Posts Made By: Philip Blanda

The line of Tele Vue Plossls are extremely well made and very reasonably priced. If you don't like the Ethos, buy the Plossl.

Philip

I thought that the TOA design was two FPL-53 ED elements surrounding another, non-ED, piece of optical glass with one of the air gaps being a large one. This inaccuracy (if inaccurate it is) would tend to cast doubt on anything else that might be claimed in the ad copy especially if no other source (TNR) repeats it.

Philip

Jerry Wise said: ... ingenious design of layering an FPL-53 Extra-low Dispersion glass element between two extreme quality crown and flint elements

Tele Vue has their manufacturing plant in Chester, NY. I've not been there for a tour, but some lucky few have seen the inside and there they manufacture the mechanical parts, even including fabricating some metal screws for their telescopes!

The optics for their telescopes are not produced there. However, the optics are mated with the locally manufactured optical tube and focusers there, collimated and tested. Tele Vue has *never* said where the optics for their telescopes are made. Never.

Many have speculated that the telescope optics are made in the far east, as Tele Vue eyepieces are marked either "Made in Japan" or "Made in Taiwan" so they have subcontractors in that geographic region. However, the telescope optics may very well be produced by a USA or less likely a European based optical shop. Questar, for example, uses Cumberland Optics (http://www.cumberlandoptical.com/) to produce their optics. There are a number of such high quality optical shops in the USA which Tele Vue might use.

The bottom line is that even if the Optics are ground, polished and figured overseas (a big if), the unmounted lenses are put in cells and tubes and focusers fabricated by Tele Vue in the USA. Enjoy your Tele Vue scope.

Philip

The TSA is extremely well made and has proven well made optics with great consistency. I've not seen any reports of a poor one. As an aside, it uses the same glass configuration as the Astro-Physics 160EDF - BK7/FPL-53/BK7.

The SV105 does not have a large track record and has not been shown to have the same level of quality or consistency as the LZOS sourced Stellarvue lenses that help make SV reputation for optical excellence. It may be able to meet or exceed those levels, time will tell.

Philip

In your case, the views will be dramatically better in the 8" than the 12". Heck, a 60mm or even a finderscope would yield infinitely superior views to the 12" in this case. Any glass under the stars is better than the finest, largest glass in the closet at home. Get an nice 8" SCT and enjoy the views.

Philip

Alvaro Garay said:
...it is too big for me to keep in my apartment and to carry on my car.
Sometimes I want to take my scope to do an observation, but as soon as I see
that big heavy thing, my interest in going outside is vanished..
I am thinking in getting a smaller telescope, same type, but smaller (8"), ... ? I know the size is
one of the most important things on a telescope, but will the views be drastically
reduced compared to the 12"?
Alvaro