Does it make any sense, in terms of optical performance, to sell a TV-101 in order to buy a NP-101?
TV-101 vs NP-101
Started by kevnsilv, 03/01/2003 04:25PM
Posted 03/01/2003 04:25PM
Opening Post
Posted 03/04/2003 04:53AM
#2
Kevin,
I spoke with someone at Tele Vue about this last year and they told me that planetary performance of the new NP-101 was a little better than the TV-101 and that it was now equal to or a tad better than the TV-102 at powers up to 150x and noticably better at powers higher than that.
Back several years ago when the TV-102 came out reviewers like Ed Ting were saying that it was a little bit sharper and had a little better contrast (on the planets) than the TV-101. So if the NP-101 now equals or slightly exceeds the TV-102 in that department, then it would now combine the best features of the TV-102 and TV-101 (wider fields at lower powers) and put it in a package that is smaller and more airline portable.
Anyway, is all this worth the large price difference? It depends on what you want it for. If you want a scope that is more portable and has excels at both deep sky and planetary applications (for its aperture size), then maybe it is. If you're just looking for a scope to take out into the back yard or throw in the car to drive to a dark sky site, I think you'd be quite happy with the TV-101. I had a chance to compare the two last summer (on deep sky objects only) and the only noticable difference I could see was that there were a few more individual stars visible around esolved around M13 (at 108x) using the NP-101 than the TV-101. Virtually everything else looked the same (i.e., excellent).
I agree with one of the other writers who said that if you bought a used TV-101 and applied the savings towards the purchase of a Bino Vue you would get a lot more value for your money than you would by just purchasing the NP-101 by itself. The TV-101 (and of course the NP-101) gives incredible views of the moon, the planets, and the brighter deep sky objects (e.g., M8, m35, M42, Double Cluster, etc.) when used with a binoviewer.
John Finnan
I spoke with someone at Tele Vue about this last year and they told me that planetary performance of the new NP-101 was a little better than the TV-101 and that it was now equal to or a tad better than the TV-102 at powers up to 150x and noticably better at powers higher than that.
Back several years ago when the TV-102 came out reviewers like Ed Ting were saying that it was a little bit sharper and had a little better contrast (on the planets) than the TV-101. So if the NP-101 now equals or slightly exceeds the TV-102 in that department, then it would now combine the best features of the TV-102 and TV-101 (wider fields at lower powers) and put it in a package that is smaller and more airline portable.
Anyway, is all this worth the large price difference? It depends on what you want it for. If you want a scope that is more portable and has excels at both deep sky and planetary applications (for its aperture size), then maybe it is. If you're just looking for a scope to take out into the back yard or throw in the car to drive to a dark sky site, I think you'd be quite happy with the TV-101. I had a chance to compare the two last summer (on deep sky objects only) and the only noticable difference I could see was that there were a few more individual stars visible around esolved around M13 (at 108x) using the NP-101 than the TV-101. Virtually everything else looked the same (i.e., excellent).
I agree with one of the other writers who said that if you bought a used TV-101 and applied the savings towards the purchase of a Bino Vue you would get a lot more value for your money than you would by just purchasing the NP-101 by itself. The TV-101 (and of course the NP-101) gives incredible views of the moon, the planets, and the brighter deep sky objects (e.g., M8, m35, M42, Double Cluster, etc.) when used with a binoviewer.
John Finnan
Funding Member
