Telescope Engineering Company (TEC) Telescopes Index Page

PRINCIPLES OF SELECTING REFRACTING TELESCOPE OPTICAL TUBE ASSEMBLIES

Company Seven has many decades of experience delivering first-rate refracting and other designs of telescopes to our clients; nobody else in the Americas has such broad expertise with so many of the top refracting telescopes brands. To insure our customer is completely satisfied and successful, Company Seven offers concise programs of quality assurance and instruction, and we are in touch with them later to help them prosper in the hobby. We may go many years without having a customer return a telescope they bought here unsatisfied; nobody can touch that statistic - no Amazon, no E-Tailer, no other telescope store (of the few that remain). And after the sale we remain available to help you tailor the telescope to your evolving goals, growing into new aspects of our hobby, and we can service any telescope you buy at Company Seven as necessary.

Left: amazingly handy TEC APO140FL triplet apochromat optical tube assembly, being handed over after checkout at Company Seven.
Note 3.5-inch Focuser, Dew Shield is retracted, and optional TEC Mounting Rings (45,921 bytes).
Click on image to see enlarged view (88,531 bytes).

Our customer's success starts when they call or visit to see these telescopes and to discuss their hopes, their goals, their ambitions. Often at first they (as we did when getting started) have little understanding of what can be observed or photographed with a telescope. so we can help you gain that understanding. So, success starts with information and understanding. The overarching considerations should include the understanding that the best telescope is the one that gets used, and in order to be used it should be enough telescope (by a proper balance of size, quality and design sophistication) so that you want to keep using it from clear night to clear night, year to year. At the same time the telescope must not be so onerous that it does not get used. This balance will vary from person to person based on whether or not the telescope will be transported, and if so the user's strength and means to move it. Do not overlook the qualities of the mount that will support the telescope optical tube assembly. Alternatively, if the telescope can be installed into an observatory, that we can also provide, then this releases those customers from many limits and their telescope remains staged and ready to be used at their convenience. So understand that there are Catch-22 aspects to this: 'more aperture means brighter images, and improved definition', while 'bigger' might or might not always equal 'better' for everybody.

Every telescope is a tool, each will have strengths and weaknesses. This can include: qualities of details it can reveal, aspects of fields of view visually or for imaging, and the demands of a mount that can suitably support its weight and moment. But one fact remains true, testified to by people who for generations have observed or imaged through good refracting telescopes: nothing else rivals them pound per pound in terms of rewarding views, modest maintenance, and versatility. And just as true as everything mentioned above are the facts that

Company Seven's staff can help you choose the appropriate telescope, configure and enjoy it. Please contact Company Seven, or visit the only Apo central in America to see these telescopes firsthand Company Seven's showroom.

TEC REFRACTING TELESCOPE OPTICAL TUBE ASSEMBLIES

Right: TEC Apo refracting telescopes, and relative dimensions, produced from 2002 to 2023 (112,373 bytes).

Portable: easily moved with a suitable platform, by healthy teen or adult

• TEC APO140ED f/7 ED Triplet Apochromatic Refractor
  

• TEC APO140FL f/7 Fluorite Triplet Apochromatic Refractor