Ordering online from the US

"Laura Halliday" wrote...
I'm not the original Australian poster. If I was, I'd
look for a decent Dob and some good star charts as
a first telescope. BinTel have stacks of them (probably
Synta). I'm sure others do too. Spend the money on the
optics, which are what matter anyway.

I bought my first "real" telescope (a Synta reflector)
locally, here in Vancouver. I now have two main
instruments, an 8" Celestron SCT and a 5" Synta achromat,
both bought locally. The Celestron lives in its (non-
GOTO) fork mount, while I've upgraded the refractor
from the EQ-4 it came with to a G-11. Nice, though
it's not every day you bolt your telescope to something
that looks like it came off the Hummer assembly line... :-)

I Bought the G-11 quasi-locally - Anacortes are less than
2 hours away, depending on the border lineup. I didn't
have to pay any duty at the border bringing it back (most
things from the U.S. are duty-free in to Canada under
NAFTA), but still had to pay a bundle in sales tax.

Mail-order is really handy (I buy lots of things that
way, and have orders from Anacortes and B&H in transit
as I write this), but I wouldn't recommend it for a
first telescope.

Hi Laura,

Thanks (and thanks to all who replied) for the info, I've just been checking
out Bintel's web site. They have some quite attractive prices. Were you
referring to their (Bintel) brand of Dobsonians? Are they most likely
rebadged Syntas? Are the optics ok? This one here looks like a great deal
if the optics are alright:

http://www.bintel.com.au/BT202SE.html

200mm == around 8" I think... assuming it's a clear night with a dark sky I
should be able to see some good stuff with that, no? A shame however that
I'd never be able to fit a camera to it - I can live without the motorised
goto features though... I'm kinda a "set it up, spin it round and let's see
what's up there" kind of person.

Cheers,

{R}

"Laura Halliday" wrote...
I'm not the original Australian poster. If I was, I'd
look for a decent Dob and some good star charts as
a first telescope. BinTel have stacks of them (probably
Synta). I'm sure others do too. Spend the money on the
optics, which are what matter anyway.

Actually, I've found out that they are rebadged "Guan Sheng" brand
dobsonians.

{R}

I've heard their optics are generally quite good, but quality control does
vary on mass produced scopes. Make sure you have a friend who can help
collimate it and evaluate it when you buy! Also see what their
exchange/money back guarantee is if you think the optics are quite what
you're looking for. I think you'll be happy though ...

--

Clear Skies,

Chuck

"{RainmakeR}" wrote in message
...
"Laura Halliday" wrote...
I'm not the original Australian poster. If I was, I'd
look for a decent Dob and some good star charts as
a first telescope. BinTel have stacks of them (probably
Synta). I'm sure others do too. Spend the money on the
optics, which are what matter anyway.

Actually, I've found out that they are rebadged "Guan Sheng" brand
dobsonians.

{R}

Hi,

I also live in Australia - Coffs Harbour.

I'd suggest getting your scope locally, so you can get warranty and service
if needed. Bintel are good, with first rate service. For price, you can't
beat Lee Andrews at Andrews Communications in Greystanes, Sydney. He carries
both Guan Sheng and Synta lines (as well as some Celestron, which are
rebadged and more expensive Synta).

Get the latest Sky and Space magazine. It has ads from all the major
retailers Australia-wide, so there should be a dealer near you. All have
similar prices for the Synta and GS scopes.

I've bought 3 scopes and several ep's from Andrews, at good prices. My GS
12" arrived with a broken secondary mount and the secondary had scratched
the primary mirror - the freight guys did their usual trash job. Lee swapped
it over for a new scope without question. I'd hate to have bought a scope
from the US and had to return it for warranty.

You can save money buying good eyepieces from the US by mail order, though.
There is no import duty, but you do have to pay GST (as you should), and
freight. Enquiries with different dealers showed huge variations in shipping
and insurance. One company quoted $110 US to ship a Paracorr and TV 3-6mm
zoom, and OPT quoted something like $20 US.

Andrews lists Synta Super Plossls. These are identical to Orion Highlight
Plossls, and his ED eyepieces are the same as the Orion ED ep's, and, I
suspect, also the Celestron ED ep's, even though they state slightly
different focal lengths.

My 2 cents - I reckon you are better off with decent aperture and ease of
use for your first scope. Andrews has the GS 8" f6 dob for $499 with 4
alright plossls. Get the Cambridge Star Atlas $50, and you will be able to
see every object listed in the atlas, including more galaxies than you can
throw a stick at, in Leo\Virgo, and several planetary nebulas inside open
clusters (my 2 favourite objects at the moment).

As an aside, I've been at astronomy for just on 2 years. It was really hard
work identifying and trying to find things at first, I had some really
frustrating nights, but one year on, the effort showed as I easily found
most of my targets quickly as the sky came round for the second time. And in
time you learn how to see things and find things through a scope.

I'm glad I didn't spend money on GOTO (which is really really expensive in
Oz). I've seen some of the small GOTO scopes, and they start near $1000, and
will point to thousands of objects you won't see through a small scope.
Still, it will point to them.

My best accessory is my banana lounge. One night each month I don't use the
scope, but lie back with my binoculars and atlas and check out the sky. It
helped me learn the constellations and where the good stuff is located in
the sky, so I can explore more easily with the scope.

I know how you feel about US prices though. You can buy a return air ticket
to the US, buy a C11, stay for a few weeks and troubleshoot, and learn how
to use it, bring it back and pay shipping and GST,for less than the cost of
buying it from York Optical, the Aussie dealer. But you wouldn't get
warranty. I dream of a permanently mounted C14 bought on a US holiday -
sigh. But I won't go bigger than my 12" dob.

Let me know what you do.

Have fun,
Ashley

"{RainmakeR}"
Hi all,

I live in Australia and have wanted to get into amateur astronomy since I
was a kid. I've been looking at possibly getting a Celestron NexStar 130
GT, however the cost difference between buying this scope in Australia as
opposed to via the US is incredible; average Australian price for this
scope
is in the order of 300% more expensive (and similar margins for ALL
telescopes).

I have found the average online price in the States to be around $350 USD
for this scope. However, once you add on shipping via these online
stores,
the cost increases dramatically (anywhere in the range of $150-350 USD for
shipping to Australia). I don't care if it takes weeks as opposed to days
to get here if I can get it here for a good price. Anyone ordered online
from other countries before? Are there any better options?

Kind regards,

{R}

On Mon, 22 Mar 2004 23:28:38 +1100, "Ashley"
wrote:

Hi,

I also live in Australia - Coffs Harbour.

I'd suggest getting your scope locally, so you can get warranty and service
if needed. Bintel are good, with first rate service. For price, you can't
beat Lee Andrews at Andrews Communications in Greystanes, Sydney. He carries
both Guan Sheng and Synta lines (as well as some Celestron, which are
rebadged and more expensive Synta).


I'll second this advice. I bought my 10 inch Guan Sheng f5 dob from
Andrews which comes with 4 plossls of your choice for $899. The
eyepieces are ummmm average, but I figure at the price I'm getting
them for free

This price cant be beat in Australia and is similar to what Americans
pay for the same scope .