Thinking of buying a better telescope for looking at moon's craters and I need suggestions

[erseavetir]

11 hours ago, Louis D said:

Unless you ordered a zoom eyepiece, nothing about that OTA zooms.

You are actually right! On other forum the user Sky Muse suggested me the same thing so I just called them 5 minutes ago to ask them and when the lady opened the phone I told her:

"I couldn't get this monocular to pass the customs and the other lady that answered the phone before told me that anything that has the ability to zoom requires hard to get allowance papers and she also told me that a mount&tripod would be fine as long as I pay the %18 tax but she kinda assumed that a telescope wouldn't be fine when she said 'anything with the ability to zoom' but what if I were to buy a telescope OTA that doesn't have a zoom function?"

then she put me on hold to investigate and ask around and then she came back and said this:

"I've just checked and apparently we only have that policy with only monoculars and that a telescope OTA with or without mount&tripod would not require any allowance papers and that you'd just need to pay the %18 tax on it"

which at that point I was so happy to learn that! Thank you for the heads up on that as well Louis D!

Btw, now it makes more sense to me why I could not find any quality monoculars in Turkey when I was trying to buy a monocular for my father for the father's day.

I guess the question now is that should I order the OTA now so that it arrives around the same time as mount&tripod or should I still play it safe and wait for the mount&tripod. It's a tough one.

I think I will now look into contacting the teleskop-express.de site that I ordered the mount&tripod from and see if I can cancel the mount&tripod and then order both the OTA and the mount&tripod at the same time so that they arrive at the same time and I would just have to pay for the shipment once and that I'd only deal with the customs tax issues just once.

But then the OTA itself is 34$ USD cheaper on the site below than teleskop-express.de so I may as well just end up ordering it from here:
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/maksutov/skywatcher-skymax-127-ota.html

I'll do some thinking and then decide on what to do. Btw, thank you for linking the threads happy-kat

[erseavetir]

I ended up actually buying the OTA from firstlightoptics for 324$ USD:
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/maksutov/skywatcher-skymax-127-ota.html

Because if I were to cancel the mount&tripod I bought on the teleskop-express.de for 304$ USD:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p1753_TS-Optics-Altazimuth-Mount-GSAZ-with-fine-adjustment-and-tripod.html

and bought the mount&tripod again on there AND the OTA as well to ship them together, then everything would've cost me 653$ USD. 

and 324$ + 304$ = 628$ is 25$ better than 653$. Plus, on the firstlightoptics site, the OTA itself without shipment costs only 279$ (vs 342$ on teleskop-express.de and $400 on astroshop.eu for the same OTA) but firstlightoptics asks for $45 for shipment which is why the whole thing comes to 324$ with the shipment (vs 356$ on teleskop-express.de and 448$ on astroshop.eu with shipments included) AND even though firstlightoptics asks for less money overall for the same item, they send the shipment with DHL Express (vs Regular DHL that teleskop-express.de sends with) so now my father should supposedly receive the OTA first and then the mount that teleskop-express.de will send with Regular DHL (not Express).

One other thing is that, I didn't want to deal with the customer service of teleskop-express.de when it comes to trying to cancel the mount&tripod and buying and sending both items at the same time because they didn't even respond to my question of "how long will it take to ship the item to Turkey with regular DHL?" that I asked to them yesterday on email (because their checkout didn't mention any estimations on the shipment) but on the firstlightoptics.com and the astroshop.eu, their customer service both responded to my email questions in just a few minutes so considering the teleskop-express.de with its customer service and because their checkout process was older/broken which felt sketchy, I didn't want to risk shipping two items with them.

Let's hope everything turns out great and my father gets everything in top notch shape. I'll update you guys later on if anything worth mentioning happens.

[cjdawson]

+1 for First Light Optics.  Those guys have become my no.1 stop for looking into anything astro related.

[LukeSkywatcher]

127mm for a MAK is a popular choice. If you wanted to go bigger to 150mm then it would be a Dob. The AZ5 deluxe is a very nice thing. You got the tripod and mount?. It's extremely solid and lovely ALT-AZ controls and the focuser is so smooth. 

