Al Nagler: 1935-2025
November 2025 :
Few names are as familiar in the universe of amateur astronomy as Al Nagler.
Before he was well-known to amateur astronomers, he worked as an optical engineer for Farrand Optical Company, where he designed the optical system for a simulator that was used by NASA astronauts to train for the Apollo lunar landings.
Building on this experience, he founded Tele Vue Optics in 1977 with the aim of bringing the beauty of the heavens to astronomers around the world through a series of new telescope and eyepiece designs.
Al was an ever-present fixture at Stellafane. He attended his first convention in the 1950s, where he won a 3rd Place Mechanical Excellence award for an 8-inch Newtonian he presented in 1958. In 1972, he won a 1st Place Newtonian award for his 12-Inch f/5.3 telescope.
Always eager to share views of the night sky through his telescopes and eyepieces, he was also a generous donor to the convention raffle.
During the 2025 Stellafane Convention he was awarded a pin from the Springfield Telescope Makers in recognition of his having attended more than 50 conventions. He was also presented with the Astronomical League Award for outstanding contributions to astronomy.
Al’s most recent technical achievement was providing optics for NASA's Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) mission, a fleet of four small satellites that launched on March 11, 2025 to study the solar corona.
Al continued to improve his optical designs at Tele Vue, recently introducing the seventh generation of eyepieces bearing his name. For almost five decades, Nagler eyepieces remain the high standard by which other eyepieces are compared, and nearly all amateur astronomers have experienced the “spacewalk” experience that looking through one provides.
Al passed away on October 27, 2025 at the age of 90. The 5.2-kilometer asteroid 10715 Nagler is named in his honor.
