Bintel Melbourne Store

[Stu]

I drove past Bintel Melbourne yesterday. I had heard that the shop would be opening end of november, somewhere (AS&T, S&S?) so I thought the last day of november i'd be pritty safe...

Well, it's not quite ready yet, but the sign is up and the glass cabnets are up and I'm a bit excited because I am waiting for it to open so I can buy two TeleVue Radians.

I was going to ask the tradeys inside with those light carkey overalls if they could sell me a radian but changed my mind at the last minute.:P I think they had paint on there hands...

I have also asked someone on astromart if I could have their nice looking radian (a few days ago) but they haven't replied yet...:sad:

I'm sure that someone associated with the shop has some stock accumulating at home... any chance I could swing around and pick up a few EP's???:help3:


I know that you are all going to say "just order them online" but if the shop is going to open in a week then there is really no reason why I should pay the postage I think. I have to learn to be patient... one day, umm, nah stuff-it.

[janoskiss]

I wonder if they are actually going to have a decent selection in stock, or if it's going to be another Melbourne outlet for a Sydney store where they tell you that "We can get one in from Sydney for you to have a look at if you're interested in buying one".

[davidpretorius]

talked to roger yesterday and he sounds excited to get everything finished. The phones work, but yes the workman are still there to do their thing!

[robin]

This is exciting! Cant wait to see how it scrubs up. Hey Stu, what radians are you after.Im getting a 12mm model so hurry up & open bintel.

[[1ponders]]

You lucky buggers. :D I wish we had one up here, but I'm glad we don't :rofl: I'll just have to stick to chatting to Don, Mike, Michael and Lily on the phone.

[janoskiss]

Anyone know what the official opening date is? I thought it was 2 Dec, i.e. tomorrow, but I always get dates mixed up.

[Roger Davis]

We will endevour to have as much stock as possible, in stock at any time.
But things can happen!
We had a few problems with tradies, but we have them sorted out.
We had trouble with Telecom lines, we sorted the lines out, but not Telecom!
We are not "The Force", but we will endeavour to look after everyone.
You can please some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time ... or something like that!
You can only ask! We may, we may not, sure Sydney will have to supply, that's Head Office, and I'd rather have them backing me up with an Ouzi, or even a penknife, but definitely supply, but you have to create the demand!
Let me know what you want and I'll see what I can do.
Miracles I perform only every other day!

[janoskiss]

Good to hear from you, Roger. Pity about Telecom (err Telstra). I really hope your shop does a lot of business. I "demand" one of these:

https://www.bintelshop.com.au/Images/Stock/5522X.jpg

Orion Precision Slow-Motion Adapter
:thumbsup:

[Stu]

Hey lets put in a bulk order and get a discount! Somehow I don't think we would be ordering enough though.

I have a really short focal length scope (480mm) so all my eyepieces will be a bit shorter than most. I want to complete a travel set up, so I just grab the ZenithStar case and off I go. There are spots in the case for one 2" and three 1.25" EP's and I want to fill those spaces up! :)

I am going to get the 4mm and 8mm radians. Later on (in a few months or less) I will probably get the 12mm radian or 15mm panoptic. I'm leaning towards the panoptic. So then I'll have 2 radians and 2 panoptics.

My eyepiece "spaces" will be filled up by:
2" = 22mm panoptic (already got this one) for 22x - wide field
1.25" = 15 panoptic for 32x - binocular objects
1.25' = 8mm radian for 60x - messier objects
1.25" = 4mm radian for 120x - planets

Well that's my plan anyway. All plans subject to change without notice.

I still often think about that 35mm panoptic...
But with a 5 degree FOV, I'm not sure what I would look at.
:stargaze:

[avandonk]

OK Rog will come round every second day.Seriously I am looking foward to the new shop even though it is difficult for me to get to.

Bert VD

[Roger Davis]

Sorry it's so far Bert!
I'll miss our chats!
Go on all of you! Demand away, as to what's real and what is pie in the sky is completely different! Anyway, drop in for a cuppa!

