2017 WSP with Prototype Image Intensifier!
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What a pleasure to have long-time customers come over to our booth to say “hello” to “Uncle Al”. Tim and Spencer Vent came to WSP from Helena, AR. A special thanks to my friend Mal Speer who helps me set-up and demonstrate our products. Kermitis was parked on Tim Peters’ (DiscMount) van to greet visitors looking through our scopes.
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It’s also great to meet other telescope makers such as John Pratte and Mike Lockwood (he made Pratte’s 32”, f/3.6 mirror). I always enjoy getting my “Omega fix” — seeing the incredible Omega Centauri globular cluster in a large Dob. (It was also nice to see that John installed an NP101 as a finder for his scope). And having John install our prototype night vision setup in his scope and having Darren Drake take a smartphone video of the Orion nebula with it. It was a unique first-light experience. Darren kindly sent us the video and his impressions as follows:
On the night of February 20th, at the Winter Star Party, we were treated to a wonderful view of M42 with John Pratte’s 32-inch, f3.6 Dobsonian telescope equipped with a Starlight Integrated Paracorr System (SIPS). Later, when we used a 17.3mm Delos and a new prototype image intensified eyepiece brought out by Al Nagler — the view took on a whole new level of detail. We decided to use a Tele Vue FoneMate™ to attach my Note 4 cell phone to the device to make a brief video. The zooming was simply done with the screen on the phone. The results were extremely impressive and even showed the ever elusive G and H stars of the trapezium. Stars down to 16th magnitude were seen. The clip shows a real time video playback that is seen pretty much in real time with no glitchiness. This is definitely a device that can add a whole new level to the observing experience.
At the 2017 Winter Star Party on Scout Key, Florida, Darren Drake (Indian Head Park, Illinois) used the Tele Vue FoneMate™ with a prototype image intensifier provided by Al Nagler. Video by Darren Drake.
For your reference, these are the labled trapezium stars from the video.
Trapezium Star | Visual Magnitude |
---|---|
A | 6.73 |
B | 7.96 |
C | 5.13 |
D | 6.70 |
E | 11.1 |
F | 10.122 |
G | 13.678 |
H | 15 or greater |
Magnitudes obtained from Simbad database.
More images from the 2017 Winter Star Party
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![](http://televue.com/notamnomen/wp-content/uploads/2017WSP_scopes-150x96.jpg)
![](http://televue.com/notamnomen/wp-content/uploads/2017WSP_AlScopes-150x103.jpg)
![](http://televue.com/notamnomen/wp-content/uploads/2017WSP_Nelta-410x400.jpg)
![](http://televue.com/notamnomen/wp-content/uploads/2017WSP_10inRefractor-491x400.jpg)
• Learn the advantage of using a FoneMate™ with your smartphone to image through Tele Vue eyepieces and your telescope.
• The 17.3mm Delos has a 72° apparent field, 20mm eye relief, and adjustable height eyeguard to find your personal observing sweet-spot.
• The NP101is, a visual and imaging scope, has a heritage that spans the history of Tele Vue, from the original Renaissance to the TV-101.
• A Paracorr color-free, coma corrector is essential when using fast Dobs.