[erseavetir]

53 minutes ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

127mm for a MAK is a popular choice. If you wanted to go bigger to 150mm then it would be a Dob. The AZ5 deluxe is a very nice thing. You got the tripod and mount?. It's extremely solid and lovely ALT-AZ controls and the focuser is so smooth. 

I didn't get what you said by "then it would be a Dob", I guess you mean a Dobsonian telescope and that if I do an upgrade again in the future and go with 150mm, you'd suggest me to get a Dobsonian telescope that time?

But yeah, instead of buying the AZ5 deluxe that has 5-kilo load capacity for 312$ USD:
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/index/action/basket/

I bought this one on here with around 9-kilo load capacity for $303 USD:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p1753_TS-Optics-Altazimuth-Mount-GSAZ-with-fine-adjustment-and-tripod.html

and apparently it's already sent for shipment:
https://track.aftership.com/dhl-germany/315916232079?

This specific mount seemed like a better deal for me than the AZ5 deluxe and two people on the other forum also mentioned to me that they own this specific mount&tripod themselves and they said it would serve me well so I bought that one instead. I assume more load-capacity would mean it would be more steady and I assume that would serve my father better when he is really zoomed on the moon and also more load-capacity would mean he could add more accessories on top of his telescope more easily and it would suit us better if we were to upgrade the OTA in the future and get a bigger one.

Though shipping the AZ5 + OTA together from firstlightoptics costs only 594$ USD (and would've been more convenient receiving both items at the same time):
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az5-deluxe/sky-watcher-skymax-127-az5-deluxe.html

but the way I went about it is buying the better mount&tripod from teleskop service for $303 USD:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p1753_TS-Optics-Altazimuth-Mount-GSAZ-with-fine-adjustment-and-tripod.html

and then buying the OTA from firstlightoptics for 324$ USD:
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/maksutov/skywatcher-skymax-127-ota.html

So I may have paid 33$ more at the end but I got a better mount&tripod out of it (at least I assume it's better for the reasons I've mentioned before xD). 

At the time, I didn't know that I could ship the OTA to Turkey which is why I just bought the mount&tripod but knowing what I know now, I still think that I did the right decision by getting a (hopefully) better mount that will serve my father better for years to come.

[Geoff Lister]

On ‎25‎/‎06‎/‎2018 at 18:23, erseavetir said:

I see, thank you for letting me know! One last thing:

So the SupaTrack would have the "left/right/up/down buttons give you similar control to manual movement" but it wouldn't have a feature where once you are locked in the moon, it would follow the moon itself etc? I'd assume by your comment that you'd have to push the buttons to move the telescope while the moon moves which makes me wonder if it would be a good fit when using a webcam eyepiece?

It will track and follow the Moon. This is the manual for the system http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/documents/126.pdf

Geoff

[erseavetir]

7 hours ago, Geoff Lister said:

It will track and follow the Moon. This is the manual for the system http://www.opticalvision.co.uk/documents/126.pdf

Geoff

Thank you for letting me know Geoff Lister! In that case, that might also be just the thing he might need in the future. I'll let him know about the existence of such a mount and then see what he says about it. For now, I am sure he'll really enjoy playing with alt-az as he is already used to an alt-az and he'll find a lot of fun by directing the telescope to wherever he wants on the moon by hand while using his "Celestron 8-24mm Zoom Eyepiece" to zoom which he is a big fan of. Also, this alt-az that I bought would serve as a nice back-up, in case the SupaTrek (or similar mount)  that I may buy in the future croaks. 

