A BRIEF PERSPECTIVE

TeleVue has been developing and manufacturing innovative eyepieces, telescopes and accessories for the advanced amateur since the founding of the company in 1977 by Al Nagler. The tradition of true innovation first came to the eye of the astronomical community (and later to birders and nature watchers) with the introduction of the revolutionary original "Nagler" design oculars in 1980. The tradition continued through 1999 with the introduction of the "Radian" and "Nagler Type IV" series, and 31mm "Nagler Type V" oculars, and in 2001 with the first high quality zoom "3mm to 6mm Nagler Zoom". As recently as January 2003 Al Nagler continued to expand the line with a new telescope, and even more new unparalleled eyepieces. The groundbreaking wide angle eyepieces of the Panoptic, Nagler, and Radian designs which remain unrivaled at providing a breathtaking picture window into the night sky. If profit is the reward for a job well done, then our community owes more to Mr. Al Nagler than to any other force in eyepiece design since World War II. One of the ways in which the international astronomical community rewarded Mr. Nagler was the naming of an asteroid for Al Nagler!

Left: beaming with the pride of a new father, Al Nagler finally revealing the 127 his latest new telescope at Company Seven's showroom 30 January 2003 (111,487 bytes).

Al Nagler was also more than twenty years ahead of his time in recognizing the potential of well corrected refracting telescopes of comparatively short focal length. These would be of a relatively compact profile, with wide field of view and high contrast imaging, are rugged with low maintenance construction. TeleVue continued to push the development of fast refractors at a time where the common 4" aperture refractor was a relatively long f10 to f15, and these were heavier telescopes capable of showing only one-fourth the area of sky (or land) that a similar aperture TeleVue telescope would show! In 1984 Al Nagler introduced the "Renaissance" telescope; a marriage of 20th century precision optics, and precision made mechanics with beautiful contemporary Brass construction. What was more revolutionary than its beauty, was the fact that this was the first high quality, flat field 4" aperture refracting telescope that was engineered to be so relatively short (or "fast") of f5 or so focal ratio, and compact. Common brass telescopes up to then were little more than novelties or decorator items: long focal length achromatic lenses with simple oculars that resulted in very narrow fields of view; the original "Renaissance" focal length of 550mm combined with a 2" diameter focuser assured that it could be accept a wide selection of photo-visual accessories, and be employed at magnifications of as low as 10X revealing a panoramic five degrees of sky!

A well engineered "fast" 4 inch aperture refractor provides enough light gathering and resolving power to reveal the entire "Messier Catalog" (a popular list of more than 100 galaxies, star clusters, and nebulae) and much more. It can show changing features of the major planets, incredible panoramic views of the ocean or country side, and with a film or CCD camera attached they become ultra-telephoto lenses that rival or best the more expensive conventional photographic lenses. There are few areas where reflecting and Catadioptric systems can even begin to compete; often by the time one can find a large enough mirror telescope that can begin to show the fine detail in a large object (such as the "Veil Nebula") shown by a 4" Apo, the mirror system can only show fraction of the entirety of that field of view revealed by the Apo refractor. So, Al concentrated on the development of such telescopes, improving them gradually to culminate in the TeleVue Renaissance 101, 102, and the NP101 telescopes.

One of the finest advertisements ever published for a telescope concept is the book Deep-Sky Companions: The Messier Objects where the author Stephen O'Meara sought to keep the drawings relevant to the amateur. To produce the highly detailed drawings of these celestial objects Stephen chose to observe with the second generation TeleVue "Genesis" telescope (4" aperture, 500mm f5) which has since been replaced by improved 4 inch apochromatic telescopes. This book has become one of our best advertisements for the versatile, readily transportable fast 4 inch (10cm) refracting telescopes. Similarly to keep things simple, and relate as much as possible to the average amateur observer Stephen chose to use the "Genesis" telescope on the simple but sturdy TeleVue "Gibraltar" alt-azimuth mount with Ash Wood tripod. He equipped the telescope with only a modest selection of accessories: TeleVue 22mm "Panoptic" eyepiece (providing 23X, 2.85 Degrees Actual Field of View), a 7mm Nagler eyepiece (71X, 1.08 AFOV), and a TeleVue Barlow lens to increase the magnification by 1.8X.

While the 4" models gained more and more recognition for the company, Al Nagler realized that many astronomers would be happy to have good even more compact refractor telescopes, and easy to use mounts. The introduction in 1986 of the TeleVue 76mm aperture f7.4, 560mm focal length "Oracle" triplet Apochromat began the trend towards acceptance not only in the astronomy community, but also among the much larger "birding" and nature watching community. Continuing in 1992 with the achromatic "Pronto" 70mm f6.8 telescope, and in 1998 with the introduction of the apochromatic "TeleVue 85" telescope. And announced in the Fall of year 2001, Al decided to round out the assortment with a telescope as compact as the Pronto but as refined as any state of the art doublet apochromat - the "76" telescope.

The TeleVue pattern of innovation continues with unrivaled and unique products such as the "Starbeam" sight which is a product of "Heads Up Display" R&D efforts.

And not to be understated; these are world-class telescopes with mounts and accessories which are engineered superbly, packaged properly, and very well documented with illustrated manuals in order to facilitate quick set up and ease of use by even the least experienced buyer!

OPTICAL AND MECHANICAL PRODUCTION

TeleVue optics are designed by Al Nagler then manufactured to his specifications in modern facilities in Japan, Taiwan (R.O.C.), and the U.S.A. Final assembly and quality control are concluded at their Suffern, New York facility.

The mechanical components of these telescopes and lenses are designed to assure a perfect alignment of optical components is maintained and that nominal performance otherwise remain un-compromised. The design and fabrication of the mechanical components of these telescopes and lenses is geared to assure a lifetime (and more) of observing pleasure, and they provide a feel and finish that inspires confidence in the product, and pride of ownership.