Galileo brand achros?

Anyone know anything about this brand? I saw an ST80 of theirs listed in the AM classifieds, so I tried to look up info on them out of curiosity.

Are they Synta? Or maybe GS? I'm sure they must be Asian, based on the price alone. Their website has direct sales, with a clearance section that has a 152mm f/7.9 achro on an EQ mount/tripod for $699 (though the mount does look maybe a bit light for that monster). It also comes with two plossl eyepieces, I think.

This sounds like a potentially good deal, but I just don't know anything about this brand. $699 is a good deal for a good quality build/optic 6-incher, but I'd hate to throw down seven bills on a 1/2-wave over corrected, poorly built piece of junk. (Since it's clearance, I assume it might be tough to return, but I didn't look into this)

(On first look, it looks like an even better deal, since the link to the scope detail page mistakenly lists it as 203mm aperture! Poor webpage design)

Hi Jim:

Is this the scope you were looking at???

http://www.astromart.com/classifieds/details.asp?classified_id=431770

The Ganymede 185 ST-80 made by Galileo?

If so, I did own one which I gave to my step-son. These scopes were sold by Apogee Inc and included not only the OTA, the finder and eyepieces but a reasonable tripod, all for $99.

I doubt these were made by either GSO or Synta. At $99 they were a decent deal but not of the same quality as the ST-80s I have seen/owned.

A couple of observations about the Ganymede 185:

1. The finder dovetail is not Vixen/Synta but something propietary, the finder falls out regularly.

2. The focuser draw tube interferes with the light cone. I measured the effective aperture at something around 67mm..

3. The objective cell is plastic and just presses on over the tube.

4. With tweeking and playing around, it was a enjoyable scope, I was able to convince myself that I could split the double-double... Whether I could or not, well, probably but certainly not a clean split like a Pronto or a Celestron First Scope 80mm F11 but some sort of something anyway... Castor was nice and clean though...


5. $90 for a scope without a tripod that sold for $99 with a tripod, I had a bit of a hard time with that one when I saw it.

6. If you want a small fast refractor and don't want to spring for an ED-80, keep your eye open for a real ST-80, either the Orion or the Celestron version, definitely a cut above this scope and I see them for not much over $100 every so often.

Bottom line: small fast refractors are neat, they are handy to use and give some nice views that are unavailable otherwise. They also double as a birding/terrestial scope... Everyone needs one.

Jon