The 13 mm Nagler Type 6 Eyepiece from Tele Vue:

 

Tele Vue Nagler Eyepieces:

"You may know there's a long history of naming eyepieces after their designers: Kellner, Erfle, and Plossl, to name a few. In the late '70s I designed an eyepiece sufficiently radical that I dared attach my name to it. Even today, I must admit a little discomfort when talking about 'Nagler' eyepieces. 

With 'Naglers,' my aim is to approach the wide angle perspective of naked eye vision, while maintaining the highest degree of sharpness, contrast, and viewing comfort. The goal is to allow the telescope to virtually 'disappear,' leaving the impact of 'spacewalk' viewing." -Al Nagler 

Compare a penny to a half dollar to see the relative size between a 50-degree and 82-degree apparent field, almost 3 times the area difference! And while others boast of impressive apparent field sizes, Tele Vue's philosophy of "showing no field unless it's fine" stresses full field image quality as the ingredient for impressive views. Blackened lens edges, anti-reflection threads and rubber eye guards deliver maximum contrast. Adapter skirts for 2" focusers on larger 1.25" models (12 mm Nagler Type 4 and 22 mm Panoptic) and rubber grip rings are additional Tele Vue firsts. Even 2"/ 1.25" barrel models have an additional feature allowing the 2" extension tube (EBX-2120) to be screwed on, which permits use of 2" filters as well as 1.25". 100-percent full field visual inspection on our own flat-field test instruments guarantees the performance of every Tele Vue eyepiece.

Tele Vue Nagler Type 4 Eyepieces: Applying the experience of the Radian development to the 82-degree Nagler series, yielded more contrast, reduced pincushion, more true field, longer eye-relief, and fewer elements to achieve focal lengths of 12 mm, 17 mm, and 22 mm. With added eye-relief, the click-stop Instadjust eyeguard helps maintain proper eye distance and centration. When Tele Vue designed the Radian series of eyepieces, they used the Nagler concept as the basis. However with the Radians, the decided to balance size, weight, and cost relative to a consistent 20 mm eye relief. During the design process they found they could not only balance these factors for 1.25" focusers, but new glass types lead to better imaging, contrast enhancement, reduced pincushion, ghost suppression, and a new concept in a click-stop adjustable eyeguard as well.

Applying that experience to the 82-degree, Nagler Type 2 design goals would potentially provide increased eye-relief, more contrast, reduced pincushion, and more true field as well. The first Nagler Type 4 to arrive is the 12 mm version, replacing the 12 mm Nagler Type 2, its predecessor the 13 mm (the first Nagler), and the 11 mm (now considered a collector item). Users confirm that for deep sky viewing, the comfort, clarity and contrast of the 12 mm Type 4 gets Tele Vue closer to their "spacewalk" viewing goal. Similar in size and weight to Type 2, it has more true field and 50-percent greater eye relief, while using just six elements.

Tele Vue Nagler Type 5 Eyepieces: With the 31 mm, the unique 6-element design using four exotic glasses, maintains the contrast advancement of the Type 4s while achieving a true field area 82-percent larger than the 22 mm Type 4! Owners of fast Dobsonian/Newtonian telescopes can enjoy a larger true field free of secondary shadowing.  For example, a 12.5", f/4.5 scope with a Paracorr will deliver a 1.5-degree field (3 Moon diameters), at 53x with a 6 mm exit pupil. Use our eyepiece calculator to figure out what the 31 mm will deliver on your scope.

The 16 mm Nagler Type 5 is a scaled down version of the "king of the field," 31 mm. The new 16 mm is a smaller, lighter (0.45-pounds), 1.25" only, 6-element design which replaces the 8-element 16 mm Nagler Type 2. This exciting little high contrast eyepiece looks like a 19 mm Panoptic, but packs the visual impact and sharpness we all expect from the 82-degree Nagler series. This eyepiece offers owners of 1.25" only scopes the largest possible true field in an 82-degree apparent field eyepiece. Great for small telescopes and Bino-viewers.

26 mm Nagler Type 5: This is a somewhat smaller, lighter and more powerful version of the celebrated 31 Nagler Type 5. It weighs about 1.6-poounds and has a field stop diameter of 35 mm. It is parfocal with the 17 mm Nagler Type 4, making it a nice match in size, weight and convenience.

The 20 mm Type 5 is a compact 1-pound, 2" eyepiece that fills out the eyepiece line and is a worthy successor to the heaviest commercial eyepiece ever produced: the Nagler 20 mm Type 2, which weighed-in at 2.3-pounds when introduced in 1986.

Tele Vue Nagler Type 6 Eyepieces: The 7-element, Nagler Type 6 design is based on the original patented Nagler design. This new 7-element design update for the short focal length Nagler deserves its own designation. Using different exotic materials, coating processes and design ingenuity, Al has massaged more eye-relief, contrast, and true field of view into the shorter focal length Naglers, while maintaining the absolute sharpness of the originals. Eye-relief is 12 mm on each model, and all are sized about the same as the original 7 mm. Weights are about 0.4 to 0.5pounds. Available in 13 mm, 11 mm, 9 mm, 7 mm, 5 mm, 3.5 mm, and 2.5 mm focal lengths.

 

TELE VUE NOTE: The goal we set designing these new eyepieces was to increase contrast, maintain or increase eye-relief, reduce size and weight, and maintain the sharpness of the originals. They are all parfocal and great with the Bino Vue. We are confident we've succeeded on all accounts and look forward to your comments.

The 11 mm Nagler Type 6, slots in perfectly between the 13 mm and 9 mm Type 6s, and makes a perfect companion to the 7 mm. The 3.5 mm Nagler Type 6 is a natural progression of 1.4x power steps from 7 mm and 5 mm Naglers. The 2.5 mm is also a 1.4x step from the 3.5 mm. You don't have to sacrifice field in order to gain sharpness and power.  These are the lunar and "planetary" eyepieces with field to spare.

 

 

Tele Vue Nagler Eyepiece Reviews:

"Despite the presence of no less than seven optical elements, these [Nagler] eyepieces provide images which are noticeably brighter than those obtained with many quality orthoscopics, with superb image sharpness and contrast. Even though these oculars are quite expensive, the serious planetary observer would do well to consider employing this type." - Don Parker et al., Introduction to Observing and Photographing the Solar System, 1988. p. 14

"The advantages can be summarized as follows: an 82-degree wide field with unexcelled image sharpness to the extreme edge. This is true even for fast focal ratios; lateral color is very low compared with other wide field eyepieces; the eye relief is very large for a 13 mm focal length. In our view these advantages make this eyepiece one of the most remarkable optical developments for the amateur." -Martin van Venrooij, Telescope Making Magazine

"I also tested their 13 mm Nagler Type 6, which yields an exceptional, wide-field, 36x view. The 40x (or so) wide field view is becoming one of my favorite all-purpose views, with enough power for detail and enough field for locating and following birds: the best of both worlds." -Stephen Ingraham, "Tele Vue Upgrades!", Better View Desired web article, April 2003.

 

OPT Product Number: TE-EN6-13.0

 

All Tele Vue products are available to ship world-wide from OPT, and effective July 1, 2008, are covered by a Five Year Worldwide Limited Product Warranty! Always be sure to save your original packaging materials should you need to return any Tele Vue product for warranty or repair.

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• Focal Length: 13 mm
• Barrel Size: 1.25"
• Apparent Field of View: 82-degrees
• Eye Relief: 12 mm
• Field Stop: 17.6 mm