Televue Ranger

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Televue Ranger
for the sizeprice and portability thsi scope gives very good optical performance.
The construction and feel are solid.!!!

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38254

Televue Ranger
Chromatic aberration unacceptable for daytime use or photography. Otherwise, looks and feels very well-made. Probably great yuppy gift. Photo shows tripod, but you're on your own here.

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38255

Televue Ranger
An excellent all around performer, this scope is perfect for daytime or nightime visual observing. Extremely light, compact and portable, it also exhibits a minimum amount of chromatic abberation. Images tend to be warm and crisp. A wonderful small refractor at a very inexpensive price. An excellent second or travel scope. Highly recommended.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38256

Televue Ranger
Excellent optics, performs nearly better than 4.5"/900 mm Newton. Good contrast. 12th magnitude visually in dark country sky. Perfect Airy diffraction patterns around bright stars, epsilon Lyrae easily splitted. M13 is nearly resolved. Chromatic aberration evident out of focus. Bright stars shows only a dim violet halo. Very good deep-sky shots posted on the web.
Rugged assembly, portable.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38257

Televue Ranger
For astronomy, only good on a small solid equatorial mount like New Polaris.
High magnifications bad on photo-tripods. Works good with BAADER eudiascopic, MEADE SWA and Plössls. Best Teleskope I ever had. small, versatile, fantastic widefield views at low power.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38260

Televue Ranger
GREAT LITTLE SCOPE!!

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38261

Televue Ranger
Chromatic aberration at medium magnification in daylight. Almost invisible
at night.
Much stray light within tube at daytime. Contrast suffers.
My copy has severe, undercorrected spherical aberration, so the optics
is definitely not perfect. Others may be more lucky.

Overall Rating: No Vote
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38262

Televue Ranger
This scope is simple and built quite solid. Definately not a toy scope. I must admit my expectations were not met in the optics department however for all the hype I've read and heard. I noticed quite a bit of false color on the unit I had. I hated the helical focus mechanism. I think these scopes are priced way to high and a better choice would be a C5 or G5 from Celestron - better images and MORE APEERTURE! If $ was an issue, I'd recommend a Shorttube 80 or 90 from Orion. Their optics are 80% as good for half the cost - still more aperture.

It was great as a daytime portable spotting scope - good images. Still too pricey though.

Overall Rating: 7
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38263

Televue Ranger
Very good scope for the 2.8". Find better ED for the price let me know

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38264

Televue Ranger
With only 4lb of weight, this scope would be always used - which is the most important factor for a telescope. Moreover, it has wide field of view and good (although not perfect) optical quality. Since the portable factor is so important, Ranger certainly deserves a 10.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38266

Televue Ranger
If you are expecting an apochromat, you are going to be disappointed. But if you compare the ranger to the mass market achromats that various vendors sell, I think you will be impressed. Yes, there is a little bit of color on bright objects like Venus, but even on Jupiter, still a pretty bright object, I can't see any color.

Detail? Awesome. At 50x, the Ranger shows nearly as much detail in the cloud bands of Jupiter as my 8" f/7 Newtonian reflector does at 157x. The Ranger also tolerates very high magnification without image degradation (assuming that the seeing is good enough). In a side by side test of a Meade 60mm refractor and the Ranger on Saturn, the Meade had gone to fuzzland by 120x; the Ranger was just beginning to reach its limits at 180x. Generally, the Ranger will tolerate twice as much magnification per inch of aperture as the mass market achromats and Dobsonians.

Mechanically, it feels good. The helical focuser, as neat and elegant as it feels, is a little clumsy to use unless you have a complete set of parfocal eyepieces (which I don't). In retrospect, I wish I had spent the extra money to get the Pronto, which is a bit heavier, but has the 2" rack-and-pinion focuser.

Unfortunately, while lighter than the Pronto, it's not really light enough to mount on a common camera tripod (in spite of the 1/4-20 threaded mounting block). Because of its length and weight, the Ranger has a moment arm that makes it very hard to make fine adjustments to most camera tripods while aiming high in the sky -- so don't even think about using more than 25x unless put it on a bulkier mount than a camera tripod. (This, unfortunately, takes away much of the virtue of the Ranger -- it's light weight.)

I put mine on the Orion EQ-1, a cheap, more than sufficiently stable equatorial mount. It is heavy enough and bulky enough that it's a bit of a pain to get it into even the a full-sized car trunk without a bit of annoying disassembly. But that's not a fault of the Ranger, but of the need for a decent mount to use the Ranger's capabilities.

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38267

Televue Ranger
I had one and liked it for the most part. The focuser would get "greasey" and at times that gunk would get all over my eyepieces.

For the extra money I would buy the pronto.

