Looking for good optics suppliers

[martin kew]

I am making my first telescope, an 8" f/6 or f/7 Newtonian, where I would like to purchase finished optics. Can any one recommend any Australian (or South Australian) suppliers of quality mirrors for such a telescope.

[Omaroo]

Do you want just "good", or do you want to spend enough to arguably get "great" optics? If you want "good" just go to Andrews or Bintel - they sell GSO-quality mirrors in this range for a few hundred dollars. If you want to go to a higher level then have talk to Mark Suchting of Deep Sky Optics (DSO). He's a member here and makes excellent telescope optics professionally. He really knows his stuff. Top bloke too.

Cheers
Chris

[rmcpb]

Martin,

Welcome to IIS :)

As Chris said what level optics do you want?

Bintel and Andrews sell them from Sydney and I know of a South Australian supplier but will hvae to find their site again.

Cheers

[33South]

I think these guys are in Adelaide, never dealt with them myself.

http://www.telescopes-astronomy.com.au

mirrors

http://www.telescopes-astronomy.com.au/telescopes036.htm#main%20mirror

[martin kew]

I found Mark's Deep Sky Optics website yesterday, and sent him an email. He has a 10" f6 mirror available, but unfortunately this is a bit big for my current needs. I was impressed by the promptness of Mark's reply, and if I was building a bigger instrument I would definitely look him up.

Thanks guys for the Andrews, Bintel & Telescopes-Austronomy references.

By the way, what does "GS0-Quality" mean?

Cheers
Martin

[rmcpb]

GSO is a major Chinese supplier of mass produced scopes and generally their products are great, for the price. They will not compare with a high quality one off mirror set but for the price they are great. Its all a matter of balancing your budget with what you want.

Another point is that if you are not really experienced then you would probably not get the value out of a custon mirror set.

[33South]

Dont know if you are still looking but

http://www.telescopes-astronomy.com.au/astronomy129.htm


SUPERB NEW 8" F/6 HAND MADE MIRROR FOR SALE
Average Maximum Wave Front Error 1/23.6
Average Strehl Ratio 0.983
Test sheets available.