OS purchase viability

Clarry (Clayton) · #1 17-11-2009, 12:31 AM

Hi folks, I need your worldly wisdom. My beautiful & much loved wife (she may well read this post) has agreed that I can purchase a Nagler eyepiece for myself for Christmas. I've survived the last year on a 25mm & 9mm Plossl but after viewing through madwayne's (member here) 9mm Nagler some time ago, I now know I must have something similar. So my question to the collective is two-fold.

(A) I'm tossing up between the 9mm & 16mm Nagler type 6. As I have an 8" Dob, which one do you think will be of most use to me?

(B) Now this is the main thrust of my post. I have a close friend who travels overseas regularly. In fact he's heading to Japan & USA in two weeks. Will he be able to purchase the Nagler for me cheaper in either of these countries, and if so, what sort of saving would you expect I could make by doing so? Also, there's the warranty to consider. Is it worthwhile buying OS or is it safer to buy here in Oz and know you can return it to the store if anything goes wrong?

I really would appreciate your thoughts on these questions.

dpastern (Dave Pastern) · #2 17-11-2009, 01:23 AM

Go local, get a local warranty. Try Bintel.

Dave

astro744 · #3 17-11-2009, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clarry

Hi folks, I need your worldly wisdom. My beautiful & much loved wife (she may well read this post) has agreed that I can purchase a Nagler eyepiece for myself for Christmas. I've survived the last year on a 25mm & 9mm Plossl but after viewing through madwayne's (member here) 9mm Nagler some time ago, I now know I must have something similar. So my question to the collective is two-fold.

(A) I'm tossing up between the 9mm & 16mm Nagler type 6. As I have an 8" Dob, which one do you think will be of most use to me?

(B) Now this is the main thrust of my post. I have a close friend who travels overseas regularly. In fact he's heading to Japan & USA in two weeks. Will he be able to purchase the Nagler for me cheaper in either of these countries, and if so, what sort of saving would you expect I could make by doing so? Also, there's the warranty to consider. Is it worthwhile buying OS or is it safer to buy here in Oz and know you can return it to the store if anything goes wrong?

I really would appreciate your thoughts on these questions.

Assuming 8" f6 (1200mm focal length).

[A] Both or 16mm + 2x Barlow. 16mm T5 Nagler will give you 75x and 1 deg true field. Nice for DSO's! 9mm Nagler T6 will give 133x and 0.6 deg field. Nice for planets and also just fits in full Moon at 133x! The 16 + 2x (Tele Vue Barlow) will give 8mm and only just fit the full lunar disk at 150X. 150x is also good for planets in better seeing.

Both have short eye relief and if you wear glasses consider Radians. The eye relief is quite OK for non glass wearers.

[B] Go local. Bintel are great and have a great store in Sydney. Current US prices are USD$275 for 9NT6 and USD$319 for 16NT5. Do the calc at 0.92 and you are within AUD$50 of Australian prices with no warranty from OS. Freight not included since your friend was picking up but if you add freight the price is almost the same. More importantly support local, you wont regtret it.

citivolus (Ric) · #4 17-11-2009, 05:33 PM

If he buys other stuff too, he may get nailed on returning with that eyepiece. The current limit is $900. Technically this equipment is duty free, so he'd just get hit with the GST if he was paying attention.

10% GST makes it very close to the difference in price of buying domestically.

Edit: Interestingly as well, the limit is actually higher by post than in your baggage. You may be better off in the long run importing directly from someone like OPT and getting them to send it via USPS, if you are determined to import. At current rates, though, that will save you $30 max.

Regards,
Eric

Clarry (Clayton) · #5 17-11-2009, 06:49 PM

Thanks for the info folks. The best price I got on a 16mm is US$280. This is from an on-line store so by the time I paid freight it would be AUD$350. A saving of $50 but for all the hassle I think I would rather buy here.

madwayne (Wayne) · #6 17-11-2009, 08:24 PM

Gidday Clayton

I would share the sentiment of the repliers to your thread about buying local. Take an hour, but bank on 2 or 3, and see the guys at Bintel. They will chat to you for ages about anything and everything astro hence the time it will take to get from the Shire to Glebe and back. In fact with your culinary skills a visit to the fish markets might also be in order

. Best make a day of it mate

.

Wayne

norm · #7 17-11-2009, 09:07 PM

Hi Clayton,

I'll go against the trend here and say get your mate to buy it O/S.
My estimates is the saviings is around $80AU.

I've bought small items O/S including eyepieces etc with no issues at all.
In fact I regularly have things shipped to a hotel awaiting collection and no problems encountered to date.

As for GST when returning back - again never had issues.

Obviously if someone wasn't bringing it back and it was being shipped, then the savings are neglible.

I'm not trying to sound disloyal, but your not under any obligation to buy local.

Good Luck Norm

JethroB76 (Jeff) · #8 17-11-2009, 09:43 PM

Agree with Norm; if the sums add up I dont have any problem buying from O/S, especially for small items such as EPs/filters etc

Rodstar (Rod) · #9 18-11-2009, 02:36 PM

Dear Clayton,

I am a fan of buying locally from Bintel as well. When making such a substantial purchase, it is good to have peace on mind over the warranty issue. The question I would be asking myself if whether the difference in price is so great as to warrant taking the risk. Taking a risk over the warranty to save myself $50 is not the sort of thing I would usually do.

I also think it is good to keep the local retailers ticking over their sales, so they are still in business next time when I want the luxury of going into their shop to have a nat with them about my next astronomical purchase, and actually touch and feel and sight the alternatives before I buy!

