Finally visited the local astroshop

[bombassa]

I finally decided to visit the local astro shop yesterday.

When I entered a voice said 'Can I help you?'. I turned around and two middleaged women sat behind their desks - but none of them were looking at me.

Then a man came from the back room and explained that I should visit their website instead because they didn't have so much on display in the showroom - despite the fact that several telescopes were on display. For some reason it seemed like they didn't really want me in their shop.

So I left and guess I will keep spending my money in the german shops instead.

What a strange experience.

[ollypenrice]

A curious experience. Where are you?

Olly

[Parus major]

Maybe he didn't and was going to get lucky....

[Horus]

I was wondering that ?..............here up North there arn't many shops selling telescopes and the one that is only has a brochure. For some reason most of the shops are Down South for some reason ?

I do like to go into a shop , talk to someone , feel the merchandise and ask advice. On such an important puchase for a begginer buying over the net is risky from the point of probabaly end up buying the wrong equipment.

I really can see why there are so many posts for " Equipment advice" ( me included ) on this forum.

My original dilemma came when I had no clue what to buy , got advice from here and more or less decided what to buy when... i was offered an scope and mount for the price of my original budget. This turned out to be a bad choice as the mount was damaged and needed attention which meant spending more money ontop.

However it all ended well when a forum member took it of my hands otherwise I would have been stuck with someting I could not use.

[JamesM]

One alternative to this dilemma is to find your local astro society/observing club (plenty up north) and attend one their public outreach evenings where you can take a look through some of their gear. Websites, shops and even forums cannot compensate the benefits from actually looking through and is something that I always recommend to people. Also gives you the opportunity to get up close because some of this kit is small or light (if you need to move it around or visit a dark site) and most important of all, you can talk to the person who already has the scope and who can tell you about it's advantages and more importantly any difficulties such as cooling down times, collimation etc.

Clear skies

James

[ronin]

Bombassa's profile say Denmark, and as they state "local" I assume that the shop is in Denmark.

Most shops will be in the south simply owing to population density. Astronomy is a minority hobby so for a shop to have sufficent turnover there will have to be a high number of people within say a 30 mile catchment.

FLO are good but many still like to see things so a 200+ mile drive each way isn't really practical.

Suppose the internet means that a person could a easily order from Germany as from a shop 50 miles away.

[perrin6]

You should've got them annoyed by asking them for an astrological chart !

[bombassa]

Yes the community up here is rather small so chances of seeing much of the gear 'in the flesh' (or plastic) are limited.

I think the shop mainly sells through the internet so perhaps they were just surprised to see a real customer.

I was just disappointed I think.