Telescope Specialists (Teleskop Spezialisten), Munich

[Commanderfish]

Hi there,

Just wanted to relay a very positive experience of purchasing an Explore Scientific ED127Apo Refractor from Telescope Specialists (Karl Kloss) in Munich.

Karl takes the scopes out of the box, collimates them and runs artificial star tests, and produces printed colour reports on each individual scope (which he includes in the box).

He also fitted a Synta shoe to my scope at no extra cost (Explore Scientific owners will be familiar with the ES shoe having a limited range of accessories that fit it).

I ordered a TS mirror diagonal which he collimated and cleaned of factory dust.

The scope arrived around a week later, and despite ordering the Aluminium Essential version which allegedly comes devoid of accessories, Karl had packed it in the heavy duty aluminium flight case which Explore Scientific Apo users will be familiar with!  It did not have ES branding on it, but it was identical in all but size to my ES ED80 box.  There's a substantial value to that box.

The 127 Apo he sent me produced an excellent star test report, and sure enough the views are razor sharp (sharper even than my perfectly collimated ES ED80, and my feeling is that it's not just the extra aperture that makes the difference) and just generally absolutely stunning. 

Good communication via email.  Well priced when you think that the Apo, collimation, testing, flight case and delivery worked out at the same price as buying the scope alone in the UK (about £1,100), although this is in part due to the weak Euro at the time of writing (Jan 2016).

The reassurance of knowing the scope has been collimated and tested by a specialist once it's entered Europe is great.

This man provides a great service, if you're reading this wondering whether to buy all the way from Karl in Germany, based on my experience, I'd say go for it.