My many visits to Orion Telescopes in Cupertino.....one of my dreams growing up in Malaysia

I know this sounds dorky but I have always held a fascination for the stars, ever since I received my Celestron Cometron CO40 as a gift, and since I discovered Astronomy Magazine (and later Sky and Telescope). It was through reading these magazines (and I still read them today!), that my fascination for Orion Telescopes and Binoculars began. I would peruse over their then black and white ad's in the magazines, and even wrote to them for some of their information packed catalogs (back then they used to mail internationally...ah the good old days). While I acquired catalogs from Celestron, Edmund Scientific and Orion, the one I always read over and over again was Orion's. In fact it became sort of like a collectors item for me and I would try to acquire "back issues" over the years through Astromart (and I acquired quite a few thanks to a fellow astronomer from Canada!)! As I flipped through its hallowed pages, I would drool over the ad's of Celestron/Vixen's C6 (which I now own...well the OTA anyway), Edmund's Astroscan and some of the smaller scope fare (I recently purchased a used Celestron Cometron CO60...but then sold it off!). Remember that Orion is a importer/exporter. However it would not be till years later that I would acquire my first Orion scope, and a used one too, a Orion 80ST OTA. More on this later.....

In 2007, after completion of my PhD, me and my significant half made plans to visit California to check out the many UC's for postdoctoral opportunities. This meant that I would have an opportunity to finally visit some of the telescope stores in CA. I immediately though of Orion. Now I know they have two stores in NorCal, one in Cupertino, and one in Watsonville. I made it to both stores and have not been disappointed!!!!! It was like a dream come true as I walked through the doors of the Cupertino store. I even got to experience their legendary customer service firsthand when I wanted to purchase a Orion StarBlast 4.5" minidob and was told that it was out of stock. Now I only had 2 weeks in CA so there was no way I could have waited for their stock to arrive. Buying the scope through a dealer back in oz was not an option as their prices were through the roof! Fortunately they had a floor model which was in immaculate condition. After explaining my situation to the store salesperson, he made a call to the manager and they agreed to sell me that model! They even threw in a free eyepiece for a lower price!

Fast forward to 2012. Yet another brilliant example of Orion's legendary after sales service. I now live in SoCal so getting to an Orion is way easier than having to fly thousands of miles and then driving to the Orion store. In fact I visit their store every time I drive up to NorCal to visit close friends. We hope to eventually move up to NorCal for jobs and such so we can be close to our childhood friends. Anyways back to the story. The following are two instances where Orion's staff members went out of their way to make sure things were right! You know the story where the StarBlast was out of stock...well it happened to me again when I decided to get their SkyScanner mini dob. I got the floor model again for a lower price (booyah!) as they were once again out of stock for this model (what is wrong with my timing ;).

The other more recent incident on my last trip up north I purchased a Orion StarShoot Color Solar System Imager, during a web sale. Due to the awful June/July marine layer weather here in SoCal, I only got to try the camera out about a month after receiving it. The cam worked fine for terrestrial objects, but stubbornly refused to come to focus in all my newtonian telescopes. And this was with the bright moon as a test subject! It seems the imaged was formed inside the focuser tube. Therefore there was no easy way to solve this problem, save moving the primary mirror forward (which would necessitate moving the whole mirror cell forward!). I wish the problem was the other way around. That way all I needed to do was to add an extension tube, or a barlow lens (I did try the barlow in the focuser trick but it did not work!). Now Orion now has a superb website and has several options for contacting them. One was the traditional method of calling their hot line. the other was a live chat over the internet (and it is sooo convenient!). I chose the latter. Talking to tech support, we ran through the problem I faced with the cam. Not being able to come up with a simple solution, I decided to return the item for a full refund. I asked if it was possible to return the item seeing how I was a few days off the 30 day return window. The person on the other side said that that was not an issue, and told me to send it in. That's what I call customer satisfaction!

Technology has come a long way and there are now many different avenues for purchasing items from brick and mortar stores, as well as online stores. While in many countries, buying online is still at its infancy, the avenue of shopping is very much alive and heavily utilized in the US. In fact most good deals can be had by purchasing online, more so than buying from a store!!! Seeing how Orion specialized in mail order, their brilliant online store is just another feather in their cap. They pride themselves on educating the masses, and have done so through their print catalog for many years (and they still do!). They now have a different avenue, via their online store. I find their articles, their monthly sky write ups and their educational videos on how to setup and use astronomical equipment very helpful. Making their product instruction manual's available as pdf's for download is definitely a plus plus. Many of the larger companies are now following in Orion's footsteps and adding articles and how to video's for their scopes. Also although they are an importer/exporter, Orion continues to innovate and work closely with their manufacturer's to produce original designs that set them apart from their competition (i.e. everyone loves their mini dobs and they are currently the first company to offer camera holders for smart phones!!!!!!). Also quality control is pretty tight and QC on their scopes seems to be very good. All Orion scopes I have owned have been pretty close to perfect, starting with the Orion 80ST, the Orion StarBlast and now the Orion SkyScanner! Kudos to Orion for servicing the amateur astronomy community for so many years.....happy 37th anniversary!!!!!!!!!!!!!