Tele Vue
32 Elkay Drive
Chester, NY 10918

Greetings,

Although I was able to fit the heart of my comments on your warranty card, I thought I would share my appreciation for my new Tele Vue 102 and Gibraltar mount with you.

I have been an amateur astronomer for nine years now and have owned at least a dozen telescopes. Many of these I have parted with, finding those with sufficient aperture to be too cumbersome for the typically brief observing sessions I am able to fit into my schedule and those that were portable too limiting in terms of their optical performance. This past December I was able to purchase a used Pronto and was immediately impressed by its quality and finish. The optics did not disappoint either.

I had some questions about my Pronto’s lens surfaces; however, thus I called your company. Despite the telescope being used and without warranty, your customer service helped me tremendously. I spoke with David for awhile, and he was most helpful and patient in addressing my concerns. In the past I had contacted other manufacturers and encountered everything from telephone run-arounds to terse representatives to voicemails that never received a response. Tele Vue has been the first company to so thoroughly and promptly address my question. For the first time I felt truly valued as a customer – and, at the time, I hadn’t even purchased a new Tele Vue product! That of course quickly changed. The day after speaking with David, I contacted my dealer and cancelled my order for a Takahashi FS102 and requested that they have a Tele Vue 102 sent to me as soon as possible. This has been perhaps one of the best decisions I have ever made.

My Tele Vue 102 has taken me on fantastic space voyages from my backyard. Just last night I was in search of the faint nebula NGC896. With my Tele Vue 102 equipped with a UHC filter, I was able to not only trace the nebula’s vague, ghostly contours, but was able to discern the dark channel that separates this nebula from nearby IC1795! Needless to say, I am astonished. From subsequent research, it seems that this nebula is predominantly the prey of large reflectors; even then, the dark channel is not often reported. The Tele Vue 102’s outstanding optics were able to provide the contrast needed to glimpse this dim nebula and its dark channel right from my suburban backyard! Perhaps more amusing, I was viewing Saturn a few evenings ago through the Orlando Science Center 10” Byers refractor. A week prior to that I had enjoyed Saturn with my Tele Vue 102. Simply put, the 10” Byers presented an image that failed to impress. The big refractor did not give me that fantastic 3D image of the ringed-planet that the Tele Vue 102 was able to deliver!

On your web-site I noticed that you want your customer’s “Tele Vue experience to be ‘…even better than imagined.’” Please consider this to have been met and then some. Never in my life has any telescope, to include those that reside in observatories, so entirely impressed me. Now to just save some money so I can begin replacing my current eyepieces with your own!

Thank you for such a fantastic product and such wonderful concern for your customers. You have earned a lifetime customer

—Jay Michaels,
Cocoa, Florida  

Objective

102mm Aperture, APO Doublet

Focal Length

880mm

Focal Ratio

F/8.6

Max Visual Field

3.0 degrees @ 16x (55mm Plössl)

Weight/Length

Ivory O.T.A.: 9lb. 
Ivory w/Diagonal: 11lb.
Brass "Renaissance" w/Diagonal: 14.8 lb.

Length of O.T.A: 30-3/4" 
Length of O.T.A:  w/Diagonal: 33-3/4"

Includes

Custom hard shell case, screw-on lens cover
sliding dew shield, 2" Everbrite Diagonal, 1-1/4"-2" adapter, Plössl eyepiece, Ring Mount and Ivory powder coated tube

Ring Mount

The Ring Mount serves three purposes: Firstly, it provides a secure mounting for your telescope to your Tele Vue mount, or to other mounts via adapters. Secondly, it provides a means for fore and aft balancing when you change eyepieces. Thirdly, the Ring Mount holds accessories, such the Starbeam finder or Piggy-Cam, via machined channels in the top half.

The inside of the Ring Mount is lined with a thin felt layer to prevent scratching when adjusting balance and provide ample friction to hold your telescope in place. The bottom of the mount ring has three 1/4-20 tapped holes appropriately spaced for all Tele Vue mounts.