No Oz telescope's, No Good

[Astro78]

Ever since i've been into Astronomy, there's been a small but very persistent hunger to see a good value and premium Australian made newtonian. Am I alone here folks?
I'd love to hear of any companies or even start ups over the years you may be aware of? Only thing i can recall is a guy on the south coast who made top quality refractor/folded newt combos, actually now that i think of it one of his scope was selling here for $6k odd.

[Wavytone]

The volume here is too small to sustain even one manufacturer properly.

There are a few who, over the years, have hand-made some excellent mirrors (and at least one frequents this forum), or dobs and unusual scopes (eg binocular telescopes) on a small scale.

There are some who have tried over the years to make a production scope, and not lasted long at it.

The only way is to export to other countries, and even then it's quite simply not competitive due to our labour rates (vs asia). When you consider China, with a massive domestic market 100X ours before they even consider exports, the economy of scale thanks to mass production there mean that manufacturing here makes no sense. None at all.

Making a few one off-specials for sale to mates for basically the cost of the materials is totally different to trying to make a living from building a product to be sold in some quantity.

[bmitchell82]

or make it youreslf? get the mirror made and put the rest together. its not too hard.

[DavidU]

Spot on Wavy. As a manufacturer of expensive gear you are very right.
AOE did it for some time but alas the usual story.

[Astro78]

Exports for the Oz company would be a must. Agree to (way!) smaller demand domestically. China has a bigger market yes, but, are they buying their export scopes which are meant for us? NO way.

There will always be a market for the great value china scopes but reckon 50% of the consumers that continue with the hobby want better quality full stop. Not nearly of of these people can switch to spending $$$ on large refractors or fancy (expensive) exotic options.

There is a market it just needs to be commercialised with 'cool looking' simple light tubes, branding, good mirrors; want primo you pay extra

EDIT: not sure about AOE but was it top quality equip? I'd doubt it. I'm talking about not reference qual but genuine good stuff. Most of us have had a GSO at some stage, it's very good but c'mon it's mass mass produced.

[DavidU]

SMD are a fine Aussie scope maker.

[ColHut]

You would have to pay an awful lot more for that small % improvement. Even large US/european concerns seem to get all their gear actually made in the PRC or ROC. I am sure as labour costs rise their it will move to India and then Africa too.

Regards

[norm]

You mean SDM ;)

www.sdmtelescopes.com.au (http://www.sdmtelescopes.com.au)

Peter Read doesn't make the mirrors as such, but has a list of recommended suppliers. A local and well respected mirror maker is Mark Sutching, alias Satchmo on the forum.

From what I can see Peter is still going strong and since he has 'downsized' into making smaller truss dobs, business appears to be 'booming'.

Cheers, Norm:)

[Astro78]

Too big a leap i reckon Dave, $10K

I was considering more a tube market, people using scope in suburbs, even verandas perhaps up to 10-12" lightweight al.

8 and 10" Newts are oh so portable, even more so if made better than GSO's, say twice the price, 50% better visuals, 80% better build and quality. 50% lighter. Adjustable light cone size, for wide field (+photo) or narrow planet

[mental4astro]

Travis,

You work on the solid tube, as you mention, & I'd be quite happy to build a truss scope (two, three or four pole type) from an existing OTA, or even a dob mount for an existing solid OTA, or a better mount for an existing dob.

Room for both solid tube and truss styles, each pertaining to a different market. One photo/visual (Astro78) the other purely visual (mine).

Anyone interested?

I'm in the planning stages of a 12" scope now using the components out of a GSO 12" scope.

SDM is a very special institution. I'm aiming for something a little more economical.

Mental.

[Darth Wader]

Mental,

I think it'd be great if you could mass produce your mini-dobs. They'd surely be a hit with schoolkids and those after an ultra-portable dob.

Cheers
Wade

[DavidU]

I have looked at manufacturing a truss Dob.Slowly working out the figures.

[el_draco]

Like the 42" modified DK that was at RTMC this year. What I would give for that hefty momma!! :eyepop: