
Your 2021 Sky Event Planner

Dear Tele Vue Aficionado,
Thank you for your continued enthusiasm for our products. Weâre sorry for some product delays due to an unexpected increase in demand during this pandemic time.
Hereâs an announcement Iâm making today thatâs unique in my lifetime, leaving me conflicted between happy and sad:
Weâve sold out of our limited edition special production run of the Apollo 11 eyepiece celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first Moon landing.
Yes, Iâm sad they are gone, but happy to have spread more joy among our astronomical community. Little did I know in the 1960s that my design for the LEM Simulator optics, showing a 110° star field to the astronauts would change my life, inspiring me to eventually share wide-field views with fellow amateur astronomers by founding Tele Vue Optics, Inc.
Iâd appreciate your taking a few minutes to see my PowerPoint presentation, I Thank My Lucky Stars on the Tele Vue blog to share my life path with you.
Stay well,
Al Nagler
Our readers followed the story of the development, arrival, packaging, and distribution of the Apollo 11mm eyepiece on our blog. See the following links:
Continue reading “BREAKING NEWS: Apollo 11mm and Sky Events!”
According to a recent Solar Activity Update by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Space Weather Prediction Center, “Solar activity picked up at the end of November into early December, 2020, as several sunspot groups emerged or rotated onto the visible disk”. The update continues: “Solar activity is anticipated to slowly increase over the upcoming years towards the predicted solar maximum peak around July, 2025.” This is great news for observers of our nearest star! At times this year, there had been month-long sunspot “droughts” with no or few sunspots on the solar disk.
The return of Sun as a target of interest has led to a sudden uptick in Solar image postings to social media these past few weeks.Â
Is it just us or did it seem that 2020 was a longer than usual year? Yet while both the year and big Mars Opposition are waning, we can still look forward to some astronomical sights and surprises in the “20/20” sky. We list them in this week’s blog.
Lunar Eclipses
This year we are blessed by not one, not two, not three, but four penumbral lunar eclipses! (At most there can be five lunar eclipses in a year.) However, none will be dramatic: a penumbral eclipse has the Moon passing through the edges of Earthâs shadow and darkening only slightly. Most people wonât even notice the darkening taking place. There will be no dramatic âbiteâ taken out of the Moon and it wonât turn the color of âbloodâ.
Continue reading “2020: Solar & Lunar Phenomena Overview + Space Junk Podcast”
If youâre suffering from the cold northern winter like we are at Tele Vue headquarters in upstate New York, youâll instantly be âwarmedâ by these âhotâ solar images made by Jordi SesĂ© PuĂ©rtolas from his balcony in Barcelona, Spain. These photos appear to show a blazing inferno on the âsurfaceâ of the Sun. However, science tells us this is not fire we are seeing but hot plasma (ionized gas) and gas in the wavelength of Hydrogen-α light.
Continue reading “Flashback: Great American Eclipse Aug. 21, 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 Einsteinâs 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 âTele Vue NP101is to Test Einsteinâs General Relativityâ for more background.
Continue reading “Tele Vue TV-NP101is Relativity Experiment: Data Update”