Science Centre 'planetarium' is coming back!

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Dark Neptune
Posts: 124
Joined: Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:18 am
Favourite scope: Sky-Watcher SkyMax 90mm, Coronado PST

Re: Science Centre 'planetarium' is coming back!

Post by Dark Neptune »

Mariner wrote:
Airconvent wrote:Was there today. Spoke to Albert and he shared some interesting stories on the Observatory. You would cry if you heard it...
As for his shop, the prices of his stuff have come down drastically. A Nexstar 8SE is around $2200 today, down by 50% , not that much more expensive if you shipped it from the US, I think. His old shop space has been replaced by a new kids exhibit area.

Pray tell. I'm seriously considering joining SSC.
And as a SCOB volunteer there for 8 years, I will strongly advise you against it. The staff whom I have close bonds with, and those that I don't, all have that the same consensus that SSC isn't a place you would want to stay for the long term. Unless it's like the only job you can find and/or tahan in today's SG climate.

(P.S. Not to mention pay is [meh] from what I heard.)
Thanks.
Dark Neptune
Posts: 124
Joined: Sat Jan 21, 2012 11:18 am
Favourite scope: Sky-Watcher SkyMax 90mm, Coronado PST

Re: Science Centre 'planetarium' is coming back!

Post by Dark Neptune »

Airconvent wrote: Oh...so you are Dark Neptune..haha. Thought you were some non-astro part-time student he hired :0 Nice to have met you all the same. Next time you see me, do flag out as I may not be able to remember your faces...bah..

I went there because I had a very very good offer from him last year for that OTA that is sitting in his office. At the time, I was a little reluctant but came back to relook at the deal now but the price has increased drastically now. :(

As for US stuff, do note that last year US$1=SGD1.24, now its more like around SGD1.34, so no surprise he increased his prices.
HAHAHA I will next time! I knew you were from SGA forums because Carole spoke to you the same way she knows any of her astro buds. :P

But prices for the lousy AstroMaster & PowerSeeker models have dropped regardless; Albert ordered most of his Celestron scope stock from many years ago in massive bulk; he stores them at the 5 warehouses he owns. I've been to one of them last month and it was huge in my opinion; yet was told by him that was the smallest of the 5 warehouses.... [smilie=ahaaah.gif]

I did an in-depth analysis comparing prices of many telescopes from Albert's shop, JooBeng's and eBay. While eBay doesn't have sellers selling Celestron SCTs yet, JooBeng is currently selling a C8 OTA for $1719 vs Albert's $2138.95. $419.95 price difference. That's for a CGE dovetail.

For the CG-5, its JooBeng's $1549 vs Albert's $2138.95. $589.95 price difference.

But I do want to highlight that JooBeng's prices may had changed since then as he himself told me last week that he does not have the time to always update everything on his Price List page though.
Thanks.
Hardwarezone
Posts: 350
Joined: Fri May 17, 2013 2:50 am
Favourite scope: maksutov

Re: Science Centre 'planetarium' is coming back!

Post by Hardwarezone »

Hardwarezone wrote:
Dark Neptune wrote: On eBay though, the cheapest 8SE I could find is around SGD1990 inclusive of shipping & 7%GST.
nexstar se line was on same promotion december 2013 & 2014
http://i.imgur.com/phMwfhl.png
It's back again now on ebay.com.sg under different USA seller , include shipping and gst about SGD $1650 despite this year's exchange rate being 10% more than last year.
I have no idea whether the seller will honor the absurdly low shipping quote by the ebay GSP program.
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Airconvent
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Re: Science Centre 'planetarium' is coming back!

Post by Airconvent »

wow...$1650 is a good price for an 8SE ! The shipping cost is prohibitively high due to the package size and weight.
You can get such prices locally only if the owner someone hand carried this back (save shipping) or the scope is 2nd hand or 3rd hand.
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haejae
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Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2015 7:42 pm
Favourite scope: astromaster 130eq:p

Re: Science Centre 'planetarium' is coming back!

Post by haejae »

Wah u guys so lucky,talking abt 8se and cg5 mounts... I'm stuck here with ps127 and eq 1 mount:(((

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Airconvent
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Re: Science Centre 'planetarium' is coming back!

Post by Airconvent »

Haejae, my first scope was a Toys-R-Us Edu-science 105mm Newtonian which was trash. Then a got an ETX90RA manual scope that I had to disassemble from the mount so I can attach it to a Manfrotto slomo head! That one offered decent performance for its aperture and super portability. So don't worry. Most of us progressively upgrade as we understand our needs better.
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