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Old 30-09-2013, 03:54 PM
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Quote:
Saxon, Skywatcher, Celestron, Tasco, Jason, Konus - these and many others are owned by the one Chinese parent company, Synta. All their scopes are the same per model.
Close, but not quite.

Synta and Saxon are not the same company. Their Dobs and EQ mounts look identical (save colour) but Saxon doesn't do GoTo dobs and sells nothing larger than an HEQ5 on the EQ side. This may be for any of a number of reasons, but doesn't require ownership, e.g./including: one buys whole from the other; they both buy some or all components alike from a third supplier; they have a technology/product sharing deal; or, they use the same tubes but their own mirrors. Whatever the product distribution arrangement between them, they are not the same company. My guess would be that Saxon buys Dobs and EQ mounts from Synta, perhaps with some part substitution.

OzScopes looks like re-branded Saxon (or maybe Synta!). I don't know who owns OzScopes, but they don't appear to make anything themselves, i.e. they're just a reseller/re-brander.

Jason I know almost nothing about, but they seem to sell cheap rubbish, including some stuff "made by" Bushnell. Konus I don't know much about - except that Konus is Italian based and seems to make some of its own stuff, but probably not the telescope line - in that regard, I suspect both Jason and Konus are resellers/re-branders.

Tasco (Tasco Sales Australia) is not owned by Synta. They are the Australian SkyWatcher distributor (and of a lot of other products including Tasco and Bushnell). They appear to be a privately owned company. Tasco Worldwide (a US company that actually makes things, albeit probably in China) is not owned by Synta either - they are owned by a private equity firm (MidOcean Partners, who also own Bushnell), at least that's the last info I've seen. Tasco (in the USA) used to own Celestron many years ago, before Celestron was sold to Synta (when Tasco was going bankrupt) - this past association and some apparent product re-branding today (some Tasco branded 'scopes look like cheap stuff also sold uinder other brands) seems to confuse the issue. It's a convoluted history, but Tasco and Bushnell are pretty much one and the same now, but separate from Celestron (and Synta).

BTW, Orion (in the USA) sells Synta EQ mounts badged as Orion Atlas etc., but it's not owned by Synta either.

Synta does own Celestron, and, of course, uses the SkyWatcher brand.

Confused yet?

At least the Bintel/GSO relationship is fairly clear - Bintel re-brands GSO products.

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I think Allan's suggestion is a good one. As a beginner, though, you're probably not going to notice a difference between any of the same-sized Dobs, IMHO, save for some perhaps being better collimated (by the user) than others.
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