Astro Optical has ceased trading.

[toc (Tim)]

Originally Posted by Barnacle

Found an Astro Optical Supplies advertisement back in 1979 in the Bulletin.

https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-155276572.../n107/mode/1up

Anyone have photos of Astro Optical shop fronts? Love to see photos of the shop front at Mid-City Arcade in Melbourne?

Thanks.

I have rather vivid memories of the Mid City Arcade store - and lusting after the Meade and Celestron 8 inch scopes in the Window.

[Barnacle (Bill)]

Originally Posted by toc

I have rather vivid memories of the Mid City Arcade store - and lusting after the Meade and Celestron 8 inch scopes in the Window.

Thanks for sharing, me too! I have vivid memories of frequenting there as a kid, standing outside Astro-Optical Mid-City arcade shopfront glass, forever remembering its line of precision-made Vixen refractors and reflectors, and THAT hanging 6 inch tin Moon globe with its 'Not for sale' sign.

PS: Still don't have a Vixen frac nor a Moon globe.

[MarshMan (Adam)]

Got my first decent scope from there a Vixen SP125. Sadly I sold it and have been trying to get one back for nostalgic purposes ever since. If anyone has one or a SP100 or SP150 I would be interested in acquiring it if they are willing to part with it.

Fond memories though of going there as a teenager on the train from Epping. Still have my Philips Planisphere I got from there.

[donavan.jones]

So many memories of visiting this store back in the day.....i know where most of my saving went back in the day, thank you for sharing.
Cheers
D

[CALISTO7]

Originally Posted by UniPol

Like John, I bought my first Unitron 4" back in 1969 from Eric Witcombe when it was then known as The Amateur Astronomers Supply Co. which it truly was. It is hard to describe the feeling one had entering the little shop at 11a-11b Clarke St in Crows Nest all those years ago, a certain smell and the great display of brand new Unitrons, Newtonians and an assortment of Royal's, books, weather stations and other astronomical accessories. Monte Ash bought the business and changed the name to Astro Optical Supplies perhaps in the late seventies or the early 1980's (I can't quite recall) and carried on the tradition Eric set by having lots of spare parts and accessories for the Unitrons and home built Newtonians. I can't recall when Monte sold out but things changed in the amateur astro world when SCT's became the fashion and Unitrons priced themselves out of the market around the mid 1980's onwards. Of course there was competition in the late 1980's and particularly the 1990's from York Optical and Bintel. It was a bit of a merry go round in those days; Bintel sold Celestron's, Astro Optical sold Meade's, York sold anything, Meade sold Meade's, Bintel went to Meade's, Astro Optical went Celestron's then back to Meade, all very confusing. Please forgive me if my dates, brands and who sold what aren't quite right, my memory is fading somewhat but not a real bother.

Apparently, and only heresay, is that a lot of optical and mirror making gear was literally thrown out after Monte sold the business or at least over the years. I also heard that a lot of brand new Polarex/Unitron parts and accessories were also thrown away because the people running the business didn't know what they were or belonged to. I managed to score a Unitron Super Unihex, a couple of synchronous electric drives and other sacred parts just by chance some years ago when Astro Optical had a clean out (one of many as I believe they must have had a few sheds around the back lanes of Crows Nest full of stuff). Again, not substantiated but one hears quite a few stories over the years. In the case of the Super Unihex, the salesman said that they kept it because it looked too good to throw out and that's a fact. I paid the original price marked on the box which was from the the late 1960's and still wasn't that cheap !

My memories will mostly be with "The Amateur Astronomy Supply Co." instead of the last incarnation of "Astro Optical" mainly because of the sameness of products sold by the current crop of astro vendors.

The Above review has some wrong information. Astro-Optical have never sold Meade Telescopes, and were in fact the original distributors of Celestron telescopes in Australia, when Eric Witcombe was the owner of the company.

[CALISTO7]

Originally Posted by CALISTO7

The Above review has some wrong information. Astro-Optical have never sold Meade Telescopes, and were in fact the original distributors of Celestron telescopes in Australia, when Eric Witcombe was the owner of the company.

. Also Monte Ash did not change the name from Amateur Astronomers Supply Company to Astro Optical. That was done back in 1970, when Eric Witcombe still owed the shop!..Monty bought the business in 1978.

[CALISTO7]

Originally Posted by Kerber1955

I missed this thread a few years back when it started, so it's good to see it revived. I also have a lot of memories of AOS, starting in the 60's when it was the Amateur Astronomers Supply Company. My first visits were before Eric Witcombe took it over. The original guy, whose name I no longer remember, was a nice guy but apparently had problems with keeping the business side turning over. He disappeared, was the impression I was given, when I visited the shop one day and the people who I had the impression were the receivers were there.



I first used the place to buy some Ortho eyepieces and a better finder for my first telescope, these were Polarex/Unitron items. And a big improvement on the Huygens eyepieces that had come with the 6-inch reflector I'd bought second hand. The finder, 40mm, was likewise a big step up from the 20mm or so brass spyglass that the scope had.



Later years, Eric ran the place, then Monty. Monty had a good technician, who generally did seem to know how to test scopes, how to fix things, and when he'd reached his limits. That was in the 80's.



I bought a few Newtonians there over the years, including a 10-inch f/6 on an Astro-optical mount that had good mirrors and was a very nice deep-sky instrument. That was in the early 80's. It was one of quite a few telescopes I bought there over the decades, a more recent one being a Celestron 9 1/4 SCT , one of the new versions with XLT coatings, in 2004. A good scope, except for the barely adequate diagonal that Celestron supplied, that I soon replaced.



I'm not too surprised that they went out of business eventually, because as mentioned already their web site was not helpful, with its price categories and patchy information. Not an encouraging interface to the outside world. And that makes a big difference with an online world.

..Mr Kerber...Eric Witcombe never took the business over from anybody. He started it back in 1959, where it operated from Alexander St Crows Nest, and in the early 60's he moved it to Clarke Street Crows Nest.

[By.Jove (Jove)]

Originally Posted by CALISTO7

The Above review has some wrong information. Astro-Optical have never sold Meade Telescopes, and were in fact the original distributors of Celestron telescopes in Australia, when Eric Witcombe was the owner of the company.

I do recall seeing a large Meade refractor at Astro Optical in Clark St circa 1982, along with a herd of Unitrons, but none of their SCTs - I asked Monte about it. He also had an 8" Saxon Maksutov in the window which at that time was a very exotic, relatively unknown thing.

At that time Meade SCT's were sold by Mark Rae at North Bondi...