The problem with the SupaTrek is that I can't find it sold anywhere by itself, it seems to be "Unavailable" on the firstlightoptics:
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/skywatcher-supatrak-mount-and-tripod.html

and both the teleskop service and the astroshop.eu doesn't even sell it. The only available mount I could find was this AZ Go-To mount:
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/az-goto/sky-watcher-star-discovery-wifi-az-goto-mount-tripod.html

And when it comes to AZ GO-TO mounts, I was told this before by the user Sky Muse on the other forum:

Quote

I'll tell you that the AZ GOTO mount is the outdated predecessor to the SLT go-to mount.  If you're going to get a go-to version, get the SLT, as it's fully-featured. Now, the SupaTrak is a motorised, tracking-only mount, and that may be just the thing for your father.  No, neither the AZ GOTO or the SupaTrak can be operated manually, but if either mount croaks in future, the telescope itself can be easily disconnected and transferred to another mount of your choice, or his choice.  You'll want to make sure you get a 12V adaptor for your father to use, if you choose the SupaTrak, instead of using 8 AA batteries(yucks) to power it.  I had forgotten about the SupaTrak's existence.  I think it may be on its way to being discontinued, but I don't know that for certain.

But I couldn't find any SLT mount that was sold without an OTA that would fit our 127 OTA. I was only able to find this one that is sold individually but this one only has a 3.5 kg load capacity which I assume wouldn't really work with our 3,6 kg OTA:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p1824_Celestron-GoTo-Gabelmontierung-NexStar-SLT---bis-3-5kg.html

Not sure if it's the exact same mount with the same load capacity, but the teleskop service seems to sell that SLT mount with the 127 OTA together so I assume then the mount would be able to operate the OTA if it's, in fact, the same mount with the same load-capacity so I guess I'll shoot them an email and ask them about this to see if it would work nicely with the 127 OTA:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p1824_Celestron-GoTo-Gabelmontierung-NexStar-SLT---bis-3-5kg.html

In the meanwhile, if you guys have any more input on this (whether to go with the SupaTrek or the SLT) or any other good suggestions on another budget mount with moon tracking abilities that would nicely work a webcam eyepiece, I'd love to hear about it because that's another dream of my father:

I even tried to buy a webcam eyepiece for my father before on eBay because one of his other dreams is to be able to view the moon through his laptop and live-stream it to Facebook (and possibly control the telescope with the laptop if such tecknology exists on a budget mount) but the webcam eyepiece I bought from eBay turned out to be a big failure because it didn't work and I believe it was false advertisement that it included "telescope" in the title of it because we believe that it was only meant for microscopes:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Telescope-Microscope-Camera-Electronic-Eyepiece-Astronomical-Telescopio-LensUSB/123101418534

Oh well, I tried. At least, that's what my father told me  In the meanwhile I'll check the webcam thread that happy-kat mentioned me before but if there are any other suggestions on a good budget webcam eyepiece that you know of, then please let me know as well because I'd like to purchase that soon too so that my father can have the maximum amount of fun he can have with this which would be a good distraction for him especially now as one of our really loved relatives recently passed away of old age (who was basically a mother to my father growing up) and my father has been really upset about that which is why I couldn't really talk to him much about the telescope situation but he seemed very hopeful when I mentioned him that his mount&tripod and his telescope/OTA is on the way...

[AndyH]

Your father WILL love this Maksutov and alt/az mount, of that I am 100% sure

The difference in the views between this new scope and his current one will make him smile for days !! Let us all know how things turn out, if you don't mind.

Andy.

 

ps; often remind your brother, no matter how successful in life he becomes, he'll never be the first born son. I do this now and again to my brother when he gets annoying

[erseavetir]

14 minutes ago, AndyH said:

Your father WILL love this Maksutov and alt/az mount, of that I am 100% sure

The difference in the views between this new scope and his current one will make him smile for days !! Let us all know how things turn out, if you don't mind.

Andy.

ps; often remind your brother, no matter how successful in life he becomes, he'll never be the first born son. I do this now and again to my brother when he gets annoying

2

lol my brother is doing OK, and compared to me, my family see him like kinda a failure when it comes to taking care of them and overall intelligence so I don't need to be also reminding him about me being the first-born son to put him even more down but hey, at least he finished his university before me so if he ever gets annoying about that, I may pull out the first-born card xD

Btw, I'll be sure to let you guys know how he'll find the telescope. I already asked my father to get a long ethernet cable so that I could watch him on Skype via his laptop during his first use of the telescope on the balcony and he said he'll do that. Hopefully, we'll both be available around his first use so that I could witness his first reaction and also take screenshots so that I can share it with you guys on here.

