A round-up of a few public-forum “factoids”
(If you got to this page via a product button then the item will be found below.)
It shouldn’t surprise anyone to learn that in common with most manufacturers active in astronomy, we monitor many public astro forums. We do this as part of our mission to keep up with fast-moving trends, and public internet forums are, together with other channels, an important source of up-to-date intelligence. However, along the way we come across the opinions of the forum ‘experts’ who sometimes seem to have an agenda to misinform and confuse their fellow astronomers. Here is a sample of some that we have come across in the last few months - we will add other gems here as we find them. If you have a query about any of our products why not just contact us directly (info@astro-engineering.com) and get the real facts.
A. Knowitall: AE’s night-vision saving goggles are just over-priced laser protection goggles that you can get from DIY stores.
AE reply: Not so - our Nite-Saver red goggles are manufactured in our plant and offer no protection from laser light at all! We buy in a standard, light-tight but vented welding goggle, dispose of the green lens and then cut our own lenses from ruby-red safety Perspex on a CNC milling machine. The lenses are then cleaned, polished (to remove tool marks), assembled into goggles and packaged for sale though our authorised resellers. Sorry Mr Knowitall, search if you wish, but you won’t find anything like them in B&Q, Focus or Homebase!
A. Knowitall: I’ve seen AE’s Laser Dream collimator sold elsewhere for a lot less money - it’s just rip-off Britain again!
AE reply: Sorry no, if it doesn’t have Astro Engineering printed on it, then it’s not ours! We do use a laser body that is made in Taiwan and the shape is widely seen in competitor products, but ours has important internal parts that are our own design and are manufactured in Britain. Ours has a precision-made aluminium 45-degree target face that can be viewed at a distance from the collimator, greatly speeding up and simplifying the collimation procedure with Newtonian telescopes. Ours also comes in an anti-shock storage bottle (a small point relative to the difference just mentioned you might think, but where’s the point in a collimator that can’t keep its collimation because of bumps and shocks in transit?). You can buy a quality laser collimator that comes with British design and know-how, or you can buy a cheap one that just looks like it - as always, the choice is yours.
A. Knowitall: AE’s Alignmate level and North gadgets are copied in America and the copies are better and cheaper.
AE reply: Not true, the copy is more expensive. The desiccant supplied with the copy serves no useful purpose other than to provide the manufacturer with the claim that theirs is ‘different’ from the original. Desiccants are only effective in sealed environments - the interior of Meade ETX telescopes are not at all air-tight, so in effect the desiccant faces the challenge of drying the entire planet out. Banking on your customers not knowing very much is a risky marketing strategy. Our products do what we say they do - nothing else.
A. Knowitall: Broadhurst Clarkson & Fuller Ltd (BC&F) own Astro Engineering and/or control everything they do.
AE reply: No, BC&F own no part of Astro Engineering, nor have they ever owned any part of AE - we enjoy a close working relationship with BC&F and they distribute our products in the UK. For some years we twined our name with BC&F’s for the purposes of building a recognisable brand - this conjunction was mutually dissolved in early 2005 (it is however still visible on some packaging and reseller websites etc).
A. Knowitall: Like many so-called manufacturers in Western countries, Astro Engineering just stick their name on products made by other companies - typically based in the Far East - and overcharge for them, so you are better off getting the products abroad.
AE reply: Quite right - a lot of folk do this - only not us! AE have currently designed and manufactured over 400 specialist astronomy products and the range continues to grow all the time. We do modify and re-badge a small number of imported items (less than 2% of our range!) but more significantly, we manufacture a much larger number of products for other well known astro companies. Most of our products are unique and the only place you can buy a genuine AE product is from one of our resellers. Our products are available worldwide wherever astronomy is taken seriously. And yes, be surprised, we do all this from dear old Blighty - it’s not all doom and gloom for British manufacturing companies!
A. Knowitall: I’ve seen AE’s Observer’s Chair selling elsewhere for less than half the price they charge!
AE reply: Tell us where - we’ll buy’em! It may ‘look’ like ours, but unless it works like ours and has our name on it, it isn’t ours. Our product looks similar to a standard and widely available task stool (there are several products like this that look similar to ours). But these stools lack our design of 45 degree angled lock that lets you change the height rapidly in the dark and relock the seat in position without removing any bolts. The model confused with ours is not really suitable for astronomical use as it is designed to operate from a limited number of fixed positions. And that’s why ours is more expensive: pay less = get less.
It’s a commonplace phenomenon in astronomy hardware - things looking similar but being in fact very different in performance. After all - most refracting telescopes look similar on the outside, but even Mr Knowitall probably isn’t silly enough to buy anything solely based on superficial looks.
UK-based astro-manufactures are a very small band and at Astro Engineering we are genuinely proud to be members of a community that includes Starlight Xpress, True Technology, Pulsar Optical and others. Between us, we manufacture some of the most well-made and innovative astronomy products available in the world - and that, thank goodness, really is a fact.
Astro Engineering
Cambridgeshire
England
