Astro Optical has ceased trading.

[Tropo-Bob]

ASTRO OPTICAL SUPPLIES HAVE CEASED TRADING

We thank all our customers for their continued support over the last 50 years.


The above is from their website.

This was sad news to me. I purchase my first real scope from them and have brought other various items over the years. Silly me thought that they would be there forever!

[AstralTraveller]

Sad news. I built my first scope (10" f/8 newt) from parts I bought from them. Still, their profile has been pretty low for a while and competition has increased recently. I hope the owners got out with enough for their efforts over the years - and the workers get jobs in other stores!

[leon]

Yes and I too bought my first 8" mirror from then many Moons ago.

Leon

[brian nordstrom]

:sadeyes: Ain't internet trading a great thing ? , sad news this .

I to got my first real quality bit of astro kit from them in about 1980 ? , a 1 1/4 inch red ringed Celestron 25mm Plossl , the precursers to the sweet ' Silver tops ' .
Still have that eyepiece in storage in NZ .
Brian.

[Exfso]

After my dealings with their so called techs, I am not surprised. They were supposed to be able to service Tak refractors according to the Aust distributor. That advice cost me a lot of money.:mad2:

[brian nordstrom]

:shrug: Hmmm , if my Tak needed a service it would not go to any one but Takahashi Japan , your bad old mate ;) , sorry .
Brian.

[Exfso]

Yeah, unfortunately, It was stated to me by Claude that this guy was qualified to do Tak repairs, in the end it was left to Takahashi to fix the mess they made, in effect rebuild/repair damaged areas they had caused trying to re-collimate the telescope. You would not believe what the Tak rep said once he saw what they had done. Once I read his report, I was devastated, and immediately informed Claude that these guys were butchers and should not be allowed near any Takahashi telescopes.
At least I got back a virtually brand new TOA130 but sure as hell hit me in the hip pocket.

[astronut]

I bought my Unitron 2.4" refractor from them in 1969, when they were still Amateur astronomy supply company. :(

[PeterM]

Well that's one more Astro shop gone that online purchasers can touchy feely the gear before shopping the internet.
This is very sad to read, I remember when I was 14 my brother and I would travel by rain to stand outside the Clarkes St? window and dream of owning a 4inch Unitron.

[Larryp]

It was a good business when Monty owned it.
In more recent times, I have phoned with questions and the person I spoke to could not answer me. After offering to call me back, no return call, so I didn't bother with them any more.

[LewisM]

Same here Laurie. Back in the 1980's it was GREAT.

The more recent owners killed it. The website was nearly impossible to use for a start, any queries by email had very vague answers, let alone any sort of price ("between $XXXX and $XXXXX" was nearly always the answer, like their entire business depended on the currency market with no at-hand stock!). Anyone I ever spoke to on the phone was really not helpful at all - again, vague is a good description.

Myastroshop.com.au really killed their Vixen sales I believe too (when I did get a price on an R200SS, they were $400 MORE than Steve Massey, so no business for them!)

[UniPol]

Like John, I bought my first Unitron 4" back in 1969 from Eric Witcombe when it was then known as The Amateur Astronomers Supply Co. which it truly was. It is hard to describe the feeling one had entering the little shop at 11a-11b Clarke St in Crows Nest all those years ago, a certain smell and the great display of brand new Unitrons, Newtonians and an assortment of Royal's, books, weather stations and other astronomical accessories. Monte Ash bought the business and changed the name to Astro Optical Supplies perhaps in the late seventies or the early 1980's (I can't quite recall) and carried on the tradition Eric set by having lots of spare parts and accessories for the Unitrons and home built Newtonians. I can't recall when Monte sold out but things changed in the amateur astro world when SCT's became the fashion and Unitrons priced themselves out of the market around the mid 1980's onwards. Of course there was competition in the late 1980's and particularly the 1990's from York Optical and Bintel. It was a bit of a merry go round in those days; Bintel sold Celestron's, Astro Optical sold Meade's, York sold anything, Meade sold Meade's, Bintel went to Meade's, Astro Optical went Celestron's then back to Meade, all very confusing. Please forgive me if my dates, brands and who sold what aren't quite right, my memory is fading somewhat but not a real bother.

