European Telescope Manufacturers

Are there any other european telescope manufacturers out there other than orion optics and bresser or is the market mainly filled with american equipment.

Hi Brendan,

The American brands do indeed seem to dominate the market, but many of their telescopes are manufactured in China or Taiwan. Likewise many "own-brand" telescopes from European suppliers come from the same factories in the far east.

There are a couple of companies that seem to manufacture in Europe:

IntesMicro and Tal - Russia - readily available and well regarded scopes
Astro-Professional - Germany - I don't know anything about them, but they are now available from an Irish dealer ( www.ktectelescopes.ie/cart.html )
Geoptik and Officina Stellare - Italy - Top end scopes with prices to match; I think Officina Stellare may have arisen from a combination of A&M (still available, e.g. from Opticstar) and Astrotech Engineering
Konus - Italy - modest telescopes

No doubt I have missed some others.

Mike

Thanks alot for that ive noticed a bresser nt 150 its an exhibition model (made in china no doubt) for a reduced price and since they dont ship outside germany il have to get a friend to send it back but it seems to be a good buy.

www.meadeshop.de/item.php5?lang=de&id=4750128001

The only reason i ask is that in my experience the only thing the americans know how to do right is aeroplanes and anything else from america with quality written on the tin seems to lack exactly that.

with that said there jeans arnt bad

Brendan.

Hi Brendan,

Can I suggest that you also consider a 200mm Newtonian on a Celestron mount from Teleskop Service:

www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_inf...-advanced-mount.html

That is a good scope (I have one) with a very nice focuser. I think the mount can be upgraded to full GoTo (better check that), making it a CG-5, one of the best entry level mounts available and more than capable of handling the 200mm scope. Teleskop Service supply to Ireland and their P&P charges are very reasonable. They have a reputation for excellent service. All in all I think it's good alternative to the Bresser, for just €50 more, though no motor drive or eyepiece is included.

Just a suggestion for you, no doubt there are other good packages out there. Take your time with the purchase, think carefully about what you will use it for (visual or astroimaging) and consider whether the package will meet your needs in the years to come (or can be upgraded to meet them).

Good luck in your search.

Mike

Thanks for that mike its hard to get well informed advice especially taking future upgrade into account, il try out a few at a veiwing night first i think is the safest plan.

Brendan

Hi all,

Since this is the 2nd time that Ktectelescopes.ie has been mentioned on Irishastronomy.org, I thought I had better let you all know that the site is run by a fellow Irishastronomy.org user

Thanks for linking the site mykc.

I have already contacted a few of the site admins a few weeks ago just to let them know that I was the man behind the site.

So Hi to you all.