Quote:
Originally Posted by ausastronomer
I think you have hit the nail on the head here Geoff. Americans probably provide 90% or more of the ONLINE astronomy community and 80% of those 90% are about as patriotic as it gets, when it comes to supporting a home grown and home owned company. The majority of them don't have a clue that the Televue eyepieces are now manufactured off shore in south east Asia and have been for several years.
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Well you can see from my Location tag - I've got a different Point Of View on this
I honestly doubt that you'll find many people willing to shell out the $$$ for a Nagler that believe Uncle Al hand grinds and assembles those EP's out in his lil' ol' shop

The people that collect that level of EP are quite a bit more informed than the average dolt that wanders into a camera shop to buy a scope.
For me it was a pretty easy choice - eye relief, eye relief, oh, and yeah, eye relief!!!

I know I could have gone with a Radian, but that wider FOV, and heftier EP fit my needs better. The bigger assembly that the Pentaxes have are much more resistant to fogging.
I think someone earlier hit it better: advertising! Uncle Al shells out a LOT of money in the US publications for pretty full page ads. A lot of the major retailers also take out big ads and their TV gear usually gets center stage.
Pentax??? I've never seen an ad from them.
Are we all a bunch of sheep, only willing to buy what has the prettiest ads? No - but you can't deny advertising works: why else is does XXXX spring for those big signs around the football stadium
I've got 4 XW's right now: 7mm, 10mm, 14mm, and 20mm. I am going to add the 5mm, probably later this year. Heck, I might even go crazy and toss a 3.5mm and/or 30mm into the order (moment of weakness honey - honest, I couldn't stop myself).
Are they the best??? I don't care - they SUIT MY NEEDS BEST!