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The Skywatcher Evostar ED150 DS Pro Is Here !


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I'm not commenting on Wales - I live just across the river from there and many of them are larger and hairier than I am ! :shocked:

Plus, they might stop selling me this lovely stuff:

 

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I fear for this thread now, the scope is on hold, the weather has turned cloudy, and the mob grows restless.... but if you cant beat 'em....

7 minutes ago, paulastro said:

Don't know about the people you mention, but in some parts of Wales I believe they speak Welsh all the time,

Even when they are asleep? ;)

Half of my wife is Welsh,  but it is ok because the other half is Scottish. Imagine Catherine Zeta Jones making deep fried mars bars and you pretty much get the idea :)

 

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Anyway, here is the sun warning in Welsh:

Nid yw Perygl yn edrych ar yr haul gyda telesgop hwn

All part of the service :smiley: :icon_salut:

Note: I might have to mod myself because English is the accepted language of the forum.

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1 minute ago, Tim said:

I fear for this thread now, the scope is on hold, the weather has turned cloudy, and the mob grows restless.... but if you cant beat 'em....

Even when they are asleep? ;)

Half of my wife is Welsh,  but it is ok because the other half is Scottish. Imagine Catherine Zeta Jones making deep fried mars bars and you pretty much get the idea :)

 

I'm Scottish and have never seen nor tasted a deep fried Mars bar in my life. I did meet Welsh twins once, but that's for a different forum ?

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2 minutes ago, FLO said:

John, when the next Evo150ED arrives, I think you’ll need to start another thread! ?

Steve 

Yes indeed, I do think that would be a good idea.

Before this one runs out of steam though, I'd just like to thank all who have contributed to it. I know that not all the points raised have been addressed but I wanted it to be interactive and it's certainly been that :smiley:

 

 

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11 minutes ago, John said:

Nid yw Perygl yn edrych ar yr haul gyda telesgop hwn

I hope it wouldn't say that. It's basically telling you that it isn't dangerous to look at the sun with that telescope. The dangers of Google translate I suspect.

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6 minutes ago, David Levi said:

I hope it wouldn't say that. It's basically telling you that it isn't dangerous to look at the sun with that telescope. The dangers of Google translate I suspect.

Thanks for the important correction - it was not google translate but another one. To be fair the following disclaimer was also shown next to the translation:

Use this translation service for colloquial translations. Avoid using it for important document translations, like business translations, medical translations, technical translations or website translations. In this case, you must contact a reliable translation company.

Lesson learned.

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6 minutes ago, CHASLX200 said:

Maybe shipping bumps these scope out of whack.  That was the case with my Meade 7" ED.

They had a rubber buffer ring between the metal retaining ring and the lens. Tightening the metal ring made the rubber turn, and the rubber made the lens turn, ruining rotation. The solution was to replace the rubber ring with one that doesn't grip.

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I know this thread seems to have run it's course now, but I'd like to join those who have expressed their thanks to John and FLO for the way in which they have genuinely tried their best to bring to SGL members a detailed, honest and impartial review of what was (is?) potentially a groundbreaking new big refractor.

The amount of interest this has generated has been  phenomenal, such is the desire of many to see such a scope come to the market at an "unbelievable" price. 

Well, it now seems that the price has been made "unbelievable" by the all too familiar shortcuts in quality that beset so much (though not all) Chinese production.

I  think we could all sense John's real disappointment and the faults he discovered with both scopes: imagine how much more disappointed a customer who had shelled out £1600 for one of these would have felt? (of course, I know that FLO would, in such a case, have ensured full protection for their customer?).

It is not the fault of John and FLO that Skywatcher and OVL have failed so abjectly to grasp one of the best marketing opportunities in the Astro world in recent years.

I, like many others, sincerely hope that both the manufacturer and the importer will learn from this failure and turn it around very quickly. 

Good quality control is not rocket science. You find what works well for both maker and customer and keep doing it, consistently, to the exclusion of all else. And you NEVER knowingly release a new product without testing it thoroughly, NOT using your customers as your quality control guinea pigs!

