Teleport 7"
Originally posted May 2001 - I recently
got the only 7" Teleport in
existence. Tom Noe is the genius
behind this scope that has no other peer.
What's so special about this
scope? It is a 7" Dob that will fit into
a duffel bag carry-on. So you can
transport this scope on an airplane.
The whole thing weighs about 20 pounds
and can easily be carried long distances,
propped on a table or chair, or
set on the ground. When fully extended
the eyepiece is about 41" at Zenith.
It is 48" with the clever collapsible
tri-stand. The tri-stand is a highly
recommended option.
Tom uses Bogen tripod legs to make the
scope extend from the mirror box, and
collapse back in when it's time to put
it away. With its silver cover, the
scope is the spitting image of R2D2.
It is so high tech, that that is an
appropriate way to refer to it.
The scope is self-contained, with a small
drawer to hold eyepieces, encoders
built in, a space to carry the Teleport
laser collimator, and a space to
store the Rigel finder. There is
also a built in heater and fan that work
on batteries (AA batteries I think).
Extending the tripod legs can be a touch
finicky, but it is fairly simple.
Set up time is about 3 to 5 minutes.
Once fully extended I was ready to
test it out. I tried it on 4 nights
so far and compared it to a Televue
102mm and a Celestron 8".
I was concerned that something so small
would have a hard time holding its
position as you roam around the sky and
stop. But the Teleport 7" is an
absolute jewel. Controls are sure
and smooth. It stops where you want to
stop it -- no slop whatsoever. Vibration
is very well controlled. It takes
less than 1 second to dampen when you
touch the scope. The scope uses two
set screws to adjust the tension in the
bearings. So the scope is very easy
to balance. I found that even without
the balance weights the scope stayed
perfectly balanced even when I switched
from a light University Optics ortho
to a heavy Pentax XL eyepiece.
I found the Teleport about equal to the
Televue on a Panoramic mount with
respect to ease of gliding about the sky
star-hopping. If anything, the
Teleport glides more smoothly. The
C8, as most of you know, is not as easy
to use for star hopping.
As for the views through the Teleport --
They are crisp, with excellent
contrast and sharpness. It has a
Zambuto mirror. Comparing the views in
the Teleport with the TV 102mm, here's
what I found.
I compared views of M81, M82, M51, and
some of the galaxies in Leo - M65,
M66
and a couple of others.
Since I had almost a half moon it made the viewing less than desirable.
M51 - was visible in the Teleport -- Barely discernable at all in 102mm
M65 and M66 and other Leo galaxies - visible
in Teleport - not visible at
all in the 102mm - keep in mind that this
was because of the glare from the
moon.
On dark nights the 102mm will show these
galaxies. But then again, on such
nights, the Teleport will show them noticeably
brighter.
M81 + M82 - Clearly visible in both scopes.
The 102mm did pretty well on
these. But the Teleport showed a
brighter image. I used several eyepieces
on both, and compared views using a 25mm
eyepiece on the 102mm, and a 28mm
eyepiece on the Teleport which I believe
yielded about 35X image in both
scopes.
Naturally, since I was comparing a 7" and
a 4" these results were as
expected. But it's still interesting
to see the comparison.
On the moon, there was less difference
between the two scopes. They seemed
to be equally crisp, with a slight edge
going to the 102mm -- but then
again, I don't think the Teleport was
perfectly collimated on the night I
compared the two.
Both in portability and in brightness of
views the edge definitely went to
the Teleport over the 102mm.
On a subsequent night, I compared the C8
with the Teleport. The Teleport
glides about the sky much more smoothly.
Viewing M13, both yielded a
partially resolved
globular. The C8 had a very slight
edge in resolution - again the edge to
the higher aperture. Keep in mind
that the C8 edge was very slight.
Looking for M51 I found it with a bit of
work in the Teleport - with the
moons
glare M51 doesn't exactly jump out at
you. But, with the C8, I had to get
into such contortions, that I finally
gave up trying to find M51 -- edge to
the Teleport on ease and enjoyability
of use.
On the moon, both scopes gave relatively
similar images of the craters.
Both were crisp at about 72X. Both
got a bit less crisp - but still very
sharp at about 200X.
While doing a star test, my C8 showed near
perfect circular donuts when
de-focused. The Teleport showed
a good circle on lower power. But when I
de-focused at 200X, the donut was obviously
misshaped indicating collimation
was less than desirable. So why
was the collimation off? It turns out the
focuser was not
properly adjusted - keep in mind I got
the scope used. Tom Noe explained
the
adjustment for the Helix focuser.
I followed his instructions, and the
focuser
now works well. There is no more
wiggle. Now that the focuser was properly
adjusted, I re-collimated the scope,
and VOILA - perfect donuts on both
sides
of focus.
Because of the size of the scope, and the
need for the scope to collapse
into the mirror box, Tom could not use
a Crayford focuser. Instead, he had
to
use a Helix focuser, which is less desirable.
The 10" Teleport also uses
the Helix focuser. But the 14.5"
has enough room that Tom was able to use a
Crayford focusers.
After, making the adjustment and re-collimating
I noticed improved
performance in the Teleport 7".
When I viewed M81 (or maybe it was M82
- I forget which one is the
non-elliptical one) it showed much more
detail.
A couple of other things I should mention.
I ran a Ronchi test, and the
scope as expected passed with flying colors.
Also, for those of you who like to use
encoders (like me), this scope works
better with encoders then any other scope
I've tried. The reason is that
because of the design, it is easy to level
the scope when you set it up. You
simply turn the secondary assembly on
its side till it's wood frame is
parallel to the top of the wood frame
of the mirror box. No bubble levels
or markers required. I noticed that
each time I used the encoders, the
accuracy was consistently higher than
with other scopes. Those who have
used encoders know well that improperly
leveling or pointing the scope to
Dec=0, even by a little, can cause significant
inaccuracies when trying to
get the module to find the objects in
the sky. With the Teleport, the
design is inherently more reliable for
consistent dead-on finds.
Conclusion. This is the most ingenious
telescope ever designed. The
engineering marvel has to be seen to be
believed, and is a testament to the
creativity, and engineering talent of
Mr. Noe. Tom, is also very
accessible, full of tips and information
on the scope, and always willing to
share his knowledge. A class act.
Tom is getting near completion of his
first 10 scope run of the Teleport 7"
[This first run has been delivered
since I first wrote this review].
So these scopes should be in the hands of
other users soon. If you want a
first class, airline carry-on size scope
with large aperture (at least when compared
to other airline portables that
are only 3 to 4 inches in aperture) run,
don't walk to Tom Noe's
upcoming Web site to order one of these
marvels. These scopes aren't
cheap -
the current price is $2500 and will probably
approach $3000 by the time you
put in your order. But they are
unbelievable.
If you don't need the airline transportable
- then the 10" Teleport is
probably a better choice. It weighs
32 lbs; packs into the trunk of any
car -- I mean any car -- with plenty of
room for people and other luggage;
and has
bigger aperture. The price is a
bit higher than the 7" but not much higher.
I think Todd Gross did a review of the
10" Teleport and rated it at the very
top of his list if you only had to have
one scope.
If you want a first rate scope that's easy
to port about -- get one of the
Teleports - whichever size suits you most.
André Hassid