Apparently, and only heresay, is that a lot of optical and mirror making gear was literally thrown out after Monte sold the business or at least over the years. I also heard that a lot of brand new Polarex/Unitron parts and accessories were also thrown away because the people running the business didn't know what they were or belonged to. I managed to score a Unitron Super Unihex, a couple of synchronous electric drives and other sacred parts just by chance some years ago when Astro Optical had a clean out (one of many as I believe they must have had a few sheds around the back lanes of Crows Nest full of stuff). Again, not substantiated but one hears quite a few stories over the years. In the case of the Super Unihex, the salesman said that they kept it because it looked too good to throw out and that's a fact. I paid the original price marked on the box which was from the the late 1960's and still wasn't that cheap !

My memories will mostly be with "The Amateur Astronomy Supply Co." instead of the last incarnation of "Astro Optical" mainly because of the sameness of products sold by the current crop of astro vendors.

[PeterM]

Steve that's a great read! Almost forgot Meade sold directly into Oz and can now recall the ad they placed to customers explaining their reasons why and the dedicated line Meade had for Aussie customers.
I hope we retain some astro shops but even great service alone wont get you there either. I think a combination of online, shopfront and great service will be a big help. I cant understand why shops don't make use of pan and tilt cameras that would allow online customers to virtually be in the shop for certain hours allowing them to see what's in the cabinets on the floor. Anyways its still a sad loss to our small community.

[g__day]

Think I still had a credit from the store after I bought my first six inch reflector their!

[uwahl]

Back in the days of the Amateur Astronomy Supply Company (mid 60's) I bought a six inch mirror kit and together with friends from my high school astronomy club we made a six inch Newtonian reflector and had a story and photograph published in the Newcastle Morning Herald. My dream scope was a 5 or 6 inch (it was bigger than their 4 inch but I can't recall by how much) Unitron refractor I spied in a catalogue at 11a Clarke Street. By today's standards it had a very,very long tube and was mounted on a very tall, square, solid looking mount.

[Ric]

Sad to see them close up.

I got my first large scope from them in 1976, a Celestron C8 Orange tube. I've still got to this day, a wonderful scope.

Mind you I have to agree with Lewis, their website definitely wouldn't rank up in the easy to use list that's for sure.

[Satchmo]

Yep very sad news . The shop I remember fondly though was Amateur Astronomers Supply Co when Eric Whitcombe ran it. Like others I use to haunt it a bit before I could afford to buy anything much . One came in the front door and walked past a long row of Unitron scopes on the left which ended in a massive 4" equatorial at the front counter . I well remember buying my first mirror grinding kit in 1973 with a mass of copper and silver coins from my money saving tin. There was always the smell of pitch abrasives and polishing compound wafting from the back where mirrors were being ground and the smell of hammertone enamel on the telescope tubes. The popularity of Celestrons probably started to be the death nell of the equatorial mounted newtonians. I bought an Orange C8 myself there in 1979 with the proceeds of my first summer job.I can remember the black tube C8's when sold on the Celestron branded Super Polaris mount was an affordable package , and the Vixen Flourite refractors with their much shorter tubes pretty much killed Unitron within a few short years- the hsop never felt the same without that row of classic Unitron refractors !

It was rebadged Astro Optical in later seventies as part of a spruce up prior to putting it on the market . It was sold to Monte Ash in 1978 if I remember correctly . In the mid eighties it moved to Huime st just around the corner. To Monte's credit he kept the local manufacture of Newtonians going and improved the Samson mount as time went on. . I worked there mysolf from 1985 to 1988. We also sold a Dobsonian kit for 8 and 10" newts which was quite successful selling over 100 in my last year . This cut many hundreds of dollars off ownership of a newtonian. From memory a 10" tube assembly in 1988 was around $1600 with Dobsonian mount- not cheap but consider that all you could get wasa 6" Vixen on super polaris mount in those days for similar money.

The current owner killed the manufacturing side when he bought the business in 1993 and the shop became another cardboard box pedler and the shop was no longer a haven for budding amateur astronomers who were budding telescope makers . How it survived another 22 years is beyond me -though I guess you have to credit the owner for that - there mustalso have been some goodwill in the name of the shop and being in Crows Nest all those years . I 'm sure the beginning of the end was when the shop moved to an industrial estate in Artarmon relying more on web sales.

