Proms Mono by flickr user Paul Andrew. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Lunt LS152 Solar Telescope (obj: 152mm / fl: 900mm) with Tele Vue 2.5x Powermate and imaged with ZWO ASI290MM monochrome camera (1936px x 1096px, color added in post-processing). Taken 20th May 2020 from Kent, UK. Solar prominences dance along magnetic field lines on the limb of the active Sun while fibrils of super-heated plasma fill the foreground.
Paul Andrew has been an amateur astronomer since the age of 11. He is the founder and Honorable President of the South East Kent Astronomical Society in the UK. He’s had a number of his astrophotographs published — in particular, his solar images — in national newspapers and on websites as far afield as Russia. He’s been short-listed for the prestigious Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition four times now. We’ve noted his high-quality solar images and discovered that many were made with our Tele Vue 2.5x Powermate in the imaging train. So, we present a selection of his work in this week’s blog.
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!
(TNV-1400) TNV/PVS-14 L3 Gen3 Un-Filmed White Phosphor
Tele Vue has taken its collaboration with Tactical Night Vision Company one step further! We are happy to announce that we now offer their TNV/PVS-14 L3 Gen3 Un-Filmed White Phosphor night vision monocular plus accessories direct from Tele Vue.
Al Nagler Goes “Full Circle” on Night Vision
Back in 1971, while an employee of Farrand Optical Company, Al Nagler was given the task of designing an eyepiece for a spiffy-new, high-tech gadget designed by ITT Corporation: a night vision device. He designed an eyepiece to view the 40° field of view created by the image intensifier tube. Now, after almost 40-years of evolution, the latest generation night vision monocular that Tele Vue is selling uses an eyepiece at least inspired by Al’s Design — if not exactly the same!
Solar System (Jupiter) by flickr user Eugene Beygin. All rights reserved. Here Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is facing Earth with the four Galilean satellites (labeled) on either side of the giant planet. Taken through Celestron C6-N Newtonian (6″, f/5) with Tele Vue 3x Barlow through QHY5III224 color CMOS planetary camera and tracked by Celestron AVX mount.
On June 10th, Jupiter was closest to the Earth and rose at sunset — placing it in the sky all night long. The timing makes it well placed for observation throughout much of the summer. Currently, the planet is at its best for the year, at magnitude -2.6 with an angular diameter of 46-arc-seconds. It will “fade” slightly to a still very bright magnitude -2.1 and shrink to 36-arcseconds by the start of fall, where it will be in the west at sunset, setting just a few hours later. So, now is prime-time to view and image this gas giant planet, its famous Great Red Spot (GRS), and attendant giant moons.
This year all eyes will turn to the Moon to mark the 50th Anniversary of the first Moon landing. The Moon is the natural first target for new amateur astronomers, yet all too often as observers become seasoned, the Moon becomes a nuisance that blots the stars from the sky. This week we explore the Moon through the eyes and talented hands of Michel Deconinck. As you will see, there is much to see in the monthly dance between shadow and light on the lunar surface.
Michel Deconinck is an artist in the South of France with a passion for astronomical watercolors. He is very involved with the international astronomical community and his artistic works have been published in magazines, scientific journals, and displayed at conferences and school events. His artistry is augmented with a background in nuclear physics, engineering and astrophysics.
Simulated image of DIOPTRX™ astigmatism correction. Your experience may vary.
This guest blog post is written by Phil Ressler, a longtime amateur astronomer who lives in Los Angeles, though his observing life began on the east coast. Phil is a veteran software industry executive, currently CEO of Sixgill, LLC.
I had never seen pinpoint or round stars — apart from observing our round Sun.
I’m old enough to remember when “pinhole” eyepieces with “soda straw” views defined what a telescope offered to the average amateur astronomer. More than anyone, Al Nagler, and more than any company, Tele Vue, changed that by opening up the sky and making it easier to explore through wider field viewing. Mr. Nagler and his company also showed us that a relatively rich field refractor could not only capably serve as an amateur’s sole telescope: it is the best telescope to own if you’re only having one. We can thank Al Nagler and Tele Vue for laying the foundation for the way visual astronomy is pursued today. Yet despite all that, until I tried a DIOPTRX™ on my 22mm Panoptic last year, I had never seen pinpoint or round stars — apart from observing our round Sun. I’ve been observing the sky through scope optics since 1961, my astigmatism never absent. For people like me, DIOPTRX™ is arguably Tele Vue’s most essential product, because it makes all of Al Nagler’s original work in eyepieces and refractors unmistakably worthwhile to the astigmatic viewer.
Tele Vue Eyepiece Evolution Highlights: it all began with the Apollo Program.
Tele Vue founder Al Nagler was one of 400,000 people estimated to have worked on the Apollo moon landing program. The year 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the culmination of all that effort: the first manned Moon landing. Al’s involvement with that mission and derivative work for the Air Force during that period would inspire him to found Tele Vue Optics and influence our eyepiece designs for decades to come.
This post is about maintaining a brass Renaissance and matching Gibraltar mount. For the post on restoring a brass Renaissance, please see our companion blog post:
Vic Bradford’s brass Renaissance 102 on matching Gibraltar mount stands in front of an antique pie safe. Images courtesy of Vic Bradford.
Vic Bradford has owned a brass Renaissance telescope since 2006, about 20 years after he first saw Al Nagler show one at a Riverside Star Party. He regrets not owning one sooner as “the scope uniquely merges the beauty of form and function”. We’ve reprinted some excerpts below from a treatise he sent us on caring for the brass on his Renaissance telescope and brass fittings on his matching Tele Vue Gibraltar mount. He offers a caveat to the reader: “you may find these suggestions overkill and much can be said for simply leaving brass alone so it can develop a nice patina. Like any other fine equipment, though, it benefits from good care and research.”
These instructions are for cleaning and polishing brass lacking a clear-coating. Following these instructions will ruin your coating.
Surfing through the AstroBin site’s collection of user generated astrophotos we were struck at this vivid example of M16 “The Eagle Nebula.” The image has a depth and contrast we’ve never seen before. Created using “Hubble Pallet” filters, the rich blue (Oxygen III) surrounding the “Pillars of Creation” structure is highlighted by the ruddy bland of reds (Sulfur) and greens (Hydrogen-alpha and Nitrogen) in the “folds” of the surrounding dust clouds. The blackness of space at the edge of the dust and gas cloud is preserved against all the colors.Â
M16 Eagle Nebula – Hubble Palette by AstroBin user Paul Schuberth. Copyright Paul Schuberth, All Rights Reserved. Used by permission. Teleskop Service TS Optics 10″ f/4.65 Newtonian-Astrograph using Tele Vue BIG Paracorr 3″ and Atik 383L+ mono camera carried on Sky-Watcher EQ8 mount. Taken in the “Hubble Palette” using Baader H-alpha 7nm (10×600″), OIII 8.5nm (10×600″), and SII 8nm (10×600″) filters with a total integration time of 5-hrs.
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