For those who desire tack-sharp views from a telescope that's a breeze to transport to a dark-sky site, you won't go wrong with the new Tele Vue 76 refractor.

In-and-out-of-focus star tests, star diffraction patterns, and the ability to resolve various double stars reveal the TV 76's top-notch optical quality. If the atmospheric seeing permits, the TV-76 easily resolves doubles with a separation at the theoretical limit of a 76mm aperture scope of 1.6 arc-seconds. Planetary views in the TV-76 are best seen through the higher magnifications offered by the 3mm—6mm Nagler Zoom eyepiece. Jupiter and Saturn reveal subtle color variations and both planets' retinues of moons are visible. When the seeing conditions are good, the TV-76 reveals atmospheric belts on Jupiter beyond the two prominent equatorial belts, as well as Cassini's division in the rings of Saturn.

The moon seen through the TV-76 is tack-sharp at all magnifications, with no glare or false colors in the view. Stars near the bright limb of the moon are easily picked out because of the absence of glare in the telescope.

When used as a rich-field scope for deep-sky viewing, the TV-76 excels. With a long focus eyepiece in the 2-inch diagonal, the scope offers impressive views of "showpiece" objects that are too large in angular diameter to fit into the smaller fields of view of larger telescopes. Under a dark Arizona sky, the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) shows its full 3° extent, including its central dust lanes and two companion galaxies &mdash M32 and NGC 205. Dozens of stars in the Pleiades cluster look like sparkling diamonds scattered on black velvet.

The TV-76 "light cup" provides surprisingly good views of large nebular objects. I threaded Lumicon's UHC (Ultra High Contrast) filter into the "pineapple" eyepiece (i.e. the Nagler 31mm Type 5) and it yielded clear views of the full extents of the North America Nebula and of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant in the summer Milky Way.

The Tele Vue 76 is a fine choice for observers who require both high quality and extreme portability.

— Healy, D. "Have Scope, Will Travel." Astronomy Magazine. (September 2002). pg. 66-68.