What has happened to IStar? Range Depleted

[glend]

I was recently reading Neil English's review of the excellent Skylight f15 achro over on CN

http://www.cloudynights.com/page/articles/cat/user-reviews/the-story-of-a-journey-the-skylight-f15-r2396

and it got me looking once again at long focal length objective suppliers. I already have a 127mm f12 IStar Anastigmatic R30 objective in my TCR style truss tube scope that I built a couple of years back; which is a great visual scope excelling as a double star splitter and has very little detectable CA which is easily corrected.

When I went and looked at what iStar is offering now I was shocked that they appear to have abandoned the long focal length market to compete in the crowded fast f ratio market. They no longer offer the range of longer f ratio objectives that were available just a couple of years ago and the R30 and R50 Anastigmatic range it down to two shorter focal length options.
http://www.istar-optical.com/objective-lenses-ii.html

Their completed scope offerings are also significantly reduced with the very nice light weight TCR open truss designs completely gone.
It would appear that they have pretty much abandoned the long focal length Achro objective market to D&G.

http://www.dgoptical.com/objective.htm

D&G's prices look pretty good to me and they still supply f12 and f15, the area where Acrhos excel. Even the D&G complete OTAs look like bargains: http://www.dgoptical.com/refractor.htm
The 6" f15 would be a very nice scope for just under $2k USD.

Does anyone know what happened to IStar and why they have left the long fl market to D&G. Anyone building a D&G scope at the moment?:question:

[anj026]

Hi Glen

I've noticed that Istar's range is reduced also. Maybe it is difficult to be profitable. I think a lot of their achromat lenses may have been supplied by Barride Optics. Though I am not 100% sure of that.

http://www.barride-optics.com/html/Astronomical-Telescope_Telescope-Lens.html

D&G make great lenses however you can wait an awfully long time to get them. I waited over 9 months for a 6" f15 lens and later over 18 months for a 5" f15 lens. I think they are worth the wait but it is frustrating at the time because you don't really know how long it will be until you actually get it.

I still have my two D&G scopes. I built a 5" f12 Istar that was really nice but have sold it now. I have two 5" f5.5 Istar lenses that are for a binocular project but I still haven't finished it yet. I'll get there one day.

[MattT]

Hi Glen,
I asked Ales this question a while back on ISC and got this response from him. Don't think Ales will mind me doing a cut and paste here...


...we offered long focus modified Franuhofer OTAs in the past but there was virtually no interest from customers. We sold only 8pc of 150 F15 OTAs so I decided to discontinue this model about 2 years ago. We sell much more 150 F15 lenses than complete scopes.
Still, there is no such thing as high quality telescope for cheap price. Even if we offer a standard achromat in all CNC made, lightweight OTA, the price will still be around 2,000 dollars. This is the simple reason why most buyers go for inexpensive, mass produced Asian refractors.
Regardless of this, we will redesign the older achromatic doublets, implement a different flint glass for better false color correction and offer 150mm or 160mm F12 OTA in the future, most likely by end of 2016.
You guys can give me feedback about which model would you like to see and I will gladly consider your inputs!

best regards,

Ales

So I and a few others asked about an 8" f10 R50 objective which is in the process of design and manufacture. Hope this sheds so light on the subject.
Matt

[sharpiel]

Exciting! An 8" f10 would be lovely! Is that for complete OTA or objective cell only and at what price if you have any idea!