New Celestron EdgeHD OTAs

dpastern (Dave Pastern) · #1 12-09-2009, 11:08 AM

What do you guys think of them? Supposedly very flat fields, very little coma, sounds like a nice OTA. Of course, longer focal lengths, meaning guiding is a bit more difficult, and exposures will take longer. From memory, they also include faststar, which could be handy. Initial comments seem to be saying that it's a nice jump ahead of Meade's ACF optics. Pricing looks expensive though - 8" is $3610, 9.25" is $5415, 11" is $8300, far pricier than the Meade counterparts.

Dave

renormalised (Carl) · #2 12-09-2009, 11:15 AM

They're excellent scopes with great optics, but I haven't compared them to the Meade ACF's. If they can surpass the Meades, they'll be ace scopes. Like you said, they're expensive, but you pay for quality. I wouldn't mind one myself, actually. That they have fastar capacity is a bonus...you won't have to worry about slow optics then. With the Hyperstar lens for the 11" fitted, the f ratio is 2, so you'll have fun with that

dpastern (Dave Pastern) · #3 12-09-2009, 11:26 AM

mmm that does sound good, doesn't it Carl?

Dave

renormalised (Carl) · #4 12-09-2009, 11:30 AM

You'll need a G11 mount for the 11"...although I'd get one for the others as well. An EQ6pro might be OK for the 8" but I'd want that little extra capacity to cover everything else I'd add to the setup.

dpastern (Dave Pastern) · #5 12-09-2009, 11:44 AM

Prolly. Long term goal is a AP900, but I have to justify that I'm good enough to spend that sort of money on a mount first. My EQ6PRO is not being pushed yet, so I'm in no rush.

Dave

renormalised (Carl) · #6 12-09-2009, 01:08 PM

Buy the mount, then grow into and with it...if you're going to learn you might as well get what you want now, rather than having to shell out for it later. All that means is extra expense. That's like learning how to process images using paint and then shelling out for CS4. Paint is useless to begin with, but if you get CS4 and take your time to learn how to use it, then you'll become good at it.

rat156 · #7 12-09-2009, 01:36 PM

Yeah, but as has been mentioned in another thread the prices here are outrageous. The 11" OTA retails at $2799 in the US, that's about $3250 Aussie. The 12" Meade LX200ACF retails here for $5399 at Bintel, and US$2999 in the US. I would have expected the 11" Edge HD to go for around A$5000 based on the markup etc. The markup from Bintel is about 150% on retail US prices, which is quite high. The US price is retail, so already has a margin built into it. The price that they get from the manufacturer would be significantly lower, which lowers the GST component. Warranty support is also built into the margin.

What with us having a FTA with the US now, seems like specialist hobbyists still get the the rough end of the pineapple.

Celestron's agent in Aus needs to rethink their pricing structure, they may make a huge profit on the one or two scopes they sell each year, but they could make a lot more if they lowered the price and sold heaps.

I wouldn't recommend anyone buying one of these scopes at the price they are locally, you're better off flying to the US, having a holiday and bringing one back with you.

Cheers
Stuart

dpastern (Dave Pastern) · #8 12-09-2009, 02:00 PM

Stuart - the *only* way to combat this over pricing is to legislatively force manufacturers to repair their goods irrespective of the country of purchase (i.e. global warranties). As it stands, there is internal market pressure on local distributors to jack the price up because there's almost no competition. What little competition there is loses out because of warranty issues. Remove that, and you'll see a price war that benefits customers. Manufacturers make enough profit as is, the problem is that they are ultra greedy and want to milk the market for as much as humanly possible. Given that the average person will just shell out money blindly, rather than think about it and go "stuff it, over priced' and walk away, they [local distributors] *know* that they can get away with the overpricing.

I don't buy this local distributors have got to support the product post sale, so we jack the price up argument one single bit. As you correctly said, prices in the US include nice profit margins. Shipping costs are not that much, at least in bulk, which many of these distributors will. Further more, most of these goods are coming from China, which is closer to us than Europe or North America, so shipping costs are even lower. In fact, shipping costs from China to Australia are probably cheaper than China to the US I suspect. Even allowing for import duties, GST, currency conversion etc, they are still making a mint.

I had this exact same argument a few years ago with Microsoft and Vista - US $399 for Vista Ultimate retail, but nearly $740 AU - this with the Aussie dollar at around 90c or so. I raised this with the ACCC as price fixing and was bluntly told that it wasn't, they can do what they want. It's clear to this lad that the laws MUST be changed, and forceably enforced to protect consumer rights. Manufacturers and retailers have long shown that they will screw a customer given half the chance. I know there are a few good retailers out there, that give top notch after sales service (example, Bintel), but *most* don't go to this level of service. It's a poor argument imho.

As to the FTA, it's a total joke. The Howard government should have been hauled over hot coals for signing that crap - it had no benefit to Australia, and all benefit to the US. Ask Canada what they think of US trade agreements. I'd like to see countries grow a backbone and tell the US to sod off. They are nothing but economical and political bullies imho.

Anyways, back on topic - given the current Australian prices, they really seem to be over priced and I couldn't justify that sort of cost. Hopefully commonsense prevails and the prices come down.

Dave