Anyone recently bought an Orion Optics VX10

[Northernlight]

Not waiting for it to be delivered, waiting for the new design to be completed. Lacerta is designing a new version of their newt from the ground up. I'm pencilled in to be 1st customer to receive  it

Out of interest  what software do you process your image with ?   Can recommend a bit of MureDenoise on the background 😉 

[Mangifigeek]

PI and GIMP. 
Noise reduction is something else to get around too...

 

[ollypenrice]

On 26/10/2019 at 15:37, Nigella Bryant said:

I use a 12inch f4 00uk Newtonian, but I've changed the focuser to a moonlight. It's is the best telescope I've ever had and I've had 8,10 and 12 inch meade scts. You won't be disappointed. 

A pretty cursory search on the internet will find a considerable number of disappointed customers. That's a plain fact. I have nothing to say about whether or not they are right to be disappointed - that's for their readers to decide - but I do know that one of my own customers was threatened with legal action by OOUK regarding anything he posted about them. Perhaps they'll threaten me over this post. They are welcome to try...

Olly

[Northernlight]

yes that is my biggest concern about OO uk, their reputation for customer service leaves a lot to be desired.  This is the reason i'm patiently waiting on the new design lacerta newt. it's a new design built from the ground up.  I couldn't bring myself to buy the the original design no matter how good the reviews were  as it was essentially a heavily modified SW quattro and used the standard SW quattro primary & secondary mirror cells and for over £2000 i just couldn't justify it.

from what i've seen so far or the yet to be unveiled new design, it looks like it's built like a tank and they have taken some neat design ideas from other types of scopes and adapted them to the newt

the think i really like about lacerta newts is that they literally do real star tests with them before they ship as well as tests on the bench and every is hand built, so you know you are getting a good quality item.

 

Edited September 24, 2020 by Northernlight

[Mangifigeek]

MureDenoise  looks useful, thanks

[CraigT82]

13 hours ago, Northernlight said:

Not waiting for it to be delivered, waiting for the new design to be completed. Lacerta is designing a new version of their newt from the ground up. I'm pencilled in to be 1st customer to receive  it

Out of interest  what software do you process your image with ?   Can recommend a bit of MureDenoise on the background 😉 

Are you getting a discount for being a beta tester?

[Pete Presland]

13 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

A pretty cursory search on the internet will find a considerable number of disappointed customers. That's a plain fact. I have nothing to say about whether or not they are right to be disappointed - that's for their readers to decide - but I do know that one of my own customers was threatened with legal action by OOUK regarding anything he posted about them. Perhaps they'll threaten me over this post. They are welcome to try...

Olly

It will be a sad day indeed if anything like that became the norm. Going on the internet and reading all the reviews of products, is so much better than reading the reviews in magazines, which nearly always are positive. That said, the reviews are still only one persons opinion and as you have said Olly, "that is for the reader to decide".  

[ollypenrice]

2 hours ago, Pete Presland said:

It will be a sad day indeed if anything like that became the norm. Going on the internet and reading all the reviews of products, is so much better than reading the reviews in magazines, which nearly always are positive. That said, the reviews are still only one persons opinion and as you have said Olly, "that is for the reader to decide".  

I'll just throw in one caveat here: if other reviewers are anything like me they won't accept for review a product which they think will be a waste of their time. The disruption to the observatory (my reason for not doing reviews any more) is considerable and not rewarding unless the product is decent - so doubtful products don't find reviewers while promising ones do. There's an invisible selection process going on in the background, I think.

Olly

[andrew s]

Reputation is a funny thing. I have had various mirrors and scopes from OO, three of which were specials and all have been excellent. Others have had issues and this dams them.

Takahashi however, judging by threads on here, have had unresolvable issues with some astrographs, and their focuser are often commented on as problematic but their reputation seems unassailable. I have only had two of their scopes.

Funny world.

Regards Andrew

PS opps I have had 3 Takahashi telescopes. Still have one OO and one Takahashi. 

Edited September 25, 2020 by andrew s

[johninderby]

I’ve had three scopes from OO and couldn’t fault them. They were excellent scopes and customer service was first class with changes made to the scopes to suit me. I think they are an old fashioned type of company. Ask them for help and they will help you. Wouldn’t hesitate to buy another scope from them. 👍🏻

BTW one thing that many won’t be aware of is a disgruntled ex OO employee that had been sacked by OO did post a lot of negative things about OO on SGL a few years ago and never revealed that he was an ex employee. 

Edited September 25, 2020 by johninderby

[Grant]

28 minutes ago, johninderby said:

BTW one thing that many won’t be aware of is a disgruntled ex OO employee that had been sacked by OO did post a lot of negative things about OO on SGL a few years ago and never revealed that he was an ex employee. 

That statement questions the integrity of SGL so I must ask, can you please provide proof of this either publicly or privately?

I do not believe stuff has been posted about OO by an ex employee on SGL without our knowledge - if that were true OO would be within their rights to report it to us to have it removed and no such request has ever been made.

I do know of several cases of disgruntled OO customers though.

[andrew s]

1 minute ago, Grant said:

That statement questions the integrity of SGL so I must ask, can you please provide proof of this either publicly or privately?

I do not believe stuff has been posted about OO by an ex employee on SGL without our knowledge - if that were true OO would be within their rights to report it to us to have it removed and no such request has ever been made.

I do know plenty of cases of disgruntled OO customers though.

With respect, can you provide proof of your last statement? How many is plenty? 

Regards Andrew 

[Grant]

2 minutes ago, andrew s said:

With respect, can you provide proof of your last statement? How many is plenty? 