I still have a little momento from that very early history - a Dall Null testor used by Eric Whitcombe to test the mirrors in the mid - sixties before they moved to using a collimated light source as used by Celestron . It may well have been rifled for bits though !

[stevous67]

Hmmmm, a lot of nostalgia, yet, businesses close through being unable to compete. For me, it's a novelty to have a local astro store to visit, but really, few stores can hold something to everyone's liking or needs. To me, online shopping is a revolution, an ability to find exactly what I want for my needs. I in fact prefer it, and find it most convenient. Ordering online with safe and simple payment methods, with the goods normally arriving within a week or so, either to my home or to my local post office if I am not home.

I like it this way the best.

Steve

[rustigsmed]

agree with Lewis the website wasn't up to scratch which turned me elsewhere when searching for items.
I did buy some of my earliest gear there back in the 90s.

[dylan_odonnell]

I'm pretty sure this is where my first childhood telescope from the 1970s was purchased. I actually just took it out and brushed off the optics and did a super quick digiscope of the moon just for kicks!

"Astroimaging the Moon With a 1970s Childrens Telescope using 2015 Technology"
http://deography.com/astroimaging-the-moon-with-a-1970s-childrens-telescope-using-2015-technology/

It's a little AMASCO refractor :)

End of an era.

[Earl]

Bought an 8" mirror grinding kit there when I was a little fella.

Used to travel to Crows Nest to stare in the window at the Celestrons.

Very sad news.

Cheers,

- Earl

[va1erian]

Few Days ago, I received the Australian Sky and Telescope issue #53. It still mentioned the Astro Optical Supplies as the dealer in the Orion two-page advertisement.

[Chris85]

I'd image they have a year long advertising contract, or some similar type of arrangement?

[mr bruess]

Yes very sad news

[MarshMan]

I also purchased my first scope as a teenager. Well my parents bought it, but it was in about 1989. It was a 5" Vixen Newtonian, on a GE mount. Had a slide focuser, which was pretty unusual. That was from the Melbourne store when they were in the Bourke Street, in a little mall. 200 Bourke Street I think from memory. Some others may remember the shop. Used to love going there and just looking, and I still have a picture in my head of the shop.

A bit sad, and has brought back some memories.

[Neil]

Very sad indeed, have visited both stores many times over the years, I wish all involved all the best for the future and thank them for there past service and advice, clear skies.:(

[gaa_ian]

It is sad news indeed to see such a long establish business shut down. I read with interest all your comments and will take this on board. For my part, I started my astronomy business online in 2007 and now have a store in cairns only opened on the 1st of December. The online part of my business is important although not such a cheap option as many might imagine (google costs big $ if you are prepared to spend it)
I still have my greatest success by talking to people finding out there needs, demonstrating products to them and providing good after sales service. It is a shame that so little is made in Australia today including in Amateur Astronomy, except at the very highest end of custom built.

[stephenb]

G'day Marshman, I hope you're doing okay up there mate! :thumbsup:

Astro Optical Supplies - Mid-City Arcade, 200 Bourke Street, Melbourne.

Keith Bambury from the ASV worked/managed the store and I received my first scope in 1983 for a XMas present - a 60mm Amasco refractor, along with my first 6" blank and grinding/polishing supplies.

[MarshMan]

Is that you SJB?

[coonagazer]

The first I knew of Astro Optical Supplies, though it was then The Amateur Astronomers Supply Company, was in 1969 when I met him at an Astronomical Society of NSW meeting. I had just joined the Society,and am still a member. We became friends and I use to go to the shop after work on Thursday nights.and we would talk telescopes. My first serious telescope was the one I assembled from the components from Eric's shop. It was a 8 inch Newtonian on an equatorial mount. I built a variable frequency 240 volt AC power supply for tracking and guiding it for photography.
In early 1973 I was at the shop when Eric said this looks interesting but too expensive, and handed me a brochure for the Celestron 8 inch SCT. The next time I visited the shop, I said Eric, get me one, so he did. I believe it was the first one sold in Sydney and possibly in Australia. I still have it but I removed the forked mount and mount it a German equatorial mount.

