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Astrotrac Travel System Hire?

FLO

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Starlight 1

Starlight 1

Posted
Posted
Can we do some quick market research please ;)

We are pondering whether to make an Astrotrac Travel System available for hire so people can kick it's tyres or perhaps take it on holiday.

Is this something that might interest you? Perhaps we could make it available for monthly and/or three-monthly periods? Perhaps there is another product that you would like to see available for hire, an APO refractor perhaps?

Thank-you for your thoughts,

Steve

Hi Steve Thats a great idea, as I am not working at the moment and was thinking about starting something myself to do with my hobby, maybe a branch in East Anglia would be a help to you?

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blackparticle

blackparticle

Posted
Posted

Take a look at this Steve. It's a similar thing only with Harps. This happens a lot with expensive "classical" instruments for tours etc.

Harps, harp strings, harp sheet music and accessories from Clive Morley Harps | Rent a Harp

As you can see, for short (3 month) rentals they will re-credit that amount back upon purchase. As time goes on, the credit diminishes (due to wear and tear on the instrument) and the fact that use has been had for an extended period.

There are also a few PDFs at the top of the page giving you an example of the rental agreements and terms and conditions.

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AndyDix

AndyDix

Posted
Posted
AndyDix, how did it work?

It sounds like you hired a £900 saxaphone for three months at £90 (10% of the retail value) then you had the option of either returning it or buying a new one with part of the hire fee refunded. Have I understood that correctly? ;)

Steve

Yep

You could hire it up for up to 9 months in 3 month stints @ £90. At the end of each of the 3 month period you could carry on hiring for an additional £90 or return the sax with any monies paid counted as a hire cost. After the 9 months you would then pay a monthly sum over 6 months to finish paying for the instrument and its yours.

The info of the scheme is shown here www.sax.co.** with ** being UK.

Regards

Andy

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AndyDix

AndyDix

Posted
Posted
Take a look at this Steve. It's a similar thing only with Harps. This happens a lot with expensive "classical" instruments for tours etc.

Harps, harp strings, harp sheet music and accessories from Clive Morley Harps | Rent a Harp

As you can see, for short (3 month) rentals they will re-credit that amount back upon purchase. As time goes on, the credit diminishes (due to wear and tear on the instrument) and the fact that use has been had for an extended period.

There are also a few PDFs at the top of the page giving you an example of the rental agreements and terms and conditions.

Beat me 2 it ;)

Andy

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MikeWilson

MikeWilson

Posted
Posted
Unihedron Sky Quality meters are incoming ;)

Our first delivery should arrive in 10-12 days. I'll make a proper announcement here in the sponsor section later.

Thank-you for the suggestion (have just discovered James has been using a Unihedron SQM for over a year :rolleyes:).

Steve

Hi Steve,

Thank you for listening :-)

Hope you come up with some good ideas for renting other astro equipment. Right now I need an OTA to rent as my main scope's out of action until those rings arrive :hello2:

The more I think about it, the more I love the idea of a rental service for all the above mentioned items. It might even be that someone could rent everything they need to image just for an 'astro holiday' (say to Galloway National Park) and then give it back at the end. Those of us who live in flats or without access to a regular garden might be a good market for that too.

All the best,

Mike

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Starflyer

Starflyer

Posted
Posted
An Atik camera is doable, the Atik 314L Plus is the bestseller but perhaps a larger sensor would be more popular as a rental camera. Perhaps we should offer a camera with an Atik EFW2 filter wheel and filters.

The OSC version of the Atik 4000 would be my personal choice, it's what I'm saving towards at the moment and would be good to try under dark skies. Not a huge sensor but still a good size and the large(ish) pixels would be a great match in terms of resolution for my 10" Newts.

If only this was already in place, it'd be perfect for my trip to France in a couple of weeks time ;)

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old_eyes

old_eyes

Posted
Posted

I think it is a great idea. I occasionally need audio equipment for events, and there are loads of people renting out whatever you need (wireless mikes etc). Makes it easy to do something that goes beyond your noemal kit and/or testing out some kit you are thinking of investing in.

However, with our skies you would need extended hiring periods :-(

old_eyes

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mint_mark

mint_mark

Posted
Posted

There are a few places that rent camera lenses like this. I was quite excited at Christmas to rent a particular wide angle lens to use with a CLS filter on my astrotrac. The company did two weeks for the price of one at Christmas to avoid any postal delays.

The rental price included insurance. The packaging was very robust and easy to repack for return. The box probably does get replaced now and again for wear and tear. I had to pay postage both ways and it had to be tracked and insured. They had a calendar based booking system for popular lenses.

As part of the deal they encouraged you to write a review of the item afterwards, which is a nice idea.

I liked the lens, but had two weeks of solid cloudy weather. Will there be a discount for that? ;)

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simon955

simon955

Posted
Posted

This sounds like a great idea, I am currently saving up for an astrotrac setup. I would soon be sending in an order for the wedge and tracker, maybe even the pier if i can avoid any expenses this month. A rental scheme would be fantastic, it would let me have a preview of what exactly what I was hoping to buy over then forthcoming months.

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Earl

Earl

Posted
Posted

I have a system where people can Hire a Game, and if they constantly (no breaks or missed payments) hire it till the point they have paid for it they can keep it.

A touch of a price difference mind you :smiley:

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Psychobilly

Psychobilly

Posted
Posted
I have a system where people can Hire a Game, and if they constantly (no breaks or missed payments) hire it till the point they have paid for it they can keep it.

A touch of a price difference mind you :smiley:

Is that using the paypal "instalments" option or another system..

We have used the paypal sytem in the past to allow items to be purchased in installments...

Peter...

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Earl

Earl

Posted
Posted
Is that using the paypal "instalments" option or another system..

We have used the paypal sytem in the past to allow items to be purchased in installments...

Peter...

Na just a regular Shop Till affair, nowt fancy :)

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  • 2 weeks later...
Dangerous-Dave

Dangerous-Dave

Posted
Posted

I've always thought the idea of astronomy gear hire is a good idea, as the hobby is prohibitively expensive at times. However when I spoke to Albert Etherington about it a while ago and he said the main problem was getting the insurance. Allowing people to buy gear on finance would be another welcome development, but I understand you need to jump through a number of hoops to be a licensed credit broker.

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  • 1 month later...
FLO

FLO

Posted
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Posted

Sorry for not updating the thread earlier. This will definitely happen but we are going to first test the waters by offering it initially only to those with a purchase history at FLO. (Our website gives us the facility to create pages then make them visible to selected customers). The Astrotrac Travel System will be the first item available and is currently reserved by Paxo. We will assess the project and make more kit available over time. An APO refractor and CCD Imaging camera appear to be popular suggestions so they will be next on the menu.

HTH :)

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MjrTom

MjrTom

Posted
Posted

Yeah ditto. :-)

Especially other kit like OTA and CCD maybe

Seriously considering selling my astrotrac & matching wedge as I don't have the time now I have an eight month old daughter and would fund the C8 I want for visual star gazing

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