Regards Andrew 

Fair point, plenty is now several.

[johninderby]

That came up in a conversation with OO a few years ago and I agreed not to reveal anything more than that. SGL would have had no way of knowing that they were an ex employee so SGL is not at fault.

I’m not going to say any more on the subject. 

[Grant]

Just now, johninderby said:

That came up in a conversation with OO a few years ago and I agreed not to reveal anything more than that. SGL would have had no way of knowing that they were an ex employee so SGL is not at fault.

I’m not going to say any more on the subject. 

Then without proof, this is fake news - they could say that about every single negative review posted about them online.

[Scott]

33 minutes ago, johninderby said:

That came up in a conversation with OO a few years ago and I agreed not to reveal anything more than that. SGL would have had no way of knowing that they were an ex employee so SGL is not at fault.

I’m not going to say any more on the subject. 

If you are not prepared to provide evidence for your accusations then do you really think it's right to cast aspersion? 

[johninderby]

Now unfollowing thread. 🙂

Edited September 25, 2020 by johninderby

[andrew s]

36 minutes ago, Scott said:

If you are not prepared to provide evidence for your accusations then do you really think it's right to cast aspersion? 

John, is honouring a commitment he made to OO. His accusation is uncorroborated as is Grant's knowing several disgruntled OO customers. This is the case with 99% or  more of the post made on SGL. We either accept what people say or not.

If you belive OO were spinning a yarn to John fine but he reported it honestly in my view as did Grant with his statement.

Regards Andrew 

Edited September 25, 2020 by andrew s

[JeremyS]

1 hour ago, andrew s said:

PS opps I have had 3 Takahashi telescopes.

Funny, how that happens Andrew. One moment I had one and now it seems I have 5

🙂

I have had one OO scope, commissioned and bought from them. It was very good, with first class optics.

 

[Grant]

23 minutes ago, andrew s said:

John, is honouring a commitment he made to OO. His accusation is uncorroborated as is Grant's knowing several disgruntled OO customers. This is the case with 99% or  more of the post made on SGL. We either accept what people say or not.

If you belive OO were spinning a yarn to John fine but he reported it honestly in my view as did Grant with his statement.

Regards Andrew 

The difference Andrew is I directly know several of the people I refer too as they are on the moderation team on SGL so mine is a fact, I do know several people who are disgruntled OO customers. 

John's comment was repeating something told to him by OO which causes me great concern because of the perceived integrity of SGL being brought into disrepute.

If there is evidence of an ex-employee using SGL to spread untrue comments about OO or any company we would want to investigate as we would not want SGL being used in this manner.

[Pete Presland]

3 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

I'll just throw in one caveat here: if other reviewers are anything like me they won't accept for review a product which they think will be a waste of their time. The disruption to the observatory (my reason for not doing reviews any more) is considerable and not rewarding unless the product is decent - so doubtful products don't find reviewers while promising ones do. There's an invisible selection process going on in the background, I think.

Olly

I have always wondered if that was the case Olly, it certainly would not be very rewarding having to use, then criticise a product for a printed magazine.

[andrew s]

33 minutes ago, Grant said:

The difference Andrew is I directly know several of the people I refer too as they are on the moderation team on SGL so mine is a fact, I do know several people who are disgruntled OO customers. 

John's comment was repeating something told to him by OO which causes me great concern because of the perceived integrity of SGL being brought into disrepute.

If there is evidence of an ex-employee using SGL to spread untrue comments about OO or any company we would want to investigate as we would not want SGL being used in this manner.

I accept what you say. Why don't you contact OO and ask them if they would identify the individual so you can take the appropriate action? If they refuse without good reason we can all draw the obvious conclusion

I just what to be clear that John not being willing to break his promise enhances his integrity in my book. He is an innocent party in this.

Regards Andrew 

[Grant]

5 minutes ago, andrew s said:

I accept what you say. Why don't you contact OO and ask them if they would identify the individual so you can take the appropriate action? If they refuse without good reason we can all draw the obvious conclusion

I just what to be clear that John not being willing to break his promise enhances his integrity in my book. He is an innocent party in this.

Regards Andrew 

I have no intention of contacting OO, if they wish to report this ex-employee posting negative things about them on SGL then they can use the 'report' button to report this to the moderation team or email contact@stargazerslounge.com to report it directly to the admin team.

We take such accusations very seriously and would investigate them thoroughly as we have done with anything similar reported to us in the past.

Nobody is questioning John's integrity or innocence just trying to understand if there is some truth in this accusation which needs to be dealt with. As it stands, there is no evidence, no official complaint and the first I've ever heard of a potential issue is John's comment on here which, had it been left unchallenged would've left a long-term damaging question mark over any negative comments on SGL about OO whether they could be believed or not.

[andrew s]

1 hour ago, Grant said:

I have no intention of contacting OO, if they wish to report this ex-employee posting negative things about them on SGL then they can use the 'report' button to report this to the moderation team or email contact@stargazerslounge.com to report it directly to the admin team.

We take such accusations very seriously and would investigate them thoroughly as we have done with anything similar reported to us in the past.

Nobody is questioning John's integrity or innocence just trying to understand if there is some truth in this accusation which needs to be dealt with. As it stands, there is no evidence, no official complaint and the first I've ever heard of a potential issue is John's comment on here which, had it been left unchallenged would've left a long-term damaging question mark over any negative comments on SGL about OO whether they could be believed or not.

Amen Regards Andrew

[gilesco]

Have we reached critical mass with this topic? Don't think that further replies are going to add to the OPs intention.