Telescopes on Alibaba

[OneCosmos]

Alibaba has a plethora of serious-looking telescopes produced by names nobody in the rest of the world has ever heard of and I’m wondering why.

Take for example this 6” refractor for under $1000!

https://m.alibaba.com/product/60826005762/1200150-refractor-telescope-telescope-astronomical-refractor.html?spm=a2706.amp_ws_det ail.item_details#show_specification s

To all intents and purposes it looks exactly the same as any you’d find advertised in the rest of the world for many times that amount. In the days when Roland Christian was making lenses using rare unicorn’s toenails and other secret ingredients it was easy to argue cheap stuff is rubbish. Today however? Everything is made by computer and even cheap optics outperform incredibly expensive optics of yesteryear, save for a few celebrated examples.

The link is for a telescope made by “ Dovoll”. Ever heard of them? Nor me and apparently nor has the whole of the Internet!

Being cynical I might suggest we all know their telescopes extremely well but we know them by brand names we recognise.

Does anyone have any actual information or evidence to support my cynicism?

[The Mekon]

Anyone who buys that 6" scope on that spindly mount is going to be mighty disappointed.

[DeWynter]

Chris, you are right - almost all scopes nowadays are made in China or Taiwan. There is nothing wrong with that except quality control. When something is sold under say Celestron brand they do better QC than when it's sold under Aquila. Again, nothing wrong with that and you can get a high quality Aquila-branded scope, but the chance you get a lemon is slightly higher than when buying the same with Celestron (or in this case of Aquila brand it's Astro-Physics). So they all made on the same factory but big brands just do a bit more QC before placing logos. Items with less QC are sold with smaller brands. That's the reality. Same with eyepieces.

[glend]

Consider the cost of replacing the key components, which are obviously junk, such as the focuser, the rings are held to the mount with wing nuts. The mount is garbage. Think of it as buying a project (objective and tube), which may, or may not, be worth salvaging.
Then you have to pay GST on top as well.
I agree that there are some excellent scopes built in China or Taiwan, but most of these are built under contract to retailers overseas which have fairly high standards specified. Factories such as Kumming United Optics are one, with customer brands such as Teleskop- Services (TS) built by them to strict QA standards. Synta is another one (which is the parent company of retail brands Skywatcher, and Celestron).

[DeWynter]

Counting you need to upgrade focusers on quite a few big brands scopes with at least GSO or better Feathertouch then I guess it’s not really a valid argument. :))))

[OneCosmos]

I was assuming the mount/tripod was firewood but $850 for a 6” refractor is cheap as chips compared to what it would cost once the brands claim it as their own.

Yes the focuser would need upgrading In all likelihood and perhaps the rings too but even with that you’re still no where near the cost of similar from a naked scope.

I’ve purchased far more expensive lemons🤣

[pfitzgerald]

Not bad - its current price is now $1275 AUS! (and only 2.5 hrs after the original post)

[OneCosmos]

Lol did anyone here buy one?

[TrevorW]

Buying from China direct is no longer as cheap as people think it is and buying cheap is what you will get :)