[The Mekon]

Where have you been all these years Kevin? I am sure you must much to contribute to this forum so welcome.
I can recall AASC when it was at Willoughby, before the move to Clarke St. So long ago now.

As a member of ASNSW do you attend the star parties at Ilford? I can recommend attending if you need to spark up your interest.

John

[Barnacle]

Hi All,

I also remember fondly Astro Optical in Melbourne as a child of the 1980s.

It was at Mid-city arcade, 200 Bourke St when I first “discovered” Astro Optical. As a child, I simply couldn’t afford a telescope, so it was always a real big treat for me when I go into the city just to see their telescopes from the window display. Comet Halley craze in 1986 was also a real delight for me seeing Myer devoting a big section of their store at Level 4 or 5 selling those mainly red/white tube Tasco telescopes (at least red tube on Tasco’s packaging box), and even Coles was selling 50mm Tasco red tube refractors. Dick Smith also belt out a 40mm dull brown red tube refractor telescope to cope with/cash in the Halley fever. The icing on the cake for a refractor then for me was the 80mm equatorial Tasco on display at the shop front at Michael’s camera store (corner of Lonsdale and Elizabeth St selling close to $900 from memory).

I still remember Astro Optical hanged a small 6 or 8 inch tin Moon map globe on their shop window at 200 Bourke, eventually they had to stick a sign saying “not for sale” as they obviously had so many people asking about it!

Back then, Astro Optical were big in selling a line of Vixen refractors and reflectors, they are dream instruments for me.

Eventually, in the early 1990s, I saved my money, bite the bullet and splashed and bought my 60mm F700mm white tube Skymaster refractor on a yoke mount with wonky wooden mount legs from Astro Optical. By then it moved to a shop front underneath Southern Cross Hotel in Bourke St (now dismantled and replaced with the new Australia Post building).

I still have the scope, instruction manual, packaging box, outer carton box, and THE Astro Optical receipt, a whopping $220 I paid for it! Now I can buy the same/similar thing second hand (with aluminium legs) on eBay for $10-20…! Keeping this frac as a memento of my wonder years…The shop keeper at Astro Optical told me they threw away the three crappy eyepieces that originally came with the scope and replaced with 9mm and 25mm Kellner eyepieces instead. I asked if I can also have the original eyepieces but he said he threw them out. He did warn me about the wonky legs that came with this batch of 60mm scopes, but I was going to buy my brand new frac no matter what.

I also asked him about the stopped down 6 x24 finder scope and he pulled out a 30mm white tube finder scope, another unreachable dream unit for me then…but, although things were harder to get then, you treasure them more. Certainly I still appreciate my 60mm frac as much as my larger fracs. Each has its place and function, accepting its limitation as a 60mm frac, I love the unmatched text book perfect diffraction rings from my 60mm fracs, and the grab and go with ease option they offer.

Last I saw Astro Optical was when they moved to an arcade at Flinders St, Melbourne in the late 1990s. Still decent units being sold there then.

Astro Optical has an everlasting place in my astronomical memories…an era when the sun was warmer yellow and the sky ever more blue. I miss those good old days and Astro Optical……time always flies too quickly…..sad....

Kind regards,

Bill

[Exfso]

Probably going to cause a storm here, but these were the guys that were recommended to me a few years ago by the Tak distributor in Australia for doing collimation work on Tak refractors. My TOA130 had a mishap at home and I sent it to them as they advised they could re collimate. Wrong move, it ended up having to be sent back to Japan for a complete rebuild/repair. The Tak engineers were somewhat less than impressed at what they received. A very expensive exercise indeed.

[sketchism]

sad to see its gone but the legacy lives on

i'm restoring my grandfathers 72-75 10" newt at the moment

mount is all fixed up and working with the clock drive, just had to fix some circuitry in the box - any tips on polar aligning other than roughly pointing to polaris australis

the declination axis has an adjustment knob but it seems like its not actually moving the scope but ill work that out, there are 2 pins labeled (drive index ring dec) that i think may have something to do with it)

[Kerber1955]

I missed this thread a few years back when it started, so it's good to see it revived. I also have a lot of memories of AOS, starting in the 60's when it was the Amateur Astronomers Supply Company. My first visits were before Eric Witcombe took it over. The original guy, whose name I no longer remember, was a nice guy but apparently had problems with keeping the business side turning over. He disappeared, was the impression I was given, when I visited the shop one day and the people who I had the impression were the receivers were there.



