TheSkySearchers

3-4 years ago you could not go a day without reading postings about how great Explore Scientific telescopes are.
Now you hardly see them mentioned, what has changed over the last few years?

I think much of it has to do with the lack of availability during the last couple years. It seems to have impacted quite a few companies.

ES had very aggressive pricing campaign a few years ago. You could buy their products at very attractive prices when they went on sale a few times per year. This generated a lot of traffic and a lot of interest.

Now they are just one of mid range astro venders, still a solid company with good products but in terms performance to price now more in line with others.

I love Explore Scientific! They gave me a 127 mm Apo triplet for free on the RTMC 2015. And I can't recommend their Comet Hunter enough. Just look at JThommes' images! Too bad it was discontinued, more people need to buy the good stuff. I also love their little Nano EQ3 that I got for $90 way back.
They have a lot of bargains for the beginning amateur astronomer. Also, their affordable essential Apo line is the one that many use for their first Apo.

I really like my ED102 Essential Series APO. I purchased it new in 2018 for the very good price of $836.

Very sharp view (when I used it for visual (been awhile). Now I use if for AP and with a 0.8 FR/FF I have a focal length of 571mm at F5.6. It makes a really nice imaging scope with no noticeable CA.

I have no complaints with my ES refractor.

I've not priced them lately, but somebody wrote the prices on their EPs have gone up substantially. Maybe a big deal to people, maybe not.

I know that when the USA/ China tariffs came into effect Explore Scientific was hit quite hard by it.

My AR152 is fine. Anyway, I bought it used from lowjiber (John).

~

In my view, we see the result of the impact that the world-wide economic lockdown has had on production, along with the (now) inflation-driven rapid rise in the cost of what is being produced leading to a diminished enthusiasm, in general.


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I have a few ES eyepieces and there isn't a bad one in the bunch. However i will say the competition has caught up and in some ways past them. The 24/82 is a good eyepiece, but the Long Perng 20/80 appears to be better and is priced at least 100 bucks less.

I now own three ES scopes. I was concerned that if I kept professing my love for these scopes I'd start to sound needy.

I was wondering about a couple of their eyepieces. Seems like they have a 4.5 and a 6.7 82 degree eyepieces. Anyone have experience with them in a F4.4 dob? Just curious as to how they do

I still have my AR152. Long story short when I moved my Twilight II got damaged which I didn't realize. So now it only holds one scope. In December of last year I bought a Celestron 102 XLT which now is getting used a bit. My AR152 is still in the packing box (sad to say). I am probably going to buy a new mount for the 102 which wouldn't be as hard to lug around. I'll keep the Twilight II as an observatory mount for the AR152 (have plans to eventually build an obsy - either a dome kit or roll-off shed type.)

Competition from sVbony?

If you call that "competition".

Ylem wrote: ↑Thu Oct 19, 2023 9:03 pm Competition from sVbony?

If you call that "competition".

Ummm no, no I do not...

Jut saw this over on CN:

You are fortunate that you have a Synta. The focuser problems that people have with explore scientific leave me feeling pretty sad.

I've not read anything about focuser problems, but it might be a factor in the lack of love.

pakarinen wrote: ↑Fri Oct 20, 2023 11:42 am Jut saw this over on CN:

You are fortunate that you have a Synta. The focuser problems that people have with explore scientific leave me feeling pretty sad.

I've not read anything about focuser problems, but it might be a factor in the lack of love.

There were complaints on CN about the type of focuser on my ES ED127CF. I found an in-depth fix analysis on CN and tried that myself. You have to know where the various little adjustment screws are hidden and tighten them. You may have to get an extension ring in order to get a part of the inner focuser tube under those screws.

That fixed it for me, and the focuser felt rock solid ever since. So, the complaints that you read about may be due to a lack of knowledge. ES has never been big on documentation.

I think Gordon hit the nail on the head.

pakarinen wrote: ↑Fri Oct 20, 2023 11:42 am Jut saw this over on CN:

You are fortunate that you have a Synta. The focuser problems that people have with explore scientific leave me feeling pretty sad.

I've not read anything about focuser problems, but it might be a factor in the lack of love.

There have been various complaints about the hex-focuser for a while.
Sometimes things reported on that other forum turn into silly trends that really do not matter at times.