Tele Vue’s Year End: Behind the Scenes!

As we close-out the year, we’d like to update you on what is going on “behind the scenes” at Tele Vue! From the arrival of the Apollo 11mm eyepieces to the ongoing GoodBuy 2019 Sale, and answering your questions in between, our employees in upstate New York are somewhat like Santa’s “elves” this time of year!

The long awaited shipment of 300 Tele Vue Apollo 11mm limited-edition 50th anniversary commemorative eyepieces has landed at our office! Pre-orders have reserved most, but check with our dealers for availability. For specs and details, see the Apollo 11mm page on our website.

During the GoodBuy 2019 Sale we’ve been fielding your questions on what to buy. Our staff recently got a call from someone set on purchasing Tele Vue’s DioptRx™ astigmatism corrector to eliminate his eye’s astigmatism so he can actually see the full performance of his Tele Vue eyepiece purchase! The customer’s question concerned the usage of the DioptRx™ on a 19mm Panoptic (68° apparent field), versus the 18.2mm DeLite (62° apparent field).

 

First-off, the 19mm Panoptic would require the additional purchase of a DEA-0001 Adapter for attaching the DioptRx™  while the DeLite was designed with DioptRx™ compatibility. On the other hand, all Panoptics have a slightly greater apparent field (5° more) than the DeLite’s.

 

The decision finally came down to eye relief: the 19mm Panoptic’s 13mm of eye relief is 7mm less than the 20mm shared by all DeLite’s. Attachment of a DIOPTRX™ to the top of an eyepiece eye lens consumes 8mm of the eyepiece’s eye relief. That leaves only 5mm of distance from the eye to the rubber eyeguard with DioptRx installed on the 19mm Panoptic. The DeLite’s will retain 12mm of eye to DioptRx™ distance.  The customer decided to get the 18.2mm DeLite — especially as it is currently on sale —  along with the DioptRx™.

 

Please use our Tele Vue Eyepiece Calculator to help find the perfect eyepieces for your scope.

Due to the volume of eyepieces shipping out for the GoodBuy Sale, our eyepiece inspectors have been very busy at this year’s end. The process is more complicated than just sticking the ocular in a telescope and checking if it reaches focus! For every eyepiece, the inspection begins with the cosmetic appearance of the lenses and metalwork. Uniformity of anodizing, chrome plating, and paint applications on the barrels is assessed. The eyepiece is then put under a magnifier lamp where the inspector can check for any naked-eye visible coating or glass defects. The next step is the optical evaluation.  Each eyepiece is placed in our patented 5″ f/4 flat-field Multi-Purpose Telescope (MPT) test refractor. The variable iris on the MPT is used to inspect for internal cleanliness of the image at f/16 and for any optical abnormalities at f/4.

Only after the inspector is satisfied that the product meets our cosmetic and optical standards is it packaged for shipping. Read Why Choose Tele Vue Eyepieces on our website for more on what makes Tele Vue eyepieces different.

 

Our Barlows and Powermate amplifiers are also part of the GoodBuy 2019 Sale and are being inspected to keep up with demand.  The procedure for inspecting Barlows and Powermates is documented in the slide show below. Sweep or click through the images.

 

Barlow Inspection

 

Did you observe, sketch, or image with Tele Vue gear? We’ll like your social media post on that if you tag it #televue and the gear used. Example:

#televue #barlow #nagler #jupiter

Do you want your Tele Vue images re-posted on Tele Vue Optics’ Social Media accounts? Use this hashtag for consideration:

 

An “annular” solar eclipse closes out the year on December 26th. For this type of eclipse, the Moon appears smaller than the Sun and never completely blocks it out. At totality, the Sun forms a ring or “annulus” behind the Moon. (This type of eclipse is never safe for naked-eye viewing without eclipse glasses.) The eclipse center line passes through parts of Saudi Arabia, India, Indonesia, and the northern Pacific Ocean. The area of partial visibility includes all of the Middle East, Mongolia, China, India, Japan, and parts of Russia Australia, and the horn of Africa.

• Apollo 11mm  eyepiece page on website (mobile site)
• GoodBuy 2019 Sale blog post
• Tele Vue APO Design and Build “Secrets” blog post