Fullerscopes Eyepieces

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Clive, my contact in the UK, has kindly provided some images of his extensive collection of Fullerscopes and Telescope House eyepieces. Telescope House replaced Fullerscopes as their company name. The majority of those shown below were sourced in Japan by Fullerscopes. (or later by Telescope House)

I can remember mulling over the purchase of a Fullerscopes Kellner in my impoverished youth. Staring at the Fullerscopes catalogue filled many hours over the years.

The first two are Kellners. These are a Ramsden design with an achromatic eye lens.

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This is an Erfle. A more complex design which promised a wider field than the simpler designs. Though usually at higher cost. They employed two achromats separated by a simple lens.

A range of Telescope House Orthoscopics.

For many years Orthoscopics were touted as the eyepiece of choice.

Later Telescope House Orthoscopics.

Three Fullerscopes Orthoscopics.

These employed a triplet field lens with a simple eye lens.

They promised greater eye relief over the simpler types. 

A pair of Fullerscopes Ramsden eyepieces.

These utilised a simple (non-achromatic) lens for both eye and field lens.

A very old design, with limited eye-relief,  but still useful with longer focal length telescopes.

Best avoided with short focal length or "fast" optics.

This is an in-house produced Fullerscopes Barlow in a brass housing. The Barlow lens is a popular device for increasing magnification from existing eyepieces. The majority of Barlows offered a doubling of magnification. They did so by extending the original focal length of the telescope using a negative lens. Though without doubling the tube length required. The Barlow is slid into the telescope's focusing mount. The eyepiece is then inserted into the open end of the Barlow housing. Some variation of power is possible by sliding the Barlow in or out of the focuser. 

Those marked NS are from NIHON SEIKO, Kenkyusho Ltd of Nozawa, Setaegaya-ku,  Tokyo, Japan
There are others marked Circle T. Distributed by KOKUSAI KOHKI But the manufacturer was Tansutzu Tanny/Tannoy, Tokyo, Japan.

My thanks go, yet again, to Clive for his kindness in taking and providing these images and for permission to share them on my blog. Thanks also for the explanation of the markings.

Here is an excellent webpage on many more kinds of eyepieces: Telescope eyepiece 2

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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