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Teeter vs. The Competition

Why spend your money with Teeter's Telescopes? What do we offer you that our competition does not?  What sets us apart from other telescopes?  Please see a summary below of what we believe makes us your best option when searching for the highest quality, most customizable and reasonably priced telescope on the market for your money.  

 

Basically what all of the points below boil down to is that most of our competition are more production line telescopes that have few, if any in some cases, customizations available. Our telescopes are built one at a time and built distinctly for you. That requires more labor on our end, we are using higher quality components and those components are more custom built, which all translates to increased pricing. There's a place for our competitors' telescopes and a place for Teeter's Telescopes, so we are here for those who want a more customized piece of equipment.

01

Custom Apertures and Focal Lengths

Rather than choosing only from X, Y, or Z choices, we can pretty much do any aperture and focal ratio combination. Want a 16" instead of a 15"?  Or maybe a 14.5"? Or a 22"? That's something we can do, not all of our competition can or will make the effort.  Want a 15" f/4.2 instead of f/4.5?  Again, we can do it, not all of our competition can.  

02

Customizability on the Build Style

We also give you stain color choices, hardware color choices, shroud color choices, wood or aluminum bearings choices (aluminum available for an up charge) and eyepiece location choices (right or left side of scope) to really make this scope yours.

03

We Give You More and Give You Better Standard Components 

We give you more accessories included in the price of the scope than our competition.  We give you a Kendrick DigiFire-7 controller, Dual Boundary Layer Cooling Fans, complete and operational wiring for the fans (one of our competitors - let's call them the Big O - gives you two bare leads and YOU have to solder a plug and run wiring for an inferior single fan behind the primary which is under powered for cooling a mirror 2" thick from the Big O, see more below), Truss Ring (separate the scope into two sections for transport), Truss Pole Carry Case, Velvet Flocking, anodized truss poles, etc.  See more on our Standard Components page

04

We Give you a Larger Selection of Upgrades/Add-ons

For example, this includes the Glatter Cable Sling which is by far the best lower edge support system for a primary mirror, clearly superior to the strap-sling included from the Big O (and no upgrade is available directly from from them).  We install and adjust the Glatter Cable Sling here in our shop so it's set perfectly when you take delivery of your telescope. See our Upgrades page for a full listing of incredible upgrades and add-ons that we offer.

05

Superior Build Quality

We give you better build quality and hardware than our competition. Our truss connectors, top and bottom, are superior on our scopes, both in longevity and ease of use.  Our joinery on the wood components is better (rabbet joints on our scopes versus weak butt joints on others'), and we fill all screw and nail holes, unlike some of our competition.  We also use brass, stainless steel or luster coated black hardware for exposed hardware.

06

Every Telescope is Field Tested

We test every telescope before it leaves our shop, contrary to what our competiiton may do, especially the Big O. With them, the first time your primary mirror meets your structure is on your doorstep.  With our telescopes, we test every one a minimum of two nights, so we catch any problems before your scope ever gets to you, rather than you finding problems on the first night out under the stars.

07

Thinner, Faster Cooling, Primary Mirrors

Our primary mirrors are thinner and our scopes come balanced for these thinner mirrors.  All Big O telescopes come with 2" thick primary mirrors, which by today's standards are very thick.  A 12.5" from Zambuto or Lightholder in your Teeter's Telescope would be 1.25" thick, while a 15" or 16" from Zambuto or Lightholder would still only be 1.5" thick.  Thinner mirrors acclimate to ambient temperature faster than thicker mirrors, and the faster your mirror reaches ambient, the sooner you're observing through your scope!

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