In relation to what Ep to get, I suspect you will want to observe mostly at a magnification level which gives you a FOV of about 40 arc minutes. Assuming 1200mm focal length, an 11 T6 would give you about 110x magnification , and a FOV of about 45 arc minutes. This would nicely frame 75% of objects you will be observing. It also means you are not doubling up on the 9mm Plossl you already have.

The 16T5 is a ripper of an ep, but has quite tight eye relief....some non-eyeglass wearers complain about it even, so make sure you try before you buy, if that is where you are headed!

Ian Robinson · #10 18-11-2009, 11:24 PM

You'll be hard pressed to find a shop overseas who is willing to sell and ship overseas , I believe Tele Vue prohibits this on pain of loosing your wholesale discount and dealership.

So anyone wanting Tele Vue stuff , especially "high eyepieces" that so many Tele Vue groupies rave over has no option by to buy from the local dealers , or maybe get a mate to pick one up over there on holiday and post it to you (will avoid GST that way as well as getting at yankie prices).

It's a eyepiece .... why would a warantee be necessary .... ?

Clarry (Clayton) · #11 18-11-2009, 11:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian Robinson

You'll be hard pressed to find a shop overseas who is willing to sell and ship overseas , I believe Tele Vue prohibits this on pain of loosing your wholesale discount and dealership.

So anyone wanting Tele Vue stuff , especially "high eyepieces" that so many Tele Vue groupies rave over has no option by to buy from the local dealers , or maybe get a mate to pick one up over there on holiday and post it to you (will avoid GST that way as well as getting at yankie prices).

It's a eyepiece .... why would a warantee be necessary .... ?

I guess the only concern would be if there were any imperfections with it. Highly unlikely but probably not unheard of.

StarGazing (Alex) · #12 19-11-2009, 12:10 AM

Here is my little spin,

I beleive there are a a couple of e-stores that ship Televue ep's to Australia.......... optcorp.com and opticsplanet.com. I have seen the Ethos 17mm for $648.99 US, 6mm for $519.94 US, 10mm for $589.99 US, 13mm for $572.99 US & 8mm for $519.99 US on the opticsplanet.com. Not to mention the paracorr at $309.99 US. This my fellow Astronomers represents great value considering the strength of the Australian $$$$.

Alex.

mswhin63 (Malcolm) · #13 19-11-2009, 12:51 AM

In general any distributor/retailer receives a margin from the manufacturer which should provide a profit margin for the retailer. Bulk delivery overall is cheaper than individual shipping. The only real extra charges should only be GST and possibly a smallstock handling charge for a smaller sales in a country like Australia. I usually way up the pro's and con's along with the difference with between the price locally and overseas before deciding. If there is no much of a difference like twice the delivery cost then I would buy local, if there is a significant difference then I buy overseas.

Ian Robinson · #14 19-11-2009, 02:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clarry

I guess the only concern would be if there were any imperfections with it. Highly unlikely but probably not unheard of.

The way Nagler and Ethos fans rave about them , every piece is a work of art and perfect optically .... the price charged for them , they'd better all be perfect.

Wavytone · #15 19-11-2009, 10:08 AM

Aside from TV and ES, there is another player in the 100-degree eyepiece market offering 9 and 16mm eyepieces at a lower cost than a Nagler:
http://www.astronomics.com/main/cate...4CS9K41/Page/1

JethroB76 (Jeff) · #16 19-11-2009, 12:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ian Robinson

So anyone wanting Tele Vue stuff , especially "high eyepieces" that so many Tele Vue groupies rave over has no option by to buy from the local dealers , or maybe get a mate to pick one up over there on holiday and post it to you (will avoid GST that way as well as getting at yankie prices).

EPs in particular, and of any brand, are easily purchased overseas - both Japan and the US the usual countries to buy from....scopes you may have more problems importing directly

Kal (Andrew) · #17 19-11-2009, 02:04 PM

I would pay the little bit extra and buy local as well, unless you wanted to try for a more significant saving and buy second hand in which case I would definitely include overseas sellers in my search (on places like astromart). Even if they say "continental US only" I find that a few words about how simple it is to mail overseas, especially if you can pay by a reliable method like paypal, can sway their decision on where they are willing to ship.

coldspace · #18 19-11-2009, 08:37 PM

I got my 17mm Ethos from OPT and it landed here no worries and was about 100 bucks cheaper.
This eyepiece is one very awesome eyepiece, so much so that my Panoptics and Nagler hardly get used now.
The "Majesty factor" that televue advertise on these Ethos is certantly true in my experience now.
Buy a Nagler, you certantly won't look back.
And you will own it for ever.

Matt.

RobF (Rob) · #19 20-11-2009, 07:46 PM

Don't forget to keep your eyes open for a Nagler on the classifieds here - might save you 30%.

I bought a 13mm T6 here for my F/5 8" and have been very pleased with the views. I have a 6mm Radian, and the 13mm Nagler with a good barlow is very competitive - probably better. Most DSOs can easily take a little more mag, so you might want to consider 13mm as an option over 16mm. You're really going to need another nice widefield eyepiece anyway, even with the 82 degrees FOV.

Still time to put a notice in the "Wanted" area and sort something out for Christmas

Clarry (Clayton) · #20 21-11-2009, 01:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobF

Don't forget to keep your eyes open for a Nagler on the classifieds here - might save you 30%.

I bought a 13mm T6 here for my F/5 8" and have been very pleased with the views. I have a 6mm Radian, and the 13mm Nagler with a good barlow is very competitive - probably better. Most DSOs can easily take a little more mag, so you might want to consider 13mm as an option over 16mm. You're really going to need another nice widefield eyepiece anyway, even with the 82 degrees FOV.

Still time to put a notice in the "Wanted" area and sort something out for Christmas

I have been checking the EP sales section but never considered a WANTED ad, will give it a go.