Probably buying a Celestron Nexstar C11 GPS

Dr Pepper

Thinking of buying one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Celestron-Nexstar-GPS-Telescope-Only/dp/B00006371B

Astronomy Ireland shop - €3200
Amazon.com - €2700 (& duty, shipping, etc) - probably come to over 3200!
Telescopes.com - €2100 ?? (& duty, shipping, etc)

Anybody got any advice on where to get it? (or if I should get something else?) Has anyone here got experience of buying large scopes from the internet. What are the shipping/tax costs?

Ideally I would prefer to buy from the Astronomy Ireland shop because they are nice chaps and have plenty of free advice, and I will have more peace of mind if anything goes wrong.. BUT, if I can get it for €500 less off a website, I would probably do that. Any tips?

slade_x

I cant think of anywhere online to actually get that cheap, the cheapest online retailers will be from the US, but unfortunately the majority including telescopes.com cannot ship celestron products outside of the US and canada

For other brands Telescopes.com shipping rates for the Republic of Ireland are:
$268.80 - FedEx International Economy (4-5 business days)
$418.80 - FedEx International Priority (1-3 business days)

As for some UK suppliers The Celestron CPC 1100 goes for around £2799 (€4000+) which is ridiculous for example:
http://www.telescopeplanet.co.uk/ViewProdDetails.asp?prod_code=PON05H000036

And telescopeplanet i have nnoticed is cheaper for other brands than celestron, for example their meade range from small to the truss lightbridge are competitively priced

With a piece of equipment like the CPC 1100 you'd have much more piece of mind staying local, a lot can happen to that for every few miles extra it is with any courier

redman

I bought one of these a couple of months ago from a fellow astronomer in Wicklow on irishastronomy.org for €1,900. Keep an eye out there or put a request in as many are moving to 14".


There is this at the mo:
"I have a Losmandy G11 for sale, 10 yr old Celestron/Losmandy version, in immaculate condition, with dual axis drive system and hand contoller. Includes polarscope with illuminator and a 21Ib counterweight plus an extra 12Ib counterweight. Also includes extra coiled motor cable and power cables plus 12v 3.75A regulated supply.
It's a rock solid mount, and it's given me many nights of superb tracking and imaging.
I live in Belfast, and would prefer collection, but could arrange to meet.
Price: £1250 ono. "

Redman

Dr Pepper

Thanks for that lads. Called into Astronomy Ireland shop yesterday evening and had a good long chat with Carl about it. Very sound fella and lots of good advice. I'm going for the (thankfully cheaper) EQ (equatorial) mount as Carl explained exactly the difference. The EQ is better for deep sky astrophotography which is one of my main long-term interests.

The exact model number is C11-SGT (XLT) at a price of 3,200 (that model doesn't include the GPS system).

We also had a discussion about the variety of prices available on the web also. He explained the figures to me and how the charges mount up when buying from the US (which I subsequently checked and confirmed for myself).. I probably could have gotten it for about 2,800-3,000 in total from the US but the lack of local after sales support and the hassle of organising it all is not worth it in my mind.

Still not entirely sure why the initial price for the scope is so much more here than in the US, but it seems Celestron scopes are only available to Irish suppliers through 1 or 2 Celestron agents in the UK (and there is very little markup between there and here). Therefore, I conclude that the bulk of the markup is being made by the select 1 or 2 UK agents who seem to have somewhat of a monopoly (or duopoly or whatever you'd call it!).

I'll probably get it this week or Saturday so I'll let ye know how she goes. Not bought yet though so any further advice would be useful/appreciated.

Redman: that scope seems to be sold. Had a look at that forum and 'buy and sell' and a couple of other sources for similar second-hand with no luck. I could probably find something if I waited for a while but I'm just too damn impatient! Let me know if ye spot anything this week though, thanks again!

redman

I would strongly recommend that you get advice and pricing from Andy McCrea in North Down Telescopes. I and others have found him to be great in the past for service and prices.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/northdown/

Redman

Dr Pepper

redman wrote:

I would strongly recommend that you get advice and pricing from Andy McCrea in North Down Telescopes. I and others have found him to be great in the past for service and prices.

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/northdown/

Redman

Thanks. I spoke to him yesterday as it happens and he offered me the same scope for a considerably better price. I told AI about it and they matched the price so am gonna stick with them.

Would like to have bought it from Andy because he seems like a nice fellow who's keen to promote astronomy and I like that he offered me a good price straight off the bat.. but, I decided to accept AI's offer because they're closer (for collection, warranty claims, etc) and I'm a member of AI and I enjoy their lectures and outings. Of course they're decent enough fellas too with excellent advice!

My advice to anyone buying a new scope is to SHOP AROUND, read reviews and post questions on this forum or similar ones (e.g. www.irishastronomy.org)

Thanks - probably buying it today!

albertw

Dr Pepper wrote:

Would like to have bought it from Andy because he seems like a nice fellow who's keen to promote astronomy and I like that he offered me a good price straight off the bat.. but, I decided to accept AI's offer because they're closer (for collection, warranty claims, etc) and I'm a member of AI and I enjoy their lectures and outings. Of course they're decent enough fellas too with excellent advice!

Despite that A.I. effectively tried to rip you off straight off the bat...

redman

Well AI are very lucky that you still chose to buy with them , given that sudden price drop :eek: - was it much of a difference?

For other readers one of the purchases I made from Andy McCrea was a dobson. When it arrived one wooden part was damaged and he sent out a part immediately at no cost and without needing the original. So I was delighted with his service from NI.

Anyhow, delighted for you and best wishes with the new scope.:)
Let us know how you get along.

Redman

Dr Pepper

albertw wrote:

Despite that A.I. effectively tried to rip you off straight off the bat...

I guess so. I suppose that's just business for you. I do feel I'm getting good value in general with the Organisation though (lectures, outing, advice, etc). Anyway, all things said, I was very happy to get that price locally and I do advise people to shop around/haggle.

I'd rather not get into the exact figures to be honest. (Sorry!) Put it this way, Andy McCrea was offering it to me for £10 less (in sterling) than the price quoted on David Hinds' site (www.celestron.uk.com). Which came to a considerable saving on the AI price, but at least they stuck to their price-matching promise (whether you agree with that or not is a different political-type matter)

Anyway, just bought it at lunch time along with the large battery pack and the Celestron eyepiece set Now all I need is a good clear night!

Thanks again for the advise lads. I'll let ye know how it goes (and hopefully have a decent picture or 2 for ye soon enough)