Altair Astro, a retailer and manufacturer of astronomy equipment, decided to step up in helping out our NHS by using their materials, equipment, time and resource to 3D print additional PPE for our NHS staff, to ensure that they’re protected when helping those in need. Founded in 2004 by Nick Vermeulen and Ian Knight out of a passion for having astronomy equipment at an affordable price that suited their needs. If you’d like to help out you can support the development of the PPE equipment via the links below.
Introduce yourself and Altair Astro, what was your motivation behind starting the business and what do you sell?
Altair Astro was started by two amateur astronomers Nick Vermeulen and Ian Knight around 16 years ago. We were a little frustrated with the quality and price of astronomy products in the UK, so we decided to start a company to fill that gap in price and performance. The business grew organically, eventually to the point where we quit our day-jobs to concentrate on it full time. We now offer a wide range of telescopes, special astronomy cameras and accessories for viewing and imaging the skies. We also sell products by other companies, offering a general retail experience.
Tell us more about your products and how they’re created?
Our products were created based on our needs as amateur astronomers. We came up with products to solve problems. As time moved on, we started working with a larger manufacturing base overseas and with some local UK engineering companies. Our background in product development came in handy, and nowadays we lead product development for several overseas manufacturers who produce astronomy equipment and optics, and in return, we get the pick of their output.
One thing we’ve worked on recently are special “TriBand” camera filters enabling people who live in the city to image deep space objects with a colour camera. Making it affordable lead to an explosion in amateur images of objects which cannot be seen by the naked eye. This image was taken in Birmingham city with our equipment by customer and blogger Stacey Downton (Astrostace YouTube Channel), using one of our Hypercam cameras and TriBand filters.
Image credit, Stacey Downton, Birmingham 2020
What motivated you to start donating your time and resources to making masks for the NHS?
We already use 3D printers and other equipment for prototyping and small production run products. When Ian Knight saw TV news and Facebook posts by NHS employees facing a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) he approached the University of East Anglia (UEA) who have a project to distribute the face shields to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontline workers. The masks are distributed to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, James Paget University Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital as required.
What is involved in the process?
We have good quality 3D Printers able to print in PETG or ABS, types of plastic used in 3D printers that can handle high-temperature washing (so you can sterilise the equipment). The printers need to be well-calibrated and it takes about 3-4 hours to print a batch of face mask frames. We then deliver them to the UEA weekly.
Is there a way your customers can help out?
Yes definitely! We recently posted about this on Facebook and a customer offered to contribute for materials and printer components, so we’ve made a “product” in our EKM online shop letting anyone Sponsor a 3D Printed Face Shield / PPE for NHS Key workers. Simply click on the PayPal button to donate. Please note: We use ALL donations for 3D printing supplies, printer components, and delivery of the masks and make no profit from this whatsoever, in fact, it’s operating at a loss. We estimate we can make 1.3 masks for about £2 and they can be re-used.
Here’s Ian inspecting a batch of masks:
Did you have any experience selling online before starting your business?
Back in 2002 we had no experience at all and tried out several online ecommerce solutions before things really got going in around 2004. We implemented EKM in January 2020 and we’ve improved our workflow now to the point where it’s business as usual. We’ve had to close our high street shop to support social distancing, so now everything is online!
Can you give any advice about growing your online community? We see that your Facebook page has over 2,500 likes.
We have a very active public Altair Astro Facebook group where customers can learn, discuss and share tips and tricks. We post product updates in there regularly, and customers engage with us and each other positively. When we launched new products like our recent Hypercam 269C astro camera or TriBand city light pollution filters, we posted in our group to “kickstart” them. We have customers helping out with community moderation, making it a great place for beginners or experienced amateur astronomers to learn and “crowd-source”. We post from our page into the group, and vice-versa, and that gets page likes too. It’s mostly organic, which still seems the best way to drive engagement. We’re now looking into “Facebook products” to drive traffic into our EKM shop. We want to run this in a low maintenance way, without feeds, so we can concentrate on our core business.
What do you love most about running your own business?
Not only is it a subject we’ve been passionate about since childhood, but we also enjoy seeing real tangible results. Every time a customer posts images taken with our equipment in our Facebook community, we get a real buzz. Here’s an example:
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced since starting your business?
Getting the technical aspects of the hobby across to new customers – making it easy to understand and accessible. Our Facebook community is really helping with this!
What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out?
Take calculated risks only, and be prepared for some to pay off and others not to. Hone your approach to the business until it works. Put your money where your mouth is. If you’re in the hobby business like us, get involved in the community around the hobby too. Give something back and encourage your customers successes. Choose the right influencers. Don’t try and boil the ocean.
Why did you choose EKM?
We got to the point where we wanted a solution which is managed, and quick to implement. The management part is key, because we want to spend time engaging with customers and working on new products, instead of spending all our time working on the website.
The post Reaching for the stars by helping our NHS with Altair Astro Limited appeared first on Ecommerce Blog.
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