Time to move up a scope.

Hi, fwiw, www.hoo-germany.de/ are offering a 10" Synta (skywatcher) PX Dob for €569. I spoke with the guy and he indicated less than €50 for shipping and also kindly offered to further deduct German VAT (16%) if I'd take responsibility for sorting out my own tax affairs.... I haven't actually done business with him, but the price looks keen if you're in the 10" Dob market. Downside is that he doesn't take credit cards.

Rgds,
Austin

Hi Stephen,
Just to give you an idea re tracking times Tonight I used a 9.5mm Orion ED eyepiece APP FOV 55deg on a 2x barlow on my 8" dob@1200 mm fl ,which gives about 252x magnification, on Saturn, which was about 45 deg above horizon.It took 32 seconds for Saturn to cross the field of view of the eyepiece.
Another point is that the amount of nights you'll get suitable for high power viewing are limited.
If Photography is not a major priority a dob is an excellent instrument as it takes about 1 minute to get viewing and as telescope advisers tell you the most suitable scope is the one you'll use most often.
Hope this is of some help
Eugene

Hi Stephen,
As a regular importer here are the costs one can expect when importing from outside the UK:
Duty: 6.7%
VAT: 21%
Customs handling fee: €65.00
Airline Handling fee: €40.00
VAT & Duty Fee: €25.00
Airline Attendance fee: €25.00
I checked with my shipping and import agent if these fees still stand if importing for personal use, and they do.
Hope this is helpful to all.
Bill H

Jeez really?? Even if I buy something for say 250euro I still have to pay all of that. Its not the Vat/Duty bit that bothers me its all of those handling fees. Now that is a bloody ripoff! €155 for just doing their job?

WHy does the airline charge handling fees. SUrely they have nothing to do with it? They get paid by the shipping company to fly the goods. Once their offloaded to the ground staff thats their job done. The payment of duties happens after they finish their job.

I'm beginning to think it might be cheaper to get a cheapo flight to NYC buy the gear and then..... no I better not say that.........

Scandalous.

Dave.

It's the airlines responsibility to hold the shipment until such charges and duties are paid. The ground staff that the shipment is off-loaded to are employees of the airline. So if you have an article shipped into Ireland with say, Delta Airlines, then they and their staff have to hold the goods until customs etc tell them they can be released. I would assume that is where their handling charges come from. But, like many, I am guilty of not questioning the reasons, I have faith in my Import Agent. but as you say, no matter how little the cost of the item, those are the charges made. I imported plants from the Philippines at a cost of around US$600, all those charges took the total cost to around €900 + FOB shipping charges of about €300 (FOB being the only and most expensive way that most countries will ship). It's quite shocking really. I also have to pay a fee on top of that to my agents, but in comparison, it's nothing, and they work their butts off to process everything for me.
Bill H