier and ask for a replacement. You say your supplier checked the telescope before dispatch (I thought we were the only UK retailer doing that) so perhaps, in their defence, the dust/specks are not visible in normal light? Might be a good idea to look at the box address label to see if it was dispatched to you from your supplier or drop-shipped direct to you from the UK distributor. If the latter then your supplier will not have checked the telescope optics. They might have mistaken your telescope for another that was checked. HTH, Steve

No - this is a scam - we don't operate any voucher schemes like this and certainly wouldn't have any vouchers that aren't also made available to SGL. These voucher sites all do things like this to generate traffic for themselves 😞