2025 Tele Vue Product Anniversaries

Tele Vue products are so expertly designed and finely crafted that we only replace them with new models when we can make a meaningful improvement in performance. Therefore, many products that find their way into our customer’s hands have an ancestry dating back decades. Here we list some anniversaries for products that are still on the market today.

1995 — 30 Years Ago
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Plössls: 25, 20, 15, 11, and 8
In 1980 Al Nagler introduced Tele Vue Optics, Inc. products to the amateur astronomy market with an inaugural range of Plössl eyepieces. In 1995 the final five focal lengths, still in production, replaced the original five shorter focal lengths in the series.

More Info

• Plössl pages on our website (mobile version)

2005 — 20 Years Ago
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DIOPTRX™ Astigmatism Correctors
Dioptrx™ astigmatism correctors, first introduced at the 2005 Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF), are still a popular item twenty years on. This attachment has proved essential for enthusiasts that suffer from astigmatism and want to obtain the best views possible through Tele Vue eyepieces without eyeglasses.

Choosing a Dioptrx™ strength is easy. Find the model that matches or is the next step-up from the cylinder value on your observing eye’s prescription. Attach Dioptrx™ to the top a compatible Tele Vue eyepiece. View a star slightly out of focus so it appears as a disk. Rotate the Dioptrx™ on top of the eyepiece, or rotate the entire eyepiece, until the star appears round — astigmatism is defeated!

More Info

• Dioptrx™ page on our website (mobile site).
• “Tack Sharp Stars: Overcoming Eyesight Astigmatism“ blog post.
• On the Tele Vue Eyepiece Specifications sheet, see the Dioptrx™ column for compatible eyepieces.

Focusmate™
Also at NEAF that year we first exhibited the Focusmate™ Fine Focus Accessory: our first dual-speed attachment for Tele Vue telescope focusers. This model had a 6:1 reduction while the current model, included with all our rack and pinion focusing scopes, is a 10:1 ratio. Almost any single speed Tele Vue rack-and-pinion focuser can be upgraded with a 10:1 Focusmate pinion available direct from Tele Vue.

More Info

• Focusmate page our our website (mobile site).

Eyeguard Extender
Eyeguard Extender debuted in 2005. This stackable accessory raises the eyeguard position by 8mm increments for long eye-relief eyepieces that don’t have an adjustable eyeguards. Eyeguard Extender comes with rubber eyeguard. The original model used screws to secure it to the eyeguard groove while the current model uses the DIOPTRX™ twist on concept.

More Info

• Eyeguard Extender page on our website (mobile site).

2010 — 15 Years Ago
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Ethos: 3.7mm SX 110°
Fifteen years ago Tele Vue awed the astronomy community with the introduction the world’s first 110° eyepiece: the 3.7mm Ethos-SX. An extension of the 100° Ethos eyepiece line, the 110° view matches that of the Infinity Display Projectors employed on the Lunar Module Simulator that Al Nagler worked on during the Apollo Program. For the first time, amateur astronomers could experience the field of view the astronauts saw decades earlier in the Simulator. Now in a shorter focal length, the result is a superb planetary eyepiece with a deep sky true field of view!

The Ethos SX models also introduced to market the first dual mode 2″ and 1¼” eyepiece with a stand-alone thread-on adapter as opposed to an integral “skirt” on the eyepiece. This allowed the SX to be parfocal with the wide range of 1¼” Tele Vue Plössls, Panoptics, DeLites, Delos, Naglers, Nagler Zooms, and 6mm and 8mm Ethos eyepieces when used in 1¼” mode. Further, the screw-on 2″ adapter (included) is designed to make it parfocal with 13mm and 10mm Ethos when they are used in their 2″ modes.

More Info

• Ethos eyepiece page on our website (mobile site).

Paracorr Type-2
We’ve had various versions of Paracorr (Parabola Corrector) for Newtonians since 1989. This completely colorless solution tightened up the “comet-like stars” found away from the center-of-field in fast Newtonians.

