I'm sorry. I have to do this. I need to vent.
Last year in October I called Astro Optical Supplies in Sydney and placed an order for an Orion Skyglow Imaging filter (2"). I received the filter a couple of weeks later and found it had clear spots on it - the filter had been improperly made. So the filter went back and I was told (when I called) several weeks later that the replacement sent from Orion was also similarly dysfunctional and that I'd need to wait till a new batch was made.
One day in December I received a filter in my mailbox (no warning it was coming). It was a cheap filter from a brand that even Google didn't know (and I no longer remember). I thought, well at least they sent me something to use in the mean-time - that's good service. So I phoned Neil at AOS. No. It was a fully paid-for substitute and not just to get me through. They were charging me the full $200 I'd paid. That annoyed me. A lot.
I ran it through a spectrophotometer at work and sure enough it was nothing like what I'd ordered. I sent it back and called Neil at AOS explaining that it wasn't what I'd ordered and that I'd wait.
So I waited.
And waited.
I phoned in February and was told it was on it's way soon.
Now it's the 13th of May and I look in my mailbox to find a filter sized parcel from AOS. Here it is, my new filter! But it's the wrong one...
I ordered an Orion Skyglow Imaging filter (2"). It leaves both O2 and H-alpha open and shuts out everything else. Instead I've been sent an Orion Skyglow Broadband filter (2"). It doesn't let any H-alpha through and will be no help at all for my astrophotography. Which is why I didn't order that one.
What do you reckon folks, do you think in anther 3 months I'll be sent a Skyglow Imaging filter 1 1/4"?
GAGAGRGAHAGAHAAGAHGAAAA!!!!!
Thank you. I feel a little better now.
Cam