[LukeSkywatcher]

20 hours ago, erseavetir said:

I didn't get what you said by "then it would be a Dob", I guess you mean a Dobsonian telescope and that if I do an upgrade again in the future and go with 150mm, you'd suggest me to get a Dobsonian telescope that time?

But yeah, instead of buying the AZ5 deluxe that has 5-kilo load capacity for 312$ USD:
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/index/action/basket/

I bought this one on here with around 9-kilo load capacity for $303 USD:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p1753_TS-Optics-Altazimuth-Mount-GSAZ-with-fine-adjustment-and-tripod.html

and apparently it's already sent for shipment:
https://track.aftership.com/dhl-germany/315916232079?

This specific mount seemed like a better deal for me than the AZ5 deluxe and two people on the other forum also mentioned to me that they own this specific mount&tripod themselves and they said it would serve me well so I bought that one instead. I assume more load-capacity would mean it would be more steady and I assume that would serve my father better when he is really zoomed on the moon and also more load-capacity would mean he could add more accessories on top of his telescope more easily and it would suit us better if we were to upgrade the OTA in the future and get a bigger one.

Though shipping the AZ5 + OTA together from firstlightoptics costs only 594$ USD (and would've been more convenient receiving both items at the same time):
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az5-deluxe/sky-watcher-skymax-127-az5-deluxe.html

but the way I went about it is buying the better mount&tripod from teleskop service for $303 USD:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p1753_TS-Optics-Altazimuth-Mount-GSAZ-with-fine-adjustment-and-tripod.html

and then buying the OTA from firstlightoptics for 324$ USD:
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/maksutov/skywatcher-skymax-127-ota.html

So I may have paid 33$ more at the end but I got a better mount&tripod out of it (at least I assume it's better for the reasons I've mentioned before xD). 

At the time, I didn't know that I could ship the OTA to Turkey which is why I just bought the mount&tripod but knowing what I know now, I still think that I did the right decision by getting a (hopefully) better mount that will serve my father better for years to come.

Yes, Dob means Dobson. The Dob is only the type of mount. The scopes are Newton Ian reflectors. If you ever upgrade from 127, you would not want 150mm. It would be better to go for 200mm or bigger. These size scopes are usually Dobs. Refractors or anything else of this size are expensive. Dobs give lots of aperture for low cost. 

Your dad may never need or want to upgrade. The 127 on an AZ5 mount is a lovely combination. 

Sorry. I just saw that you bought a different mount/tripod. Makes sense if you decide to buy bigger heavier scope in the future. 

[LukeSkywatcher]

I like the scope and mount you got. The tripod I'm unsure of as it has square aluminium legs. I've found this a bit shaky in the past. I prefer round steel legged tripods. I'm far from an expert, so don't take my opinion as worth anything. I do like the L bracket on your mount. That would be great on my AZ5 for using my 20x80 binoculars and even my new scope. Was it included or an optional extra. 

 

[cjdawson]

When the mount, tripod and other stuff arrives.  You do realise that you have to record your fathers reaction when he takes the first look with the new scope.   I'm sure it will be one of those moments that you will want to remember.

[erseavetir]

3 hours ago, LukeSkywatcher said:

I like the scope and mount you got. The tripod I'm unsure of as it has square aluminium legs. I've found this a bit shaky in the past. I prefer round steel legged tripods. I'm far from an expert, so don't take my opinion as worth anything. I do like the L bracket on your mount. That would be great on my AZ5 for using my 20x80 binoculars and even my new scope. Was it included or an optional extra. 