In 2010 we introduced Paracorr Type 2 that now worked ideally with scopes down to f/3 as well as had a greater range of accommodation for eyepiece field stop location. The Paracorr Type 2 allows an f/3 parabolic mirror to perform like a native f/12 parabola. This ushered in the development of a new generation of large, fast, ladder-less Dobsonians, with bigger, sharper fields than ever before. The 2″ Paracorr Type 2 is still available today. The three part Paracorr Type 2 includes: 2″-1¼” adapter (top), Tunable-Top (middle), & Paracorr Type 2 lens assembly body (bottom). The Tunable-Top is used to raise and lower the eyepiece to the precise focus point for best parabolic correction. The flange on the lens assembly body is threaded to accept Imaging System accessories for imaging through the Paracorr.

For those interested in an integrated system, the same optics are employed in the Starlight integrated Paracorr System (SIPS) by Starlight Instruments.

More Info

• Paracorr page on our website (mobile site).
• See great Paracorr images on our blog. Paracorr Type-2: Image of the Day!

2015 — 10 Years Ago
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DeLite: 18.2, 11, and 7mm
The first tranche of three Tele Vue DeLite eyepieces premiered at the 2015 Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF). They were the 18.2, 11, and 7mm focal lengths. Our news release at the time said “DeLite is the logical step toward a smaller, more economical, and lightweight version of Delos. The 62° apparent field DeLite retains the pure optical quality of Delos along with its 20mm eye-relief, unique sliding, locking eyeguard, and is Dioptrx-ready.” The eyepieces in this 1¼” barrel series would be released in groups of three every year until they numbered nine.

More Info

• DeLite page on our website (mobile site)

Gibraltar HD4 & HD5 Mount
The rock-solid, alt-az, Gibraltar HD4 & HD5 mounts were also displayed at NEAF and were significant upgrades to the original Gibraltar Mounts. They feature sturdier solid ash legs, providing much greater vibration dampening, and wood tray with included pier for high-altitude viewing. Each features either the 4- or 5-inch version of our Tele-Pod head that allows for object locating capability with optional encoders. The HD4 version is for 4” and smaller refractors (e.g. NP101is, & TV-85), and the HD5 is for our 5″ (NP127is) scope.

More Info

• Mount page on our website (mobile site)

FoneMate
2015 was the year we introduced the FoneMate™ smartphone adapter for phone imaging through all Dioptrx compatible Tele Vue eyepieces. Taking photos through a telescope eyepiece is an easy step into nature and planetary/solar photography. Your astro targets can include the moon/lunar eclipses, sun/solar eclipses (with solar filter on telescope!), bright conjunctions, and even planets.

More info

• FoneMate™ video page on our website (mobile site).
• Al Nagler’s FoneMate Demo on YouTube.
  

2020 — 5 Years Ago
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67mm Converter for 55mm Plössl
During the summer of 2020, we released a 67mm conversion lens for our Tele Vue 55m Plössl eyepiece. This shrinks the eyepiece’s apparent field of view from 50° to 40° and increases the size of the exit pupil. The purpose of these optical gymnastics is to exactly matches the entrance field of view of the popular PVS-14 night vision monocular when attached to our 55m Plössl. Lost true field of view that had previously been outside the 40° field of the PVS-14 can now be seen and the increased size of the exit pupil provides more photons into the image intensifying tube.

This accessory is sold direct from Tele Vue as just the converter lens (ECL-67.0) or as a kit that includes the lens along with a 55mm Plössl (EPL-55.0) and 2″ Extension Tube (X2C-0008). The Extension Tube is often required as the 55mm Plössl, which already requires a lot of backfocus, needs over an inch more when the 67mm Converter lens is used.

Note that older Tele Vue 55mm Plössls marked “Japan” do not have the required threads to accept the 67mm Converter.

More Info

• New Product! 67mm Converter for 55mm Plössl Night Vision Enhancement on our blog.
• Peruse our night vision blog posts.
• Night Vision page on our website (mobile site).