Hello Astro-Nuts,

The fourth production run of our 92mm f6.65 Stowaway is well underway and we have contacted all of the remaining people who had signed up on our notification list in April 2018.  Roland fulfilled his promise of making enough scopes for everyone who signed up the first time who wanted one.  We are producing more scopes that will need a good home. So, now what do we do? 

After much deliberation we’ve decided to offer the remaining scopes in a random-drawing format.  This is a departure from our usual processes, so we know you have questions.  We have answers:

Why can’t I just order one? We wanted to provide an equal opportunity to people who would really like to own and use this scope. If we simply opened our phone lines to take orders, it would favor people who live in particular time zones and only those who happened to hear about it. We anticipate that they would have sold out very quickly, possibly even before people on the other side of the globe were awake. Since we have an international following, we wanted to give everyone an opportunity.

What do you mean, random drawing?  For one week from Friday, July 30 to Friday, August 6 (12pm noon central daylight savings time), anyone can sign up on the 92mm Stowaway 2021 Random Drawing Entry form.  It does not matter when you sign up, as long as it’s within the sign-up window.  From this group of interested people, we will randomly choose the people who will be notified of the opportunity to purchase a 92mm Stowaway.

Why aren’t you just notifying people in order of when they signed up, like usual?  Traditionally we have collected names of those interested in a particular product in chronological order and notified folks of the opportunity to purchase the item in that order.  We’ve occasionally received criticism, most especially if the list is only open for a short time, from folks who were unaware of the list, on vacation, on the other side of the world and asleep when the list was open, etc.

We only have a limited number of Stowaways and wanted to give everyone an equal chance to purchase one.  With advanced notice and a one-week sign-up window, we hope to catch everyone who might be interested in this scope.

How do I sign up?  Go to the 92mm Stowaway 2021 Random Drawing Entry form and fill in all the required fields, including your name, phone number, email address and billing address.  The link to this form will be available on July 30^th at noon on the Availability tab of the 92mm Stowaway website page: www.astro-physics.com/92f665 . 

When can I sign up?  The 92mm Stowaway 2021 Random Drawing Entry form will be available from July 30 to August 6 (12pm noon central daylight savings time for both). 

Will I receive a confirmation of my sign-up?  Yes.  Following submission, a confirmation window will appear. Assuming that you provided a valid email address, you will also receive an auto-generated confirmation email with all of the information that you provided for your reference. If you do NOT receive a confirmation email, it may be in your spam folder or you may have entered an incorrect email address. 

When will I know if I was selected?  After the deadline, we will contact the people whose names we draw randomly from the entries. This process may take several months since we do not sell the final scopes in the run until they are completed. We will post periodic messages on the Availability tab of the 92mm Stowaway website page regarding the status of the drawing: www.astro-physics.com/92f665

When would I pay for my order?  The order process will remain the same as usual: Once you’re notified, you will have 2 weeks to decide whether to purchase and submit a 50% deposit.  At that time a scope will be reserved for you and we will provide an estimated date of delivery.

We wish you luck!

The Astro-Folks