Who is this Light Cup?
When I started in this hobby around 2001 AD, I was looking for a suitable first
telescope. At the time, I
knew about Celestron and Meade of course, but who are these Astrophysics, Tele
Vue, Vixen, and Takahashi
pitching this gadget called apochromatic refractor! After
asking all over the internet and
emailing owners with
endless questions with many people suggesting the
"one-size fit all" 6-8 inch Dob, SCT,
MCT, etc., I decided
to try something different. But not being ready to
plunk in such a substantial $$$$ dough
immediately, I went
briefly with the 4-inch Celestron C102-HD f/9.8 achromat (a heck of good
refractor value
by the way), to "test
the icy cold space 4-inch deep water" so to speak. After a few months,
the 4-incher looked like it
was just the
admission ticket for me to explore the DSOs and of course the planets, the Moon and the
comets.
Having fallen
in love with the Vixen on GP mount, I almost ordered the 102FL, but changed my mind at the
last moment. I
hung up the phone and quickly redialed Tele Vue and it just happened that fate
brought David Nagler to pick
up my call and after the conversation I went budget busting with the Tele Vue-102 APO refractor.
One night, after reading observing reports from various observers of the
large Dob "light bucket", an inspiration
came to me to christen my TV-102, the "Light Cup" J; after all, surely
its aperture is no match for them light
buckets.
With the inspiration from Sue French's column, O'Meara's, Houston and Mallas'
book on deep sky
observation, we set out together to explore this deep dark part of space and
well as the brighter part closer
to "home". Over
the next few years, it has been an endless fun, a great learning experience and most of all an
appreciation of what
a small scope can do and help with frequent observations. Last
but not least, the Light
Cup invoked my long forgotten English composition courses to deploy on
light-hearted marriage of journalism
and observation reports J.
In 2004, my busy lifestyle was taking a toll on me and I was depressed
despite the fact that my 8-inch Discovery
Dob was giving me a very fine view of Jupiter during the 2004 apparition.
I missed them simple days when there
was only one telescope to choose, the Light Cup
. And trying to choose between two
scopes for the
night
often caused me to take out both my TV-102 Light Cup and my 8-inch Dob
.
Thus began my search for the "panacea" telescope. My search took me to
choices such as upgrading my Dob
to premium Royce mirror and secondary and MoonLite dual-speed focuser, to
getting an 8-inch Starbucket,
to a 7" Intes M715 MCT, and C9.25 SCT. While these choices would have
given me great view, I knew I
would miss having a refractor around which could be used in a moment's notice
(the lifestyle variable), but I
wasn't willing to go back to the 2-scopes model again. And I also
want something small enough and light
enough so it can be used on my Vixen Super Polaris GEM. Restarting
the search all over again, the choices
converged upon a 5-inch class APO refractor. 6-inch would have been nice
but it's way too large and heavy!
I decided on the 130mm (5.1") TMB130LW and owned it for a about 6 months but
found out that it had a
horrible light reflection in the drawtube. From time to time, I looked at,
drooled over, dreamed of the 127mm
(5") Tele Vue
NP127 f/5.2 Nagler/Petzval APO
refractor with BinoVue that I fell in love with at RTMC in early
2004. The
price tag
was very steep, way over
the budget my CFO has sanctioned
. Threatening severe
depression
and tantrum 
that would require
hospitalization were I not to get the NP127
, my CFO finally
increased
my budget
. I sold
the TMB and
ordered the NP127 in Jun. of 2005 and received the telescope in
early
Aug. 2005.
Tele Vue NP127 alias "Light Cup, Sr."
The NP127 is truly a dream APO refractor. It is an incredible planetary
APO refractor with amazing visual
and imaging performance considering such a relatively diminutive aperture and a reckoning deep sky
performer,
jaw dropping really
when mated with my 31mm Nagler T5 for a breath taking panorama of the starry sky
at
almost 4° FOV
.
It is the lightest in its
class and almost as short as the shortest 5-inch
APO and effortlessly
satisfied my small
GEM requirement. I'm very
happy with the NP127 and its 5-inch aperture.
One night, an
inspiration came to
me after thinking about a new name for my
NP127. Since it's so light and so
small for a
5-inch refractor and its
5-inch aperture is considered tiny by 'em
light bucket users and it is the only DNA
matched big brother of my
TV-102 Light Cup, there can be just only one
name that is suitable for it. And so
my NP127 was christened
the NP127
"Light Cup, Sr." and the rest well is
history. We shall see if this truly
is the "panacea" telescope for
me that will turn
into a life-long teacher and
companion 
and
since Mars has
past its opposition of 2005 all
indicators seemed to be saying so
.
Ron the 4-inch/5-inch Tall Evangelist B[ee]
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