What is the difference between a Newtonian and Cassegrain telescope?
The Newtonian telescope is a kind of reflecting telescope that uses a diagonal mirror to reflect light out the side of the telescope. A Cassegrain telescope is a kind of reflecting telescope where a secondary mirror reflects light back through a hole in the primary mirror’s center.
Is a Cassegrain telescope better than a reflector?
As a result SCT’s are often far more compact than reflector telescopes and certainly more versatile as they’re not only good for deep sky viewing but great beginner level astrophotography optics too unlike, reflectors. These optics are also enclosed in a tube meaning far less maintenance is required for users as well.
What is the difference between Dobsonian and Newtonian?
The answer is that Dobsonian and a Newtonian can actually be the same thing. A Newtonian refers to the telescope optics, whereas a Dobsonian refers to Newtonian telescope with some specific features like an altazimuth mount and often thin mirrors. A telescope can be a Newtonian and also a Dobsonian at the same time.
What is a Dobsonian mount?
A Dobsonian telescope is an altazimuth-mounted Newtonian telescope design popularized by John Dobson in 1965 and credited with vastly increasing the size of telescopes available to amateur astronomers. The design is optimized for observing faint, deep-sky objects such as nebulae and galaxies.
Is a Schmidt-Cassegrain a reflector?
The Schmidt–Cassegrain is a catadioptric telescope that combines a Cassegrain reflector’s optical path with a Schmidt corrector plate to make a compact astronomical instrument that uses simple spherical surfaces.
Is a Dobsonian a refractor?
From an optical perspective, the Dobsonian is still a reflecting telescope which means it follows all the same principals as other reflectors – you should find out the difference between reflectors, refractors and catadioptric telescopes before you decide on what telescope to get.