There are always two sides to a story, though. All the 1026s were sold
at a discount as-is. Those with scopes they could not work to their
satisfaction were still offered refunds, but they could not be fixed due to
not having proper objectives to replace them with. I've had a problem with
every short-focus Synta achromat I've owned, except for a good 8 year
old orion short-tube 80 I have. Bill simply sold that quality level with
these
scopes, when he expected to sell better. At $150 for the package, it was
not at all out of line with the market price for other branded versions
that
were no better. Some people are happy with theirs, others not. Bill was
not happy with them, so sold them at a discount. This is an old story,
but it has left some deep wounds with some expecting a better product.
To make a long story short, he has been on a long search since for higher
quality products overseas. This scope appears to be on hit on the search.


I am one of those with deep wounds... What really finally sunk the knife in
was not the fact that I had received a substandard scope after waiting nearly a
year, not the fact that no one had taken the time to even look through this
astigmatic disaster even though BO was supposed to be providing great customer
support, not the fact that the replacement objectives were supposed to arrive
last April...

Rather, after waiting 9 months for a scope that was supposed to be delivered in
1 month I finally realized that someone had not told the truth from the outset.
There was "no way in hell" those scopes were ever going to be shipped and
delivered in a month, I had been taken for a SUCKER. The stories of the
scopes stuck in customs, while we anxiously waited....

Regarding some folks being happy with their 102F6 while others are not..

On the Astromart BO forum I have asked that people report the capabilities of
the 102F6 as a doubles scope, specifically the double-double. So far no one
has reported that they could split the double-double, I have had private
reports of difficulty with Castor. The one fellow who really thought his 102F6
was good reported splitting Albireo !!! That same poster had commented that
the 102F6 was far better than the Synta scopes but geeze, my Apogee Inc ST-80
clone splits the double-double.

Yes, this is ancient history to those who don't have a 102F6 sitting in a case
somewhere..

But it seems to me that somewhere there is a message in there. They say if you
don't learn from history, it repeats itself....

Jon Isaacs

PS:

I am visiting my son and his wife and 2 year old in Wisconsin. I had given
them my $99 Apogee Inc ST-80 Clone. Last night it was clear and out it came.
Surprisingly nice scope. With Plossls it provided nice sharp views of the
Pleiades, my son and daughter-in-law were able to split Castor and Gamma
Andromedae, the moon and Saturn were quite impressive.. I gave the
double-double a try, pretty low in the west but I did get it to split.