Tele Vue began operations in 1980 with the manufacture of eyepieces designed by optician and founder, Al Nagler. Since 1985 Tele Vue has offered the venerable Systems mount for its telescopes. In 1986 the Panoramic alt-az mount was added to the family, and in 1991 a simpler Tele Pod alt-az mount. Finally in 1993, the Gibraltor mount replaced the Systems mount to give the company an all alt-az line-up of optical tube platforms. However, a "Sky Tour" computer was made available with this new mount for locating over 2000 deep sky objects, planets and programmable objects.
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The first complete telescope from this company was introduced in 1984 and was called the Renaissance. This was a beautiful brass bodied 4" f/5.5 optical tube with a two element objective lens combined with a field flattening corrector lens in the body of the telescope. A smooth, oversize focuser and diagonal accepted 2" or 1 ¼" eyepieces. In 1993 improvements were made to this telescope with a redesigned objective lens which included both flourite and low dispersion glass elements. This model was then called the Renaissance -sdf. | |
| Renaissance | ||
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In 1987 the Oracle 3 was brought to market. This was a high quality, 3.3" f7.4 cemented triplet objective apochromatic refractor with 2" focuser, 1 ¼" adapter and eyepiece, and padded case. In 1989 the slightly telescope was redesigned with a smoother focuser and a built-in retractable dew shade. | |
| Oracle 3 | ||
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In 1988 another 4" refractor was released, the now popular Genesis. This time a slightly shorter f/5 focal length was designed with a four element flourite apochromatic objective, 2" focuser, 1 ¼" adapter and eyepiece, and padded case. Like the Oracle 3, it was slightly redesigned in 1989 to have a smoother focuser and a built-in retractable dew shade. In 1993 improvements were again made on this telescope with a redesigned objective lens which included both flourite and low dispersion glass elements. This model was called the Genesis-sdf. | |
| Genesis sdf | ||
| 1991 saw the introduction of the Solaris. This was a telescope built specifically for studying our closest star, the Sun. The optical system starts with a 60mm f/9 objective, but corrective lenses boost this to an f/30 flat field. The telescope also incorporates a "T-scanner" hydrogen-alpha filter produced by DayStar. This is a non-temperature-regulated filter that produces excellent results. The system comes with a 2" focuser, diagonal and eyepiece, and a soft carrying case. | ||
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1992 saw the introduction of the diminutive but elegant Pronto. This boasted a 70mm f/6.4 two element objective with ED glass. It was supplied with a 2" focuser and diagonal with 1 ¼" adapter and eyepiece, a tripod mounting block and padded case. More recently it was supplied with either a 2" or 1 1/4" star diagonal or 45 degree erecting prism. | |
| Pronto | ||
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In 1995 a new, even smaller telescope was released called the Ranger. Like its predecessors, the Ranger was a short tube refractor. This one was optimized for travel, weighing only 3 ½ pounds. It used the same 70mm f/6.8 objective as the Pronto, but focusing was accomplished by manipulation of a combination of slide and helical elements for rough and fine focus. The optical tube was supplied with a dove-tail beam for adjusting balance on a photographic tripod, a 1 ¼" diagonal and eyepiece. | |
| Ranger | ||
| 1997 brought the TV101. This replacement for the Genesis-sdf contained the same basic flourite f/5.4 objective, but with new exotic front elements. The maintained the same high quality tube as previous models, and was supplied with a tripod mounting block 2" diagonal and 1 ¼" eyepiece, and a sturdy case. The TV85 was added in 1998. The objective of this new telescope was an 85mm f/7 air spaced, apochromatic ED doublet. It comes supplied with a tripod block, 2" focuser, 2" diagonal and 1 ¼" eyepiece, and soft carrying case. | ||