Purchased on a Tuesday morning, the tube assembly and flat pack Dobsonian base arrive by courier the next day. The assembly instructions for the base unit were downloaded from the FLO website and it was made up with little problem. Between the base plate and the rotating head are two metal plates which sandwich a roller bearing unit to provide very smooth azimuth rotation - a nice touch. The optical tube contains a parabolic mirror made by GSO (Guan Sheng Optical) who make the hyperbolic mirrors for virtually all the Ritchey-Chrétien telescopes sold today. Optically, as expected, it appears fine. The focuser is a very well made 1.25 inch Crayford type and is very smooth in use. Being only a 1.25 inch focuser rather than the 2 inch focusers found now on most new telescopes is actually a very good thing. As the maximum area that has to be illuminated is smaller than if a wide angle 2 inch eyepiece were to be used, the secondary mirror can be smaller and, in the Ursa Major, is just a 22% obstruction - as low as any Newtonian can have and so very little energy is diffracted out of the central Airy Disk into the surrounding rings providing a very high 'micro-contrast' so important when observing the planets. Two good quality Plössl eyepieces were provided as well as a 1.25 inch barrel extender. The 6x30 finder scope was mounted well away from the telescope tube and good to use. First light was that first evening with Jupiter rising in the east. The equatorial bands were easy to see as well as its 'point like' satellites. Io was very close to the limb of Jupiter and its clear visibility attested to the high overall contrast of the telescope's image. In all, an excellent telescope which is very well worth its cost. I bought it as a present for my grandson - but would quite like to keep it!

After much indecision I ordered the 6" Ursa Major from FLO, having found much advice on-line suggesting a 6" Dobsonian as a good first telescope. Ordering was painless and delivery only took a few days, including a Bank Holiday weekend. The OTA and base arrived separately packed, with the OTA securely double boxed.
As my first telescope, I was impressed with the quality - in particular the CNC machined focuser was very well finished and smooth in operation - and the optics appeared to be in full collimation. Assembly was straightforward using the downloaded instructions, although I would point out that the holes for securing the upper part of the mount to the base are not equidistant - something to check before trying to assemble.
I have only been out once with this, on a moonless night. Stars appeared sharp, with not too much in the way of diffraction spikes. Moving both sections together was easy; however, I found using the straight through finder a problem due to a bad back. I'm sure this would not be a problem for someone younger and fitter.
Overall, I think this would be an good telescope for someone like myself, new to astronomy. The low cost does not seem to be reflected in the quality provided and the issue I had was not down to the telescope itself.