The Teeter's Telescopes 2012 NEAF Staff.  Pictured from L to R: Rob Teeter, Heather Teeter, Martin Segal, Ben Sim, Alexander Sim (Ben's son), and Alex Caillie.   

NEAF 2012 was a huge success for us with incredible enthusiasm and a ton of traffic through our booth.  On Saturday morning we were literally swamped fielding questions, handing out price lists and brochures, explaining the attributes of our scopes, demonstrating how our scopes are ahead of our competition and catching up with friends and observing buddies that we haven't seen since last year.  And when I say "we", I really mean all of us. Nobody above was "twiddling their thumbs" waiting for something to do that Saturday. Further, I made sure this year that everyone working our booth, even though they're not involved with the business on a day-to-day basis like I am, knew answers to many of the more common questions that would be expected.   I hope we presented Teeter's Telescopes in a professional light and served everyone who had questions and comments in a satisfactory way.   

The dates have already been set for NEAF 2013 - April 20/21.  We've got our calendar marked and will be there!

TT85, a 20" F/4.5, recently saw First Light at the AVA's (a Valencia, Spain, based astronomy club) dark sky location after having been delivered by UPS Air Freight.   Fernando M., owner of TT74, coordinated the acceptance of the crate containing TT85 on behalf of the AVA (his local astronomy club).   Initial reports are very positive of the crate arriving in pristine condition with no damage to the scope inside and of initial set up of the scope going extremely smooth.  Pictured above is Fernando getting ready for the awesome planetary views this scope produces with its Waite Research primary mirror.  

As a side note - after this scope was safely delivered, I finally had a chance to sit back, but only for a few moments before moving onto the next project, and truly appreciate how far Teeter's Telescopes has come as a business since 2002.   I still remember the "butterflies" in my stomach that I got taking my very first order for TT1, an 8" being delivered to a customer in Michigan.   I remember the nerves of trying to get everything right and make sure the transaction went without a hitch and here I am 10 years later delivering my second scope, and a large one at that, to Spain for use as the AVA's primary club-owned visual instrument.  Wow!

TT86, a 24" F/3.5 and the largest Teeter's Telescope thus far, recently saw First Light and was picked up by its new owner.   To say we're happy to see TT86 go would be an understatement!  ;-)   This was quite a scope to look through and with it being all decked out with all the upgrades including ServoCat, SkyCommander, Filter Slide, dually wheelbarrow handles, etc., you can't ignore the fact that this scope is BIG!  A 24" is only technically 4" larger than a 20" which we can easily handle in our small shop, but combine that with a fairly deep mirrorbox and 34" diameter altitude bearings and a rockerbox that was 29.5" x 29.5" and this scope easily takes up most of our workshop when assembled.  And when it was disassembled while we were building it, space was even more of an issue.  But the sense of accomplishment is great on this scope!  We simply scaled up our 20" design, beefing up portions of the structure where we deemed fit, and put together a telescope that the customer was ecstatic about receiving.  I hope to do more 24" scopes in the future, but at least now I know the scale of how large a 24" really is.   You can visualize it, but until you actually man-handle the components you don't really appreciate it.

TT82, a 20" F/3, made it safely to our customer in South Korea!   This was a long journey, both in miles and in time, to make this telescope a reality and have it delivered in working order to the customer.   Shown above is the customer's (in the orange jacket) First Light with TT82.  Of his experience he says:

"Result is...Unlimited Great!!"

"...the mirrors are top level of quality. I can guarantee it,"

"...this telescope can make high level star point," and,

"...under almost full moon, this telescope was keeping good contrast."

That night the temperature was a chilly -15 C (5 degrees F) and our Dual Boundary Layer Cooling Fans and Dual Under-Primary Cooling Fans did the task of bringing the 20" diameter, 1.75" thickness, Supremax mirror down to ambient temperature and kept it there all night.  We look forward to further positive observing reports once the weather warms up for our customer (I know I wouldn't be out in weather that cold!  Well, if I had a brand new 20" F/3...hmmm...).

TT#86, a 24" F/3.5, is nearing completion. Previously the largest telescopes we had produced were 20" of aperture, but this particular customer loved how our 20" scopes looked and wanted a 24" built in the same fashion.  The primary mirror and 5" minor axis secondary mirror are being provided by Waite Research. Above is a recent shot of the mirrorbox and rockerbox portions of this scope.   Due to the large width of the rockerbox, four Boundary Layer cooling fans have been employed to give uniform wash of cool air across the face of the mirror to break up the boundary layer of warmer air sitting on top of the mirror during cool down. More pictures to come as more progress is made, stay tuned.