FLO at Astrofest 2023

[FLO]

2 hours ago, doublevodka said:

... the other products like Stellalyra have been very well received 👍

Thank you 🙂 

StellaLyra required a significant investment, so we are especially pleased it was so well received. 

Currently, FLO brands are: 

StellaLyra - Mostly Dobsonians, Newtonians, Ritchey-Chrétien & Classical Cassegrains. 
Ursa Major - Affordable telescopes. Mostly Dobsonians. 
StellaMira - Refractors. Specifically ED doublets and triplets. 
Lynx Astro - Electrical/electronic. I.e. cables, heater tapes & controllers. 
Astro Essentials - No-nonsense, affordable accessories, like filters and adapters. 

HTH

[doublevodka]

2 hours ago, FLO said:

Both mounts are almost ready. 

It is surprising how long it takes to bring a new product to market. Not so much the Alt-Az mount, which has been available in one form or another for a long time. When the Alt-Az mounts arrived at our warehouse we didn't like the counterweight knobs, so we are sourcing others. When they arrive, it will be good to go.

The binocular parallelogram mount is an all-new product, designed entirely in-house, so has been in development for some time. We sent a near-finished prototype to Steve Tonkin at BinocularSky. Steve has a lot of experience with this mount type and is probably the UK's best-known binocular astronomer. He made some suggestions that have since been incorporated into the design. We want to send him the latest version. If all is good, then that too will be ready for launch.

Thank you for asking 🙂 

Steve

Great to see a lot of care and attention going into the products, the big-name brands could learn a lot from that! I'm sure Steve has given some great suggestions too, I often point people in the direction of his site as it's great for bino info 👍

[doublevodka]

1 hour ago, FLO said:

Thank you 🙂 

StellaLyra required a significant investment, so we are especially pleased it was so well received. 

Currently, FLO brands are: 

StellaLyra - Mostly Dobsonians, Newtonians, Ritchey-Chrétien & Classical Cassegrains. 
Ursa Major - Affordable telescopes. Mostly Dobsonians. 
StellaMira - Refractors. Specifically ED doublets and triplets. 
Lynx Astro - Electrical/electronic. I.e. cables, heater tapes & controllers. 
Astro Essentials - No-nonsense, affordable accessories, like filters and adapters. 

HTH

I didn't realise they were all FLO brands! StellaLyra, Ursa Major and StellaMira I was aware of, but not the other two, you guys have clearly been very busy! As a minor bit of feedback, maybe worth adding something to show it's an FLO brand? StellaLyra by FLO for example or a FLO subsection under the brands on the website? May drive a bit more traffic that way if people are more aware it's an in house brand, just a thought...

To be fair, every review of the StellaLyra dobs I've read has been really positive, I'd say certainly within the walls of this forum at the very least they are the preferred option now above all the usual suspects. Great to see a UK company taking the initiative and doing things properly 👍

[FLO]

19 hours ago, doublevodka said:

I didn't realise they were all FLO brands! StellaLyra, Ursa Major and StellaMira I was aware of, but not the other two, you guys have clearly been very busy! 

We thought putting our name on the side might be a little ostentatious 🙂 

We don't pretend to be optical designers or telescope manufacturers. Whenever we reveal a new StellaLyra or StellaMira telescope or eyepiece, we say where it is manufactured (mostly Long Perng, Guan Sheng Optical or United Optics). We give credit where credit is due. 

19 hours ago, doublevodka said:

As a minor bit of feedback, maybe worth adding something to show it's an FLO brand? StellaLyra by FLO for example or a FLO subsection under the brands on the website? 

Thank you for the suggestion. Our website will likely be updated/refreshed this year. Mostly because our accessories category has grown so much. In the adapters section alone, there are now over 400 items! It is sometimes difficult to find what you need. 

Steve 

[Mr Spock]

4 minutes ago, FLO said:

In the adapters section alone, there are now over 400 items! It is sometimes difficult to find what you need. 

That would be appreciated. I was searching through there to find a Baader adaptor and couldn't see it anywhere. However, it did come up when I did a search - so it's in there somewhere!

[doublevodka]

7 minutes ago, FLO said:

We thought putting our name on the side might be a little ostentatious 🙂 

We don't pretend to be optical designers or telescope manufacturers. Whenever we reveal a new StellaLyra or StellaMira telescope or eyepiece, we say where it is manufactured (mostly Long Perng, Guan Sheng Optical or United Optics). We give credit where credit is due. 

Thank you for the suggestion. Our website will likely be updated/refreshed this year. Mostly because our accessories category has grown so much. In the adapters section alone, there are now over 400 items! It is sometimes difficult to find what you need. 

Steve 

I wouldn't see it as ostentatious, many "manufacturers" products are rebrands from exactly the same suppliers, Long Perng, Guan Sheng Optical or United Optics are indirectly responsible for a huge amount of the kit out of there. However you guys are taking the time to spec it correctly, make sure the finish is up to your standards etc, so there should be something to show that in my mind even if it's not "by FLO", could be something like "StellaLyra - A FLO Brand" etc, you deserve the credit for the work that goes in the background and I'm sure others would agree.

The site is better than most, but I would agree that the user experience could be improved somewhat as some of the categories like adapters have gotten rather large, some basic tree navigation would sort that out fairly easily though 👍

Also, can we have "Telescopes by Type", similar to the mounts and binoculars categories whilst on the website subject? 

 

[FLO]

7 minutes ago, doublevodka said:

Also, can we have "Telescopes by Type", similar to the mounts and binoculars categories whilst on the website subject? 

I am sure that can be arranged. In a recent discussion, one of my colleagues suggested the same.

The StellaLyra category would also benefit from being divided into telescope types. 

It is on the to-do list 🙂 

[tomato]

I have a high regard for the Astro Essentials brand, every item I have purchased has been great value for money. I’m not surprised that FLO is behind it.

[cajen2]

Agree with all of the above. StellaLyra scopes and most of their EPs are superb in both quality and value.

[FLO]

On 03/02/2023 at 10:35, FLO said:

The tripods are new. The Alt-Az mounts are also new, kinda. (We now source both direct from the factory).

Neither are on our website, but they soon will be.

 

On 03/02/2023 at 13:13, FLO said:

The tripod and mount are only two from a long list of new products waiting to be photographed and added to our website. Only so many hours in a day ☕🙂☕

Both are now on our website and available to buy. 

StellaLyra Dual Alt-Azimuth Mount

StellaLyra Wooden Tripod with M10 Adapter

They go together very nicely 🙂 

We'll post a separate intro for both in the Sponsor board. 

Steve