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Sky & Telescope Hot New Product Awards

The editors of Sky & Telescope's present yearly product awards based on the following criteria:

  • introduces a new concept or technology to our hobby
  • represents a significant improvement in price/performance ratio
  • solves an old problem in a new way
  • solves a problem we didn't even know we had
  • makes difficult observations easier
  • makes us wish we'd invented it ourselves.

Over the years, Tele Vue has been well represented in the roster of awardees. Following is our growing list of Hot Product Awards.

Issue    Product
January 2018   Night Vision System
January 2016   DeLite eyepieces
January 2015   BIG Paracorr
January 2014   NP127fli Astrograph
January 2013   Delos Eyepiece Line
January 2012   Delos 6mm and Delos 10mm
January 2011   Ethos-SX 3.7-mm and Paracorr Type-2
January 2010   Ethos 10-and-21mm
January 2009   Ethos Eyepiece Line
January 2008   Ethos 13mm 100°
January 2007   "IS" APO astrograph refractors and Paracorr for SBIG STL-series
January 2006   DIOPTRX™ astigmatism correctors
January 2004   TV-60 APO refractor, 2-4mm Nagler Zoom and 41mm Panoptic eyepieces
January 2003   24mm Panoptic eyepiece
December 2001   3-6mm Nagler Zoom and NP101 APO refractor
December 2000   102 APO refractor
December 1999   31-mm Nagler Type 5 and Radian series eyepieces
December 1998   5x  Powermate


Cloudy Nights Readers Choice Awards

Each year, Cloudy Nights, the popular equipment review website, asks its readers to nominate "the most important, influential or plain and simply – just the best dang products of the last year". The top products are listed as their Readers Choice winners.

Year    Product
2010   3.7mm Ethos SX, Paracorr Type 2, 21mm Ethos (2-years running!),and FeatherTouch Starlight Integrated Paracorr System (SIPS) — Tele Vue Paracorr built into a Feather Touch focuser
2009   10mm Ethos and 21mm Ethos
2008   8mm Ethos
2007   13mm Ethos
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The Backyard Astronomer's Guide Review of Tele Vue

Proclaiming it the "quintessential guide", Sky & Telescope awarded the 3rd edition of The Backyard Astronomer's Guide with a 2009 Hot Product Award (January 2009, p. 47). "It's an indispensable aid for amateurs wading into the ocean of modern telescopes, eyepieces, and accessories," says S&T. "If you were to own only one book on amateur astronomy, this is it." Here's what the book has to say about Tele Vue and our products.


A Brief History of Telescopes / Late 1980s to mid-1990s: REFRACTOR REBORN

  • [Al Nagler's] Tele Vue Renaissance and Genesis 4-inch models were instrumental in reestablishing the refractor as a serious tool for backyard astronomy. (p. 33)

Surveying the Telescope Market / APOCHROMATIC REFRACTORS (66mm to 7-inch)

  • Dream Apo: Nobody does it better than Tele Vue. The 5-inch NP127is is Tele Vue's top-end apo refractor. (p. 42, image caption)
  • The top-of-the line NP101 ... uses a four-element design for total elimination of false color and any image-smearing aberrations. (p. 42)

Recommended Telescopes / NOTHING BUT THE BEST

  • Tele Vue NP Refractors: Optics don't get any better. From wide-field panoramas to high-power planetary views, the four-element Nagler-Petzval NP101 and NP127 do it all. (p. 56)

Eyepieces / STANDARD-FIELD EYEPIECES / Zoom Eyepieces

  • Image quality is superb... . (p. 71, Tele Vue Nagler zoom)

Eyepieces / NAGLER-CLASS EYEPIECES

  • The ultimate low-power eyepiece is the six-element 31mm Nagler Type 5. (p. 74, image caption)
  • Nagler has revolutionized eyepiece design and raised the bar on eyepiece performance. (p. 74)
  • Tele Vue's 24mm Panoptic . . . . is much sharper across the field than any other competitor. (p. 75, sidebar: Our Favorite Eyepieces II: Wide-Field Deep-Sky)
  • The Ethos provides an amazing 100-degree field that has to be seen to believed. The eyepiece truly gets out of the way for the ultimate spacewalk experience. And yet, despite the enormous field and complex glass, star images are pinpoint right to the edge and contrast is superb. The Ethos features a dual 2-inch / 1.25-inch barrel and weighs 20 ounces. At $620 the 13mm Ethos is a serious investment, but if you want the best, this is it. (p. 76)

BARLOW LENSES

  • Differing in optical design from the classic negative-lens Barlow, the Powermates have the advantage of being parfocal with the eyepiece used on its own - you don't have to alter the focus when you insert the Powermate, unlike when you insert a Barlow. The Powermates are superb optically and are a great accessory for web-cam imaging. (p. 78)

— T. Dickenson, A. Dyer. The Backyard Astronomer's Guide (3rd edition).


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