 

I am not sure about the L bracket but when it comes to shaky legs, I was also told this on the other forum by Sky Muse who owns one of these mounts:

Quote

You will undoubtedly be ordering other items for your father's kit over time.  One of the things you may consider in future is a set of anti-vibration pads, one for each leg of the tripod.  It would be particularly beneficial whilst observing at the higher powers, for when the object is magnified so are the bumps, jiggles and shakes.  The tip of each leg is placed on a pad, and for all three.  Tripods with aluminum legs are the most susceptible to vibrations, followed by tubular-steel legs, and perhaps wooden legs exhibiting the least need for such.   Shop around before choosing a set.  The Celestron set is way overpriced for what they are.  You can get the same pads for a third of the cost...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seben-Vibration-Suppression-Dampers-Telescope/dp/B00HUOFD9M

But there's no need to get them now.  Only if your father has an issue with that, and after he has used the mount for a time.  He will most likely have the legs fully retracted, with the mount-head sitting low, and for a seated observing position .. That in and of itself will increase the stability of the views.

2

So, I'll definitely let my father know about the existence of "anti-vibration pads" and if he says that he indeed needs them after using his telescope for a while, then that might be a necessary purchase. Btw, talking about the mount, I do wonder if my father would be able to check out the moon from a sitting position on a chair while using his specific tripod&mount and OTA. I assume that adjusting tripod's legs would make that possible, at least I hope so because I know he'd rather want to sit and enjoy looking at the moon than standing up.

Quote

When the mount, tripod and other stuff arrives. You do realise that you have to record your fathers reaction when he takes the first look with the new scope.  I'm sure it will be one of those moments that you will want to remember.

Yeah, actually that would be cool. If I was in Turkey then I would definitely record his reaction via my phone but I guess before his OTA and mount&tripod ships, I should look into some kind of software that would record my screen while picking up the audio from both mics 

[erseavetir]

 UPDATE WITH THE SHIPMENTS:

So the mount&tripod is on its way as mentioned before, and teleskop service eventually responded to my email and told me that it takes around 4-5 days to ship the item to Turkey (which seems as good as the expensive DHL Express option to me, for just 13 Euro) but I have the tracking link anyway so we'll see when the item arrives:
https://track.aftership.com/dhl-germany/315916232079?

When it comes to the OTA, on the other forum, I was told the information below by my favorite user over there, Sky Muse:

Quote

The refractor that your father has sports a dew-shield of sorts, which extends out a ways and protects the objective-doublet there at the front.  All of my refractors have one, too.  The strong selling point of the Schmidts and Maksutovs is that they're compact, short.  Rarely, if ever, have I seen a dew-shield suggested or recommended for those within their sales listings, and not surprisingly.  But you should definitely get one nonetheless for the new telescope, especially since it's summer, with the humidity day and night, but it is beneficial all year round. You would want the third one down for the 127mm...
https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dew-prevention/astrozap-flexible-dew-shield.html

2

So I've decided to order that one too, to make sure everything is just perfect for my father, considering we have A LOT of humidity in Istanbul, especially during summer at our house as we live a bit near to the sea and Istanbul, in general, is basically surrounded by sea so I felt like this would be a good purchase.

Then I've sent an email to firstlightoptics asking if they could cancel my OTA order and refund it so that I can order the OTA again but with the Dew Shield this time so that I won't have to pay for the additional shipping cost for the dew shield which is 38.5$ (as this site only uses DHL Express for Turkey, not DHL Regular or DHL Economic) on top of the cost of the dew shield which is 31$ . The shipment of the OTA cost me 43$ but to ship them both together they just ask 54$ so I would save 27.5$ that way which would've been cool but even something cooler happened:

The firstlightoptics responded to my email giving me a promo code that allowed me to get a free shipment on the Dew Shield so I didn't have to pay the 38.5$, and the OTA is already on its way:
http://www.dhl.com/cgi-bin/tracking.pl?AWB=8616567105

I'll edit in the tracking link for the Dew Shield tomorrow as I haven't got that one yet (unless they managed to ship them together).

Shoutout to the customer service agent James Mackay from First Light Optics for the excellent customer service! 

[erseavetir]

Quick question:

What do you guys think about this AZ GoTo mount:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p8822_Skywatcher-Star-Discovery-AZ-GoTo-Mount-with-Steel-Tripod.html

vs the Alt-AZ I bought:
https://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p1753_TS-Optics-Altazimuth-Mount-GSAZ-with-fine-adjustment-and-tripod.html

Do you guys think I've done a mistake by buying the Alt-AZ instead of the AZ GoTo since that one has both manual control option (moving it by hand) and it also has moon-tracking feature which would go better with an eyepiece camera that I am thinking of buying?

