We noticed a new and very active imager using a Tele Vue NP101is pop up on Instagram this year. We asked Michael Stark to tell us about his journey into astro-imaging.
Continue reading “NP101is: Imaging the Skies Over Northern California!“
Over the years, we’ve seen conversational topics in online amateur circles that repeatedly crop up concerning the definition of apochromatic refractor, triplet vs. doublet design, and how glass designation might define performance. We expect these questions to continue to appear as new amateurs discover the hobby. So bookmark this blog post because here you’ll find notes on Tele Vue’s philosophy and build practices concerning our telescope line of 100% APO refractors.
The May 29, 1919 eclipse, that happened 100-years ago this past week, will always be remembered as a key “turning point” in the history of physics. “Lights All Askew in the Heavens” exclaimed a New York Times headline while The Pittsburgh Gazette Times declared that the “Elusive ‘Fourth Dimension’ Finally Proven to Exist == Newton Theory Refuted.” Newspaper editors in 1919 were grasping at straws to explain the result of an experiment that crazily proved that star light was bent by the gravity of the Sun. Their articles on the subject introduced the names of English astronomer, Arthur Eddington, and the German scientist Albert Einstein to the public. It was Eddington that announced to the world the results of an experiment he organized to test a theory put forth by the then obscure German physicist. What made Eddington’s announcement unusual was that he was an English scientist propping up a theory from a German scientist in the acrimonious aftermath of the First World War. This was just a few months after the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.Â
The Lagoon Nebula (also M8, and NGC 6523) in the constellation Sagittarius is well-known to amateur astronomers. It is a giant star forming region with an open cluster of stars embedded within (visible on the right side of the image). A giant O-type star pumps out massive amounts of ultraviolet light that energizes the gasses in the nebula and cause them to emit light in their distinctive characteristic colors. By taking images through emission line filters, astronomers can see what elements are contained in the nebula. In this image made with Hydrogen-alpha, Sulfur II, and Oxygen III filters, the bluish glow of ionized Oxygen predominates in the center of the nebula.
Continue reading “NP101is: Imaging the Skies Over Louisiana”
We found unique takes on familiar deep-sky objects on David Augros’ AstroBin account. They were taken with our Tele Vue-NP101is refractor (photo/visual, 101mm, f/5.4 APO) using our Large Field Corrector (LCL-1069) and modified Canon EOS 6D DSLR.
The first impression is of a dark canvas, sprinkled with white pinpoints and bright cloud-like strokes of gold, red, and blue. Brilliant jewels were seated in the colorful clouds and several dense clusters of diamond dust were scattered on this celestial painting. Dark clouds emerge from the canvas and contrast themselves among the dots and colored hues.
We asked David how he got involved in astro-imaging and why he choose this scope. He told us in his own words.
Continue reading “Tele Vue-NP101is Imaging the Skies of Rhode Island!“
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.
All Tele Vue telescopes now come standard as optical tube assemblies (OTA) that can be turned into “complete” units with optional, customized accessory packages. The package costs can be substantially less than pricing each component individually. In a prior installment we discussed the packages for the Tele Vue-60, Tele Vue-76, and Tele Vue-85 scopes. Here we’ll take up the multi-purpose Imaging System, or “is,” scopes and their associated accessory packages.
If you’re in the New York metro area the third week in April, we’ve got a lot to show you at two back-to-back shows we’ll be at: the annual Northeast Astro-Imaging Conference (NEAIC: April 19 & 20) and Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF: April 21 & 22) — both in Suffern, NY — about an hours drive northwest of New York City.
We’ll exhibit an updated night vision demonstrator to show you the benefits of using our visual and smartphone accessories designed for the Tactical Night Vision Company (TNVC)Â night vision monocular. This is the system that just won a Sky & Telescope 2018 Hot Products Award. In the coming months, Sky & Telescope will be publishing their test review of the system. You can get a preview of this review on page 63 of the April 2018 issue and looking at the image below.
Continue reading “Tele Vue Telescope Shows and Indoor Solar Viewing”
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.
h.chiharandy painting of solitary visual observer setup #televue #tv85 #ethos #panoramic in the field. https://t.co/xiaeKNIJVc#televue40 pic.twitter.com/G8duzr4c5Z
— Tele Vue Optics, Inc (@TeleVueOptics) November 2, 2017
This is an update on Dr. Don Bruns’s attempt to measure star-position deflection with our Tele Vue-NP101is telescope during this past August’s solar eclipse. His goal was not just to duplicate the famous 1919 experiment (by Sir Arthur Eddington that proved Dr. Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity), but to demonstrate that portable, readily available amateur equipment can produce results that rival that of professional hardware from past decades. His experiment was to “determine Einstein’s deflection to an accuracy of 1%, the best optical measurement of the deflection ever demonstrated.” He points out that a professional attempt at the 1973 eclipse achieved an error of 11%. See our blog post “Tele Vue NP101is to Test Einstein’s General Relativity” for more background.
Continue reading “Tele Vue TV-NP101is Relativity Experiment: Data Update”