I first used the place to buy some Ortho eyepieces and a better finder for my first telescope, these were Polarex/Unitron items. And a big improvement on the Huygens eyepieces that had come with the 6-inch reflector I'd bought second hand. The finder, 40mm, was likewise a big step up from the 20mm or so brass spyglass that the scope had.



Later years, Eric ran the place, then Monty. Monty had a good technician, who generally did seem to know how to test scopes, how to fix things, and when he'd reached his limits. That was in the 80's.



I bought a few Newtonians there over the years, including a 10-inch f/6 on an Astro-optical mount that had good mirrors and was a very nice deep-sky instrument. That was in the early 80's. It was one of quite a few telescopes I bought there over the decades, a more recent one being a Celestron 9 1/4 SCT , one of the new versions with XLT coatings, in 2004. A good scope, except for the barely adequate diagonal that Celestron supplied, that I soon replaced.



I'm not too surprised that they went out of business eventually, because as mentioned already their web site was not helpful, with its price categories and patchy information. Not an encouraging interface to the outside world. And that makes a big difference with an online world.

[lcsu-01]

just as a follow on from above,. it was Keith Banberry who ran the Melbourne shop for a while. He took over from a fascinating German who used to grind his own mirrors in the back of the shop. He had some stories to tell about crossing from East Germany to West Germany and going back for his relatives. As far as I know, Keith was only an ordinary member of the ASV but he did distinguish himself later after returning to complete his degree at Monash. finally becoming a lecturer in the physics department and then moved, a few years ago I believe, to ANSTO and the Australian Synchotron.

[gary]

There was also that 5 minute walk from Astro Optical Supplies around to
Eckersley's Art & Craft to buy sheets of rubylith ...

[UniPol]

Going through my files the other day I came across an old Amateur Astronomers Supply Co. catalogue (foolscap). What is interesting is that they were also located at 17 Alexander St , Crows Nest. I only ever went to the Clarke St. store and that was around 1966-1967. The Alexander St. catalogue shows £'s and then in $'s, which is indicative of the change to decimal currency at that time. I looked at Google Earth and both shops appear to be still there, albeit one a cafe and the other a pizza shop. In fact it looks like most of Crows Nest shops look like eateries:question: I can't believe that it is over 50 years since my first visit to the AASC and as as many of us oldies ask "where has the time gone?" Still got my first telescope from them along with eyepieces, books, charts etc.

[RonTheBear]

Like others I recall the store with fondness, early to mid-80's, although as a teenager I was rarely able to afford anything of substance and usually had to be content with looking. It was a great day when I handed over the cash for the three volumes of Burnham's Celestial Handbook.

[Barnacle]

Found an Astro Optical Supplies advertisement back in 1979 in the Bulletin.

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1552765721/view?sectionId=nla.obj-1739119876&partId=nla.obj-1553094180#page/n107/mode/1up

Anyone have photos of Astro Optical shop fronts? Love to see photos of the shop front at Mid-City Arcade in Melbourne?

Thanks.

[toc]

I have rather vivid memories of the Mid City Arcade store - and lusting after the Meade and Celestron 8 inch scopes in the Window.

[Barnacle]

Thanks for sharing, me too! I have vivid memories of frequenting there as a kid, standing outside Astro-Optical Mid-City arcade shopfront glass, forever remembering its line of precision-made Vixen refractors and reflectors, and THAT hanging 6 inch tin Moon globe with its 'Not for sale' sign.

PS: Still don't have a Vixen frac nor a Moon globe. :lol:

[MarshMan]

Got my first decent scope from there a Vixen SP125. Sadly I sold it and have been trying to get one back for nostalgic purposes ever since. If anyone has one or a SP100 or SP150 I would be interested in acquiring it if they are willing to part with it.

Fond memories though of going there as a teenager on the train from Epping. Still have my Philips Planisphere I got from there.

[donavan.jones]

So many memories of visiting this store back in the day.....i know where most of my saving went back in the day, thank you for sharing.
Cheers
D