Maybe I still have enough time to call back the mount I ordered and get a refund on it (not refunding shipment would be OK since teleskop services shipment payment was just 13 Euro) and then I can order this AZ GoTo instead? I know the AZ GoTo has 5-kilo load capacity vs the 9-kilo load capacity with the ALT-AZ but I assume that would still be fine with my 127 OTA with 3,6 kilo.

What I am mainly wondering is that can the AZ GoTo basically turn into ALT-AZ if you just don't use the "batteries, motors, computers" and just move the thing by hand? I mean if my father never puts batteries in it and it acts like an ALT-AZ, as in he can move it by hand up-right-left-down, then how would alt-az differ than this AZ GoTo? Isn't AZ GoTo basically means both an ALT-AZ and a GoTo in practice?

Any suggestions for me? Would the ALT-AZ I bought be still better than this AZ GoTo? I feel like since this AZ GoTo has both ALT-AZ's manual moving ability and moon-tracking ability on top of that, I feel like buying that would be better than buying ALT-AZ and then in the future maybe buying the AZ GoTo but I wouldn't know if that would be the case as a noob so any suggestions would be appreciated.

I've googled "ALT-AZ vs az GoTo" but couldn't find any comparison posts on anywhere on google for some reason :S I won't probably cancel the shipment but at least it could be good to know the difference of these two mounts and pros/cons of them if anybody knows.

[Ruud]

Why does no one come and bring me a Mak?

These are wonderful scopes. They need their time to cool down to night temperature, but then they performs so well.

[Louis D]

19 hours ago, Ruud said:

Why does no one come and bring me a Mak?

These are wonderful scopes. They need their time to cool down to night temperature, but then they performs so well.

I don't know about Europe, but used 127mm Maks turn up on US classified for $200 to $250 all the time.  They are so cheap second hand, they cost less than most of my eyepieces, so I had to buy one to try out. ?

[Louis D]

19 hours ago, erseavetir said:

What I am mainly wondering is that can the AZ GoTo basically turn into ALT-AZ if you just don't use the "batteries, motors, computers" and just move the thing by hand? I mean if my father never puts batteries in it and it acts like an ALT-AZ, as in he can move it by hand up-right-left-down, then how would alt-az differ than this AZ GoTo? Isn't AZ GoTo basically means both an ALT-AZ and a GoTo in practice?

Most mechanical Alt-Az mounts will generally have smoother motions and hold their position better than Alt-Az GoTo mounts in manual mode.  They will also have higher load capacities and less flex leading to faster setting times, dollar for dollar.

[erseavetir]

Can someone help me out on this, I am trying to get my father a moon map book and I am not sure which of these two would work better with my father's 127 SkyMax OTA:

The Mirror-Image Field Map (Sky & Telescope's Mirror-Image Field Map of the Moon):
https://www.bookdepository.com/Sky-Telescopes-Mirror-Image-Field-Map-Moon-Ruki-Antonin/9781931559294

Or the Mirror-Reversed formatted field map (Sky & Telescope Field Map of the Moon):
https://www.bookdepository.com/Sky-Telescope-Field-Map-Moon-Sky-Editors/9781931559225

I am confused about this Mirror-Image vs Mirror-Reversed Image thing, and not sure which one SkyMax 127 OTA will show.

My father is still waiting on the mount btw but the OTA will probably be delivered on early this week.

EDIT: I was shown this quote by Sky Muse:

Quote

"Refractor or Cassegrain telescopes used in combination with a standard 90 degree 'star diagonal' will provide a right-side-up, but backwards (mirror-reversed), image." - Orion of California

and I ended up buying the mirror-reversed one.

[AndyH]

 The first one(green cover) should be best, I think. With the 127mm Maksutov and a mirror diagonal, the view is correct way up, but mirror reversed left to right. So what you see through the eyepiece is the same orientation as seen on the map. This is the very chart that I use for the moon with my Scopes. It's a very good item. Even has markings for where all the Apollo landing sites are ! 

