RVO trip

[Tweedledee]

Had a nice trip out to Rother Valley Optics today with Damian, and eventually ended up in the cafe at Waterstones in Sheffield browsing some books.

 

A few interesting and tempting things caught my eye at RVO, but I resisted spending any money. As our local candy store, it is always nice to have a visit, but I find it a pity that they only have a third of their showroom space allocated to astro gear. I suppose the RC modellers are happy with that arrangement. They had an old, but nice, used 8" Takahashi combined cass/newt on a motorised mount, but it seemed a lot of money at £3000. For £4000 they had a carbon fibre fork mounted Meade RCX400 12". I was very impressed when they told me it had motorised collimation controlled by the handset enabling accurate collimation in a jiffy. There was a very neat Italian made Geoptik 12" dob that had been used by Ian on Jupiter the other night for his most detailed views ever with its Orion Optics top class mirrors. Numerous smaller scopes were on show with spotting scopes, binoculars and a limited range of astro books. Glass cabinets had a few nice eyepieces and accessories with a colourful selection of Moonlight focusers. They had a nice Speers Waler wide angle zoom 8 to 12mm eyepiece in stock for £260. I hadn't seen a new one before, but do have a used one I got from the US. Very nice eyepiece. 

 

The place is well worth a visit and the staff, Ian and Adam, are very friendly and informative. While feeling a little guilty for not spending any money there, I thought I'd give them a plug on here. 

 

I came home and bought one of these online. They were going cheap and take 2" filters and only weighs 275 grams. It will replace my old 5 position 2" filter wheel which is much heavier.

 

[Bottletopburly]

Nice write up?

[Brantuk]

Never been to the shop, but had a fair few things from them online and over the phone - always had great service from RVO.

[philjay]

Not been to RVO for ages but always enjoyed the experience. Not had much to do with Damien but Ian was always helpful

[Orion]

Nice service from them. Recently got a First Horizons tripod, ball head, Sky Surfer V and a Star Adventurer from them last year. Came quickly after purchase. Answered all my questions I had prior to purchase and also after purchase. Matched prices of other suppliers.

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