I spent 10 years in sales & marketing in the 1990s with Procter & Gamble, one of the world's largest manufacturers, with brands including Pampers, Olay, Pringles, Gillette, Bold, Daz, Ariel, Fairy etc, etc. Their golden rule was that NO new product was ever launched until every department from raw materials procurement to manufacturing, R&D, Advertising, Legal, Sales & Marketing, Quality Control (the days of Total Quality Management) and all aspects of the supply chain had been signed off by a senior manager as being "fully fit for intended purpose" and thus ready for launch. Jobs were on the line if someone knowingly signed off a new product they knew (or believed to be)  unfit for sale.

So, Synta aren't a P&G, I know that, but the principles of good business practice are universal. It can take years to build a brand's reputation and consumer trust, but literally hours to destroy it.

What is so frustrating is that Skywatcher have come in at a retail price for the ED150 that is several hundred pounds below what everyone expected (around or just under the £2k mark), and for a fraction of that cost they could have certainly embedded a good QC regime and very likely other worthwhile  improvements as well, including fit for purpose packaging.

John, and Steve (and everyone else at FLO)..Thank you for your efforts, they are much appreciated. Please don't let this put you off future testing when you are sent a sample that has been properly checked and tested before it leaves the factory, in packaging that can be relied upon to get it to its end user safely (Synta, you copied companies like Vixen in products now copy their packaging too!).

I look forward to reading a new thread with a much more positive outcome in due course..

Dave

Edited by F15Rules
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I have a more positive view. Sky-Watcher have produced another game-changer ED doublet that will undoubtedly set a new benchmark, at it's price. I have no doubt. But it does need better packaging. 

For John's review here at SGL we felt it important he receive an unopened off-the-shelf model, but we hadn't anticipate the packaging situation. We are going to send him another but this time we will open it then add additional packaging. We will also look to source some larger boxes so Evostar 150ED Pro's dispatched from FLO will be double-boxed with air-fill material in-between. We will also add the Es' Reid optical test option to our Evostar 150ED Pro web page. It will increase the price a little (probably the usual £75) but will provide peace of mind. 

Whilst John's review is probably the most anticipated, at least here in the UK, there are now others. I.e. here at SGL Chris (Owmuchonomy) has posted a report on his Evostar 150ED. 

HTH, 

Steve 

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17 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

It would depend on whether or not the user manual says that the collimation is user adjustable. But a newt and the manual explains how to collimate it, what does the Ed150 manual say?

There are plenty of things you can adjust on a new car, but I suspect that while adjusting tyre pressure is OK, fiddling with cam belt tension could invalidate the warranty...

In  the case of ES triplet refractors it specifically states in the manual 'Never take the objective out of its socket and do not modify its adjustment screws, as it is not possible to reinstall in an accurate manner without specialist knowledge'.

This in effect means that it is a profesional job if the inner lens element ever requires cleaning, which it probably will after several years.

John

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32 minutes ago, FLO said:

I have a more positive view. Sky-Watcher have produced another game-changer ED doublet that will undoubtedly set a new benchmark, at it's price. I have no doubt. But it does need better packaging. 

I do think this will prove to be true in the long term, Steve, but the quality control problem with the second scope was nothing to do with packaging and needs to be addressed at source, not by retailers or customers. That scope should never have left the factory in that condition and if more turn up with the same or similar problems the reputation of this game-changing scope could be irreparably damaged. 

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10 minutes ago, DRT said:

I do think this will prove to be true in the long term, Steve, but the quality control problem with the second scope was nothing to do with packaging and needs to be addressed at source, not by retailers or customers. That scope should never have left the factory in that condition and if more turn up with the same or similar problems the reputation of this game-changing scope could be irreparably damaged.   This was likely s poorly assembled scope, if tooling was to blame the first scope may well have had same problem

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5 minutes ago, DRT said:

I do think this will prove to be true in the long term...(but)..That scope should never have left the factory in that condition

Absolutely right. This is not a cheap £75 patio set, it's supposed to be a precision instrument, and we know the tube and mechanics are not where the bulk of the £1600 went...It's supposed to be into the optics. 

Let's say the optics set is very good and can deliver great views when set up correctly...that just makes it all the more unfathomable that Synta would not have in place a robust, auditable QC process to properly check that it has been installed and aligned correctly??:glasses12::icon_scratch:

Dave

 

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Quote

This was likely s poorly assembled scope, if tooling was to blame the first scope may well have had same problem

Does it really matter which of those things caused the problem, Jules?

Either of those things should have been caught and fixed by the QA process.

 

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