The second field map(wine red cover) is the correct way up and correct left to right image map. ie: What you see with your eyes or binoculars. So not mirror reversed.

There are also various moon books available that go into much, much more detail. 

Andy

[erseavetir]

UPDATE:

The OTA and the Dew Shield finally arrived at his house safe and sound:
http://www.dhl.com/cgi-bin/tracking.pl?AWB=8616567105

The ZWO ASI120 MC Camera also arrived with them:
http://www.dhl.com/cgi-bin/tracking.pl?AWB=8196946251

He had to send a few papers that customs requested from him (photocopy of his ID, proof of payment, the links of the items from the website purchased etc.) and after that, he had to pay the %18 tax on the OTA and the ZWO camera which was around $71 USD but they didn't ask any tax on the Dew Shield, probably because they missed that or assumed it came with the telescope so at least we saved $5.4 USD on that since the Dew Shield cost around $30 USD Btw, while purchasing the ZWO Camera I've tried to use the free shipment promo code that First Light Optics gave me before for the Dew Shield and it somehow worked again so they sent the Camera with the DHL Express (free of charge) again which is why it came so fast. Not sure if the First Light Optics intended for this to happen but shout out to them for saving me a lot of money on the shipment again! I am also so glad that we got the OTA into Turkey for basically $350 USD instead of buying it from Turkey for $700 USD.

Btw, my father has already started to play around with his ZWO camera and he is currently trying to learn how to make the video part work as it's not properly recording a video but the photo part seems to work which is good. We'll probably figure out the video part soon too.

So the last piece of the puzzle we are waiting on right now is the mount basically:
https://track.aftership.com/dhl-germany/315916232079?

It seems to be stuck in the customs of Germany for the last 10 days or so and I've asked the Teleskop Service about this (since they told me before that the shipment to Turkey should take 4-5 days) and they told me this:

Quote

 

Thank you for your email. Shipments outside the EU need some time for the Customs clearance. It should then be forwarded to you. The international tracking number for your parcel is CK053173657DE.

 

 

so we are just patiently waiting on the mount right now but currently, the moon only comes out kinda late so I assume he'll probably need a week or two to start to see some of the moon early on again so hopefully, the mount will arrive around then.

[Louis D]

20 hours ago, erseavetir said:

It seems to be stuck in the customs of Germany for the last 10 days or so and I've asked the Teleskop Service about this (since they told me before that the shipment to Turkey should take 4-5 days) and they told me this:

Quote

 

Thank you for your email. Shipments outside the EU need some time for the Customs clearance. It should then be forwarded to you. The international tracking number for your parcel is CK053173657DE.

 

 

so we are just patiently waiting on the mount right now but currently, the moon only comes out kinda late so I assume he'll probably need a week or two to start to see some of the moon early on again so hopefully, the mount will arrive around then.

Weird.  The only thing astronomy exported related that US customs has issues with is night vision gear, which cannot be exported at all due to security issues.  Why would German/EU customs have issues with exporting a mount?

[erseavetir]

Yeah it's pretty weird. I expected the mount to cause me the least amount of problems but here we are  And when I call DLC, all I hear is the German language that I don't understand but I saw on their site that I can ask for an investigation after 14 business days so I may do that if it doesn't pass through the customs of Germany next week.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Customs shouldnt have an issue with a mount. The only astro related gear ive bought that customs had an issue with, is my Quark solar filter. They didnt know what the hell it was even though they opened it and it says in big letters that its a solar filter. I had to get a customs clearance certificate from an independent source for it before they would pass it on to me. Then i had to pay VAT and import duty, which were not included.

That was annoying. Companies that ship internationally should calculate these taxes and add them to the cost before you click "Buy". Most do, so why cant they all.

[erseavetir]

Yeah, that sounds like a pretty frustrating bad situation. I wish the Teleskop Service also provided DHL Express option to Turkey like First Light Optics does. Maybe then it would've passed the customs fast. Though it's still cool that they offer just 13 Euro shipment payment option but it's just the cheapest DHL shipment option.