Our company was established in 1981 as a publications and trading house. In 1992, when we bought our first portable STARLAB planetarium, we entered the field of astronomy. Today, having acquired the approval of the Ministry of Education, we are coordinating the activity of 7 such portable planetaria (in Athens [2], Nicosia, Crete, Lesvos, Serres, Thesaloniki). We have distributed these planetaria to associates in the above cities, plus one in Istanbul that operates in one of the biggest private schools of the city. The operation of the portable planetaria STARLAB offers us – among other benefits – the ability of penetrating the world of education. In 1996 we set out with our first imports of astronomical equipment. Today, we are official or even exclusive distributors of: CELESTRON, SYNTA, TELEVUE, LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES Inc. (exclusive distribution of STARLAB in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Albania, Boulgaria), KOWA (promotion of coin operated sightseeing binoculars), ZEISS (sport optics), KONUS, SKY Publishing, RSA Cosmos (promotion of projects for permanent type planetaria), BAADER Planetarium , VIXEN Japan and others.

It might sound strange, but Greeks are just now beginning to get acquainted with amateur astronomy. Indeed, in the country where this science was born. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that our company is the one that leads the way. A significant landmark on this route was the publication by our company of the book NIGHTWATCH in Greek (December 2002). Following NIGHTWATCH, we have printed in Greek famous titles, extremely helpful for the Greek amateur astronomers, such as THE MONTHLY SKY GUIDE (2nd edition), ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY, UNIVERSE AND BEYOND, VISIONS OF THE COSMOS, MOON OBSERVERS GUIDE and others.

Alongside, we publish textbooks written by astronomy professors of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, as well as a beautiful astronomical planisphere, designed by the president of the Greek Astronomy Committee and astronomy professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Mr. John Seiradakis.

Today, our company occupies 14 qualified employees.

The main ways of promoting our products are:

1. Direct sales through “mail order” advertisements in a number of high circulation magazines, such as National Geographic, Focus, Geo, Experiment, Voyager, Science Illustrator, Discovery Science and others.
2. Telemarketing and direct mail to selected target groups.
   
3. Participation in trade fairs (general ones as well as thematic).
   
4. Two showrooms for retail sales (one at the centre of Thessaloniki and the other at the heart of the centre of Athens).
   
5. In the spring of 2005 we started building a resellers network by creating “astronomy sections”, where telescopes and books are exhibited within selected shops of popular chain stores. Now we are “placed” in the best positions of the Greek market, in “powerful chain stores” such as PUBLIC, PAPASOTIRIOU and others, as well as in the gift shops of “Evgenidio Planetarium” in Athens and the “Thessaloniki Science Centre and Technology Museum”.  In the meantime, we are the main suppliers of astronomy equipment for many Astronomy Departments in Greek universities.
   
6. Internet Marketing. Our website is maybe the most famous astronomy website in Greece. Beside the mass of products that are presented there, the visitors have the ability to obtain enormous amount of information, since we have made available more than 850 vocabulary entries of astronomical context, in cooperation with one of the most reliable Greek encyclopedias, Epistimi & Zoi (Science and Life).
   
7. In addition, we are making a few exports in nearby countries, such as Bulgaria, Skopje and Turkey.

We recently opened a branch in the heart of the business center of Athens. The opening was welcomed with great enthusiasm by the local community of amateur astronomers.  We believe that this store, combined with our new, updated website featuring an online shop will help us promote even better the products of the companies we officially represent and serve our customers more effectively. 

By the end of 2007 our new astronomy shop is operating in Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus.

Since November 2008 we are running the astronomy gift-shop inside the Thessaloniki's Science Center and Technology Museum.Our astronomy gift-shop offers to the visitors the most complete variety of products for sky and nature observation as well as modern and smart educational media for every age.

We are optimistic about the future because, among other reasons, we see that in our area the amateur astronomy is developing rapidly.

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Head office (Thessaloniki): order reception,view from showroom

Astronomy gift shop inside Thessloniki' s Science Center "NOESIS"

Brance office (Athens): Show room

Our astronomy-gift shop in Nicosia operating under the name PLANITARIO VEGAS

Participation of our company in trade fairs	(Trade International Fair, Photovision etc)

The portable Planetarium Starlab on tour Astronomy shows with the portable planetaria Starlab in Greece and Cyprus

PLANETARIUM of Thessaloniki
Dimitrios Tsampouras & Co

Head office
45 Politechniou str, 54625 Thessaloniki, GREECE Tel: +30 2310 533902, Fax: +30 2310 550672

Branch (Thessaloniki)
6th klm of Thessaloniki-Thermi Avenue, inside Science Center and Technology Museum Tel/Fax: +30 2310 471441

Branch (Athens)
56 Panepistimiou str, ERMIS Building, Omonia, 10678 Athens, GREECE Tel: +30 210 3845102, Fax: +30 210 3842030

e-mail: planitario@astronomy.gr
http://www.astronomy.gr