Buying Telescopes in Ireland

Hi everybody, nice site, dont know how I never heard of you before, Ive been using Cloudynights for general stuff and Boards.ie for Irish stuff for the past 6 months.

Anyway does anyone know what the best site (or shop) for buying scopes in Ireland is? I assume it will have to be a UK website but I haven't found any that ship for a reasonable price and not €100+. Astronomy Ireland's prices are ridicoulous and the selection on Ebay is fairly poor, Im looking for a Celestron Nexstar 102 SLT Refractor but I cant find one for the going rate anywhere, is there any telescope shop that ships to Ireland for a reasonable rate?

Hi Thargor, Welcome to the forum. Your right about Ireland being a bit thin on the ground when it comes to choice. I've bought a lot of stuff from www.teleskop-express.de I've found thir staff to be very helpful. They're based in Germany and the shipping to Ireland is very reasonable.

That is very reasonable, thanks James. And they have the 102, it comes to 417.50 though, I cant decide if its worth it or not, Ill have to think on it some more, great site for future reference though, thanks. If anyone has any other ideas please post.

I'll second that recommendation for Teleskop Service/Express. Spent over a thousand with them in the last year. Great company to deal with. Competative prices too.

Calibos wrote:

I'll second that recommendation for Teleskop Service/Express. Spent over a thousand with them in the last year. Great company to deal with. Competative prices too.

Telescope-service (Munich) are indeed great to deal with. Unfortunately, there are dealer restrictions imposed by Celestron on where you can buy from . Companies won't ship Celestron into Ireland unless you go through their dealer in Ireland (the AI shop). Its worth trying though.
There are other good brands out there though (Skywatcher, GSO etc..). Its worth shopping around. UK prices are good at the moment.
www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Meade_DS...Telescope__1875.html
www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Skywatch...x_127_Telescope.html

The skywatcher 5 inch Mak Cass above on a computerised altaz mount for €335 is a bargain and optically will perform better than a 4" widefield refractor.

Hi,
If you dont mind buying secondhand then try
www.astromart.com/classifieds/
You'll find some great bargains and a great range of items there.