FLO

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 😞

When a discussion like this at SGL doesn't identify the retailer I become concerned someone might think it is us. I can assure you we are NOT the retailer. We have not supplied the telescope. Not one of ours 😇 Steve

I understand and sympathise but I doubt any retailer will have 'spare' RedCats until after Christmas. The quality is being maintained. The Returns rate for this model continues to be very low 🙂 Steve

The William Optics v1.5 RedCat 51 APO telescope is a hugely successful product that unfortunately is in very short supply 😟 We receive regular deliveries from William Optics but nowhere near as many as we would like. Each delivery fulfils only a small percentage of our customer backorders (we dispatch RedCat telescopes in strict date order). Currently our customer backorder list is growing faster than we can source them so we have set our dispatch estimate at 40-60x working days (2-3x months). You can place an order (doing so will secure you a position in the queue) but please be prepared to wait several weeks. Thank-you for your patience and understanding during these extraordinary times. Steve

It has been discontinued 😔 When we heard we ordered as many as we could so have a number arriving this week but I am not sure at this stage if we will have any remaining after existing customer backorders have been fulfilled. We will make them available if we do. We also have a couple in our workshop (one having a new motor fitted and another used for demo/display). They will be made available in time. HTH, Steve

@Dippy ? 🙂 I like to think I would notice if someone ordered then cancelled a number of high value items but these are extraordinary times so perhaps I missed something. Steve

Ouch! @Dippy I would very much like to investigate and respond. Please say here what were the high value items you ordered then cancelled? 🙂 I ask because I am confident no other UK astronomy retailer is carrying more stock than FLO (FLO is the only UK astronomy retailer with a warehouse and the only one that has employed additional staff to manage this perfect storm). There will occasionally be times when a competitor has something when we don't, but that is rare. Steve

We often pop up at SGL 😁 Regards, Steve

It does not. This is normal for the 60th anniversary mount which has a new opaque placard that does not allow light transmission from the LED. Battery status can be checked through the handset controller (MENU -> PERIPHERALS -> BATTERY -> STATUS). HTH, Steve

Raul has contacted us via email and on Facebook regarding his new EQ6-R Pro mount and his concerns that the mount head can be forcibly rotated when clamped to the tripod. He mentioned he has a discussion ongoing here so I thought it might help if we also respond here. We are happy to dispatch another tripod for comparison and even another head if required. He also has the option of returning both via our 30-day returns policy for refund. No problem. But, looking at the video, we don't currently think either is faulty. If the head 'rocked' when clamped then that would be a problem but most owners of EQ6-R mounts will be able to grip their mount head and forcibly rotate it, a little. We don't think this is unusual. The tripod top and mount head are cast metal, not machined metal. Hope that provides some assurance. Steve

I will look out for that 😁 We are only experimenting with watermarks atm.

Yes. For the photos we put them on an iOptron Tri-Pier Portable Pier Tripod. HTH

Apologies for the delay ☺️

Oops. Typo corrected 🙂 Yes. If you already own a guidescope and guide camera then the regular CEM70 will be more attractive.

The new iOptron CEM70 Centre Balanced Equatorial mount is essentially an upgraded version of their bestseller CEM60 mount. Higher payload capacity, an integrated iPolar and low periodic error (PE) <±3.5 arcsec. There is also a version with iOptron's new integrated 'iGuider' guiding scope and camera. Both models are in stock 🙂 iOptron CEM70 Center Balanced Equatorial GoTo Mount iOptron CEM70 Center Balanced Equatorial GoTo Mount with iGuider