Category: Equipment Image

NP127is: Imaging the Skies Over Upstate New York!

We noticed some great Tele Vue-NP127is images on Instagram tagged with our #RPTVO (repost hashtag). They were all taken by Greg Thompson in Tele Vue’s home region of the Hudson Valley, NY. Due to the weather, one has to be persistent to be an astro-imager in these parts. So, we contacted him and that resulted in this guest blog post in two parts. The first part describes his journey into astrophotography and experience imaging with the Tele Vue-NP127is and the second part is a step-by-step guide for image acquisition and processing.

 
Reprocess of The Pillars of Creation by Instagram user Gregory Thompson. All rights reserved. Used by permission. The Eagle Nebula (Messier 16 or NGC-6611) is a diffuse emission nebula and open cluster that is home to the finger-like “Pillars of Creation” star-forming region. Ultraviolet light emitted by the young, giant blue stars in the nebula causes the gasses in the nebula to glow. The “Pillars” are actually cold accumulations of dust and gas that are silhouetted by the background glow.
Exposures at ISO 800 and 1600, 174 x 60″/45″ because of wind and low elevation.
Tele Vue-NP127is APO refractor with Canon EOS 7D Mark II DSLR riding on iOptron CEM60EC mount. Software: BackyardEOS, DeepSkyStacker, StarTools, and Corel Photo-Paint X5.

When I saw the first image of the Orion Nebula on the camera’s LED screen ─ WOW, I was hooked!

As a child, I would always look up at the night sky in hopes of seeing a “shooting star.” I loved the night sky but was never interested in astronomy or cosmology as a young man. I began a photography business in 2011 and had to take early retirement from my day job of 25+ years. My photography led me down many roads, from portraiture and landscapes, birds and wildlife, and many other genres. I had heard of astrophotography but was not interested as I thought it was beyond my reach. Then the television series “How the Universe Works” came to my television in 2016 and could not get enough of it. Soon after, I was browsing a photography forum that I was a member of, and saw some photographs (Deep Sky Objects’s) that a well-known scientist and photometrist had posted using a camera that I already had, and a lens very similar to one of my lenses. That opened my eyes wide and I then began to research everything about astrophotography. Three months later I bought my first camera tracker (Fornax LighTrack II) and accessories to begin my new hobby. That was in the fall of 2016. When I saw the first image of the Orion Nebula on the camera’s LED screen ─ WOW, I was hooked!

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Your 2019 Mercury Transit Images!

Mercury Transit 2019-11-11 Time 10-03-50-0631 by flickr user Photon_chaser. Copyright Frank Tornyai. Mercury is about to leave the face of our Sun. Hα image through Wollensak 153/1200 achromat using Quark Chromo with Tele Vue 4x Powermate™ using Lunt double stacked etalons, and ASI174 mono camera. Software used was Genika Astro capture, PIPP, AS!3 , Images Plus and Photoshop.

Images from the 2019 Mercury Transit made with Tele Vue gear have now been posted to social media. We present here the best (with permission) and note that Tele Vue Powermate™ amplifiers “shone” in the creation of most.  Not only does Powermate™ help fast, modern scopes achieve a focal length suitable for imaging the tiny planet, but some high-end, drawtube-side, narrow-band filters requires a Powermate’s telecentric operation to create parallel rays for best image contrast. (See Daystar application of Rear-Mounted Filter page).

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Clyde Bone and His Two Unusual Mersenne Telescopes!

In this guest blog post, Ted Hume describes two telescopes designed and built by Clyde Bone. At first they appear to be “big-Dobs.” However, look close and you’ll note they don’t require “shaky ladders” as the final focus is through Tele Vue telescopes near ground-level. They also serve as their own finders. Read on about these fascinating instruments and how they could be yours!

Blue 20-inch, f/5 Mersenne telescope uses a Tele Vue Genesis refractor for its “eyepiece” and red 30-inch, f/5 big-brother (image shown reversed) uses Tele Vue-140 refractor. No need to climb ladders to view through these! Both scopes built by Clyde Bone. Ted Hume is at the eyepiece. Images by the author with all rights reserved.

Clyde M. Bone, Jr. (1928 − 2012) of San Angelo, Texas designed and built two Mersenne telescopes, first a 20-inch and then a 30-inch.

His career included working for the Texas Border Commission in the Big Bend area of Texas, geologist for an oil company ─ who flew a light plane to drilling sites and landed on dirt roads, science teacher at a Texas high school and in the Texas prison system. When he decided to build a Mersenne telescope, he was retired and spent a year studying optics. Then he was ready.

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Tele Vue-76: Imaging the Southern Hemisphere

Our very portable Tele Vue-76 APO refractor has been popular with eclipse-chasers as well as with users that cross over into spotting and birding. With the popularity of small and powerful dedicated imaging cameras, the performance of the Tele Vue-76 is getting noticed by deep-sky imagers on the go. Case in point, Diego Cartes Saavedra is producing outstanding deep-space images from various locations  in the southern-hemisphere with this scope. All his images in this blog post were taken from July through November 2018.
 
