What is the difference between a reflector and mirror telescope

It has huge mirrors that can capture a good amount of light and create enlarged images of obscure objects. The design mostly used these days for a reflector is the Newtonian design ; thus, it is also named as a Newtonian reflector. It has a long open-ended tube.

At the bottom of the tube, a curved mirror, also called a primary mirror, is present. This curved mirror can be parabolic or spherical. It catches light from distant bright bodies and focuses it on a point. This focused light reaches the secondary mirror, which is tilted at a degree angle so that the light from this mirror is reflected in the eyepiece. The eyepiece is a lens through which the viewer can see the magnified picture. The picture produced by a Newtonian reflecting telescope is inverted.

In , Isaac Newton invented it while solving the problem of chromatic aberrations in a refracting telescope. He used a concave mirror primary and a diagonal mirror secondary for his design. Still today, the Newtonian design is preferred and considered best for a reflecting telescope. Unlike a reflecting telescope, a refracting telescope uses an arrangement of lenses to produce a more precise and nearer image of faraway objects.

It is best known for observing bright celestial bodies in outer space, such as planets, stars, and the moon. Its lens has a small aperture and is best known for creating sharp and magnified images. The design used for refracting telescopes these days is the Keplerian Refractor design. A Keplerian refracting telescope uses a pair of convex lenses. The lens at the front is called the objective, while at the end is the eyepiece. The eyepiece is situated behind the focus point of the objective lens.

The light gets refracted at the objective and produces a magnified image at the eyepiece, through which the observer can study the image. The image produced by a Keplerian refractor telescope is inverted both horizontally and vertically. Nice review, but I think it is a little too focused on portability and maintenance. Viewing the stars is why I am looking for a telescope.

Diameter, lens and aperture are what I am looking for. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Jack Bennett is the founder and editor of Stargazing in the UK. He lives in London and have started this blog about stargazing and amateur astronomy for beginners to keep track of his attempts to explore the Universe.

More from this Author. Reflecting Telescope As its name implies, a reflecting telescope utilises curved mirrors in order to reflect the observed image back to your eye. Pros Highly cost-effective when compared to similarly-sized reflector telescopes due to lower cost of manufacturing mirrors vs.

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