Tele Vue is known for its in-house eyepiece and telescope designs by Al Nagler; the development of the Ethos series brings new meaning to the term “in-house.” The concept for this eyepiece series was proposed by Tele Vue President David Nagler, with performance parameters giving it the fundamental characteristics (the ethos) of a Tele Vue eyepiece: high contrast, comfortable eye relief and full field sharpness. Control of astigmatism, field curvature, lateral colour, angular magnification distortion correction, and low pupil sensitivity for daytime use were specified criteria.
Following Tele Vue’s philosophy of pushing the state of the art, long-time Tele Vue employee and optical design protégé Paul Dellechiaie took up the challenge and designed the basic eyepiece form. Under Al’s guidance, Paul tweaked his design to fulfill the original goals.
While sharpness is inherent to the optical design, contrast is maximized through the intelligent use of flat finished baffles and ultra low reflectance, high efficiency coatings tuned to the composition of each element.