Overall Rating: 6
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38268

Televue Ranger
I bought the ranger as an all purpose scope. I use it for birding as well as sky viewing.It exceeded my expectations, the quality of the scope is excelent it's light , portable and very sharp. I have it on a Bogen tripod with a fluid pan head. For birding used with a TeleVue 32 mm plossl it is bright and very sharp. I compared it to other birding scopes in its price range and it beat the others hands down. Take it outside at night and try it with a 9mm Nagler eyepiece and take a look at the moon. You wont beleive it, this is where the scope really excels. I cant say enough about how well this scope performs, you just have to take one out and try it for yourself. I rate this a 10 because for the size and price its in a class by itself. TRY ONE

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38270

Televue Ranger
SCOPE IS PRETTY GOOD. SHOWS A LITTLE FALSE COLOR ON BRIGHT OBJECTS.
NOTHING NEW SINCE IT IS A "SEMI"?? APO. KEEPS ME HAPPY.

Overall Rating: 8
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38271

Televue Ranger
For the price, portability, weight and excellent optics it is hard to beat. Stars are at high power (192X) perfect Airy disks NOT fuzzy lint balls even in not very good seeing. Color correction is very good considering that is a semi-apo. Solid as a tank. A jewel.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38272

Televue Ranger
It's definitely not a beginner telescope because of its small aperture. But as a second scope for spur-of-the-moment observing it can't be beat. Buy if you can afford it; or else just get an Orion Shortube

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38274

Televue Ranger
Greetings from Gloucester!

I've had this scope for two years now. I bought it primarily for birdwatching with a minor interest in astronomy.

Birdwatching: This is a nice spotting scope that holds it's own with the premium dedicated units out there. With the 90 degree eyepiece holder the bird looks sharper and more contrasty than with the Swarovski. At higher power (60x)with the Televue zoom the image gets a little darker than the Swarovski due to having smaller aperture. Some sun glare is present at proper angles. Not waterproof.

Stargazing: I am a newcomer to astronomy so I do not have a great deal of experience to comment and compare with. I do know that my wife, who was initially befuddled by my spending such money on a spotting scope, saw Saturn and its rings at 80x through this scope and said " Ohmigawd! Look at that!
That's beautiful! I'm glad I lived long enough to see that!" The other thing I know is this scope sets up in a heartbeat and I use it 3-4 nights a week when a more difficult setup would leave me in front of the computer or, worse, the television.
enjoy Jim Barber

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38277

Televue Ranger
Very good optics even under high magnification + extremely prone to frequent use because of its size + price . This is one of those scopes the experts recommend - the kind that doesn't pack a lot of aperature, but whose size and optics cause one to just pick it up and head out for a causal evening of viewing.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38278

Televue Ranger
I have a Ranger now, had a C5 which gives you more aperture & less color.
I thought, I´d never sell the C5, but sold it, because it´s more bulky and I fell in love with the Ranger, since I had it. Don´t know why, simply sympathy.
Now what the ranger concerns: aesthetic views, lightweight, solid built, fine finish, fine optics - these are the real pro´s. And it´s a refractor. Pinpoint stars, no collimation. Gives wonderful views up to magnifications of 160x (and more on the moon). The only con: It´s price....
But better than anything in this size (maybe except the APO´s like Swarovski & Leica, not their ED´s).
My recommendation: if you want aestethic views, fine finish and the feeling to have something, that´s representative and overall worth the price, go for it.
If you want performance and aperture, buy an 8" Newton for the same price.

The only reason, why I rate it 9 only is its price.

Overall Rating: 9
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38280

Televue Ranger
This telescope isn't cheap, but worth every penny. Lightweight, solid, and highly portable w/ superb optics. My Ranger can take 300x and still be useful. (i.e. delta Cygni comfortably split using 8mm plossl & powermate, Izar awesome at same mag, Polaris companion also easily seen @ 300x from light polluted backyard). The views at dark sites are simply amazing. M81 & M82 through a 19mm Panoptic at a dark site will give you the willies. And yes, NGC 3077 (though extremely faint) is visible also. The contrast this scope provides is unreal. The dark lane running down the center of M82 screams at you. And the scope loves nebula filters. Beautiful, haunting views of M97 (Owl Nebula) @ 63x with Lumicon OIII. If you have a choice between buying a 12.5" Newt to be used only in a light polluted backyard or buying a Ranger that'll travel with you 1/2 hour outta town to a dark site, BUY THE RANGER. My mounting system is a Telepod head and tripod. Perfect. Get an Xl Tarmac tripod bag for the head/tripod and you can literally climb a mountain and observe from the peak. I've done this several times. The scope and tripod are so light, you don't even feel the weight. This scope gets a 10. No doubt about it.

Overall Rating: 10
Weight: 1 (Unreliable Vote)
Date:
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Link to this vote: http://www.excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=38281

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