Diego’s study of the Tarantula Nebula and surrounding region in the Large Magellanic Cloud examines the area imaged through different filters. The first image is a monochrome version taken in Hydrogen-α light.
 
NGC 2070 – Narrowband H-Alpha by AstroBin user Diego Cartes. Copyright Diego Cartes. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission. Tele Vue-76 APO refractor with Tele Vue TRF-2008 0.8x Reducer/Flattener (converts Tele Vue-76 to 380mm f/5) and ZWO ASI 1600MM Cooled Pro monochrome camera though ZWO 36mm H-alpha filter for 62×300″ for a total of 5.2-hours.

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Jeff Bennett’s Tele Vue-NP127is Images

The Rosette Nebula by AstroBin user Jeff Bennett. Copyright by Jeff Bennett. Tele Vue TV-NP127is with QSI 683 wsg-8 camera using Astronomik Ha 6nm and RGB filters for 25×300″ (2.1-hrs) total on November 27, 2017.

This year we received a phone call from Jeff Bennett with some questions about his new TV-NP127is scope. He’d only been using it since the fall of 2017 but was very enthusiastic and told us he’d tried other scopes, but the NP127is was the best he’d ever used.  We viewed his astrobin.com page and we were impressed with his initial results.  So, we asked him to tell us why he chose the NP127is for astro imaging and he told us in his own words.

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NP127is: Imaging the Skies Over Denmark

NGC 1333 reflection nebula in Perseus from Brorfelde Observatory (Luminance) 7/8 January 2018 and Drøsselbjerg (RGB) 14 February 2018. (Cropped, click for full-image.) Equipment: TeleVue-NP127is, ZWO ASI 1600MM cooled mono camera, and Baader filters, on Track The Stars TTS 160 Panther mount. Luminance: 39×300” by Niels Haagh & Niels V. Christensen at Brorfelde. RGB each: 20×120” by Niels Haagh at Drøsselbjerg. NGC 1333 … by AstroBin user Niels V. Christensen. Copyright Niels V. Christensen. Used by permission.

We spotted some great Tele Vue-NP127is images on Instagram and AstroBin recently. They are the work of a collaboration between Niels Christensen and other amateurs from Denmark. We contacted Niels to learn more.

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#televue40: Our Scopes

At the beginning of 2017, in honor of Tele Vue’s 40th year, we asked you to tag your social media images taken with or taken of Tele Vue equipment with the hashtag #televue40. You did so and there are too many images to highlight them all, but we’ll bring you a few at a time though these blog posts.

People are rightfully proud of the heirloom quality build and performance of our scopes. This post looks at the various images of Tele Vue scopes posted on social media feeds this year.

A recent favorite of ours was this painting of a Tele Vue TV-85 by Instagram user @h.chiharandy.

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Imaging the Skies with the TV-85: Mike Broussard

“Comet Lovejoy (clockwise from top left: 1/19/15, 1/25/15, 2/7/15, & 2/20/15) with link to animation.” by flickr.com user Mike Broussard licensed by All rights reserved.

Aquamarine “cotton balls” and “tadpoles” with sinewy tails cross a star-filled night-sky. That can be your initial impression of Mike Broussard’s comet-loaded flickr photostream. His recent images include the passage of comet Johnson, 41P/TGK, PanSTARRS, & Lovejoy.  (The greenish comet color is provided by the glow of ionized cyanogen and diatomic carbon shed by the comet.)   Continue reading “Imaging the Skies with the TV-85: Mike Broussard”

BIG Paracorr User Profile:
Jay Butler

“NGC7000 Cygnus Wall” by flickr.com user Jay W Butler. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Paracorr logo is trademark of Tele Vue Optics, Inc.

From his backyard observatory in Bountiful, Utah, in the western foothills of the Wasatch Mountains, Jay Butler images the heavens with his 10″ f/4 fast Newtonian – equipped with a Tele Vue BIG Paracorr Type-2. Despite the poor seeing – from suburban light pollution and strong updrafts from the valley floor – he’s been able to score a medley of celestial clusters, galaxies, and nebulae that cross his sky.  Continue reading “BIG Paracorr User Profile:
Jay Butler”

2” Paracorr Type-2 User Profile:
Oleg Bryzgalov

“Crescent Nebula” by Oleg Bryzgalov. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Paracorr Type-2 with 10″, f/3.8 Newt & QSI-583wsg camera.

Employing Tele Vue’s 2-inch Paracorr Type-2 photo/visual accessory, Oleg Bryzgalov in Ukraine has been doing outstanding astrophotography with fast 10” Newtonians. His work spans the deep space gamut: star clusters, emission nebulae, and galaxies. Some of the well-over 100 Paracorr images he’s posted on flickr.com are featured in our Tele Vue Paracorr Gallery.  Continue reading “2” Paracorr Type-2 User Profile:
Oleg Bryzgalov”