
Tele Vue APO Design and Build “Secrets”

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.”
We noticed some unique images on AstroBin.com employing our Tele Vue-NP127is and Tele Vue-85 scopes to simultaneously image the same target. The images from the two scopes were combined to create the final image — with fantastic results! All the image locations are given as “Tom’s Driveway” in Terre Haute, IN. Intrigued, we contacted the imager (“Astrovetteman”) to learn how he settled on this technique for many of his images. So we turn over our blog this week to astrophotographer Tom Peter and his dual-scope driveway setup.
Continue reading “From Tom’s Driveway: Tele Vue-NP127is & Tele Vue-85 Simultaneous Imaging!”
Continue reading “Tele Vue TV-60: Surprisingly Versatile Mini APO Refractor”
Continue reading “Tele Vue-NP127fli Imaging the Skies Over Austria”
We were honored that Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF) speaker Dr. Donald Bruns was able to visit in our booth over the two days of NEAF 2018.
Saturday, April 21, at noon, Dr. Bruns stepped onto main stage at NEAF in front of a standing room only audience. His talk was titled: Einstein was Right! Completing the 1919 Relativity Experiment at the 2017 Solar Eclipse. Over the better part of an hour he explained how Einstein’s General Theory of relativity predicted the bending of light in gravitational fields and how astronomers have attempted to photograph stars near the eclipsed sun to verify the theory.
This interview of Al Nagler by Brian Ventrudo was published in The Equinox newsletter of AstronomyConnect.com on October 31, 2017. Reprinted with permission
Introduction
When Al Nagler talks, amateur astronomers listen.
Nagler, of course, is a legend in the amateur astronomy community, the founder of Tele Vue Optics along with wife Judi, and inventor of the Nagler eyepiece. For two generations he’s been a fixture at star parties and astronomy expos where he dispenses wisdom and demonstrates his latest optical creations, all while establishing bonds and friendships with hundreds of stargazers over the years with his combination of razor-sharp technical acumen and boundless enthusiasm.
Al was beguiled by astronomy and stargazing after a visit to Hayden Planetarium with his father in the late 1940s. He grew up in the Bronx and had the talent and good fortune to attend the famous Bronx High School of Science, the alma mater of thousands of renowned engineers and scientists, including eight Nobel Prize winners. As part of a class project, Nagler used the school’s facilities to design and build an 8-inch f/6.5 Newtonian reflector that weighed 350 lbs! In time, Al put his talents to work at the nearby Farrand Optical Company from 1957-1973, where he helped develop the large and complex optical systems for NASA’s Gemini docking and Apollo lunar landing simulators. Not a bad way to make a living!
Continue reading “Q&A with Tele Vue’s Al Nagler”
This is the counterpoint to our Tele Vue is for the Birds blog post this past spring. Yes, you’ll find that the TV-60 is a great grab’n go astro scope too!
Our award winning, high performance, super-compact Tele Vue-60 is worth considering for those looking for a super-portable APO refractor. It fills many niches including travel, super-finder, day/night scope, and is a great telephoto.
It accomplishes all this APO-goodness in a very small 60mm, f/6 form-factor: just 10″ long without diagonal!
From time-to-time we see Tele Vue products juxtaposed with other interesting brands. This is a roundup of what we’ve run across so-far this year.
Matthew Hodgson’s Alpha Lyrae website had a review of the nPAE (Nottingham Precision Astro Engineering) 6061 Medium Turret eyepiece holder. The shot below from the review has all six turret slots filled with our eyepieces.