[Starkler]

Come on , I want someone to buy a 6mm radian, so I can compare to my current planetary setup ( 14mm pentax barlowed) :(

[ballaratdragons]

I'd love to be there as a regular but yeah, too far. I'll have to save up and make a couple of trips down each year! After talking to Mick Pinner at Camp sounds like my first purchase will be an illuminated reticle (did I get that right Mick?). Apparently I will need one for the astropics I want to take.

[davidpretorius]

me, but it may be a while!

would you settle if i bought a 7mm. I intend to have a good one by march's star camp!

[Starkler]

I have a 7mm ortho but its not a high enough mag for me in the 10 incher.
My barlow gives me 2.2x effective mag boost.

[Stu]

Ha! :lol:

To be honest, my favorite mag for messier stuff is between 60x and 80x. The 6mm would give me 80x, the 8mm 60x. So it's not out of the question, but I don't want to collect too many EP's for this scope.

I have heard (from Dave47... Gee there's not really anyone else I talk to is there? I have to get out more...) that radians don't take barlowing to well. I have briefly thought about an 8mm + 2x barlow, but why carry a barlow around when I could just get the shorter eyepiece and get a better view? It's only really going to be a travel scope so I don't want to over complicate things and start adding barlows and toucams and...

geez my mind works overtime when I have a wad of cash to spend. :confuse2:
At least this time I have looked through my scope first and determined exactly what mags i need.

There needs to be a smilie with twiddling thumbs and an astromony shop in the background.
:whistle: :xmas: :reindeer: :astron: :love2:

[davidpretorius]

ok geoff, as 6mm it is, or shall i make it a 5mm!

[Stu]

I don't think radians come in 7mm....

[robin]

No they dont Stu.....so a 6mm or 8mm may be a goer.My 6mm is my Saturn EP.Fantastic.
Ive got a 35mm panoptic too.Its just brilliant.

[robin]

Ok Roger...expect me in for either a 13mm nagler or a 12mm Radian.

[Stu]

OK Sir Robin, I just changed my mind to a 4mm radian and 35mm panoptic!

A 35mm pano just sounds so yummy...

[janoskiss]

I spoke to Anthony at Bintel Melbourne and he tells me that they are officially open and ready to convert all your hard earned into carefully stacked bits of very expensive glass.

Hours:
Mo-Fr: 9-5
Sat: 9-4

[Starkler]

Do they have a meade lightbridge in the showroom? Id go there just to check it out ;)

[janoskiss]

Ring up and ask them: 9822 0033. :)

[anthony2302749]

The 8" 10" and 12" Lightbridge will be in-store at the end of January.

BINTEL Melbourne

[Stu]

Ahh Buggger... I should log on more often, I could have ordered the 35mm panoptic today! :sad:

Oh well, I have to order it tomorrow! :) :whistle:

[Jonathan]

Is The Melbourne shop going to handle any of the online orders at all???
Might be a little bit quicker and cheaper getting gear to SA, WA and Tas.

[Stu]

Well if the empire keeps expanding...:earth:

I picked up the 35mm panoptic today.:) :rain:

It was nice to see a whole cabet shelf dedicated to TeleVue eyepieces and the 35mm was in stock which was good.

[Dave47tuc]

Well done on getting the 35 pano, one great eyepiece.

Nice one stu :thumbsup:

[janoskiss]

Wow, Stu! it's gonna be almost as big as your scope!

Do they have scopes in stock as well (Dobs!) ? Can you try before you buy? I want to compare the 26mm Meade 5000 Plossl with the 24mm Panoptic. Then the 32mm Meade 5000 Plossl with my 30mm SuperView. Then try everything else they have... :)

[Stu]

Have have a 12" GSO (bintel) dob, I think one other smaller GSO dob, about ten small ETX scopes, one LXD75 8" SN, one LX90, one LX200GPS (or whatever they are called), a full shelf of TeleVue EP's :cool: :2thumbs: and umm... I can't remember anything else. To busy drooling on my new panoptic.:prey2:
Oh yeh and the new meade EP's.

[davidpretorius]

love your signature stu!

[janoskiss]

:lol:

[janoskiss]

Isn't it nice to have Bintel in Melbourne? I ran into Trevor (OneOfOne) on Saturday. I think there was a fair bit of iceinspace traffic through the shop over the w/e.

