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The biggest optical ripoff
From time to time people in these forums point out what they regard as ripoffs by telescope shops. However, to my mind the biggest ripoffs are glasses. You can easily pay more for something with a flimsy, fall-apart metal frame with moulded plastic lenses of dubious optical quality than you can for a Televue Nagler, which has far more quality workmanship and much less of a mass market.
Opticians perpetuate the myth than glasses are especially made to an accurate prescription "just for you", when in fact that just pull a pair of plastic lenses of the shelf and fit them in some frames. The fact that you can go into a convenience store and buy a working pair of reading glasses after trying a few shows the real skill level involved.
Geoff
PS I have just had to get new glasses, hence the rave.
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