From Bintel's standard stock, I bought a telrad and a right-angle finder. That combo is fantastic! Pity the telrad does not fit between the finder and focuser, so I had to put it on the far side of the finder. I will have to move the finder 1/2 a notch. It's amazing how precise the telrad is. :thumbsup:

From Roger's personal stash I bought a 2" Jap Barlow (just like the UO one Dave47Tuc reviewed). Wow! This thing is awesome! I really cannot believe how good it is! But more on the barlow later on another thread. All I'll say here is that I am very happy with this item. :jump2:

I also bought 3 filters, but I'm not sure how useful they will be. The dark red Meade one I bought for Mars is just too dark for my scope. The light blue GSO was very effective in highlighting the Martian polar cap, but pretty useless on Saturn.

[anthony2302749]

Hi Steve

You left you sun glasses behind, what a good excuse to visit BINTEL again:lol: .

Anthony

[janoskiss]

Yep. I know. I missed them driving out to Lake Mountain on Saturday. They are my new fab Polaroid sunnies Ken would know about. ;) I'll drop in tomorrow to pick them up. And I am already thinking of what I'd like to buy next... :rolleyes:

Roger's 2" barlow is unbelievable! :thumbsup: Now I have two superb Panoptics! A 19mm and an 8mm. And the barlow is no refractor barlow. It works perfectly with my f6 Dob. I think Roger was just looking for an excuse not to sell it when he insisted it would not work in a Newtonian. But it does not work with my ED80 refractor (too big for 2" diagonal or baffling). :lol:

[iceman]

Steve, was it you the Bintel boys are referring to in their latest Night Sky newsletter (http://www.bintelshop.com.au/NightSky/NightSky.pdf) (1.1meg pdf), in the gossip column where they say:



:rofl: :lol:

[OneOfOne]

It was funny, I went to Bintel on Saturday afternoon with the intention of showing "santa" what to buy me for Christmas and I knew every customer who came into the shop! Several people from the ASV and some from star camp in Ballarat! We got a laser collimator (which now I need to check my suicidal telescope, see my thread on my "horrorscope":sad: ), I just have to see if santa will let me borrow it before she wraps it. Just waiting to pick up Hartungs.

It will be nice to have somewhere out of the city traffic and has staff that actually know something.

[janoskiss]

Nah, that wasn't me. I didn't even want a Telrad till I walked into the shop. I wanted to check out the 26mm 5000 Meade Plossl, but they didn't have one in stock. Next thing I know I'm handing over $370 for other stuff I suddenly had to have. Having a local astronomy (i.e. toy) store does not help save money. Quite the opposite. I didn't get no biccies either. :( :P

[janoskiss]

Went to BINTEL to pick up my sunnies today.

Ran into Daniel (whom I know from the Snake Valley camp). Both Daniel and I were interested in Crayfords, but Roger explained how we could improve on our R&Ps and get rid of that annoying image shift. Nice one Roger! I will try to fix up my focuser this weekend. :)

I wanted to check out the 24 and 27mm Panoptics and how they'd do in my fab new 2" barlow, but Bintel was all out of just these focal lengths. Lucky for me! I got to leave with my wallet almost intact (I bought a mag but that was it). And just as I was leaving Bert (avandonk) rocked up, so I got to say hello to Bert in person. It's like a permanent iceinspace camp that shop. It's great! :thumbsup:

[avandonk]

I was going to say met Steve (janoskiss) in person at the new Bintel shop,but I won't bother since he already said the same thing.
If you are wondering why I am up so late thought I would drift align (again) the mount using the toucam. While the Moon is near full thats about all I can do.

Bert

[Stu]

oh ohhh, steve's getting the panoptic bug...:P
Remember it was you that worned me about that bug! I'm getting the 15mm soon I think, so between us we'll have a whole set. :)

[janoskiss]

I tried the 15mm (without a scope :P) and eye relief seems impossibly short. I would buy it if it had a bit more eye relief and worked as well in the 2" barlow as the 19mm does. But no go. And Geoff tells me the 24mm does not do all that well in the big barlow either... So, that would leave just the 27mm top check out.