Telescope Types

There a several types of telescopes available.  These telescopes are also available on varois mounts,  The telescope type of telescope you choose wiil depend on what you plan to use it for.  For example for basic observing you may choose an inexpensive reflector.  For astrophotography you may choose a refractor on an equitorial mount.

Here is a list of telescope configurations:

Refractor telescopes (Dioptrics)

Refracting Telescopes use lenses to gather light and bring the image to the eyepiece. They are fairly maintenance free and generally provide superb images of the moon, planets, star clusters and general sky gazing. They tend to be smaller in aperture than other types so they are not as good for viewing fainter sky objects such as galaxies and nebulae. Good quality refractors tend to be expensive.

• Non-achromatic
• Achromatic
• Apochromatic
• Superachromat

Reflector telescopes (Catoptrics)

• Newtonian Telescope
• Gregorian Telescope
• Cassegrain Telescope

Combined Lens-Mirror Systems (Catadioptrics)

• Schmidt–Newton Telescope
• Schmidt–Cassegrain Telescope
• Lurie–Houghton Telescope
• Maksutov Telescope
• Modified Dall–Kirkham Telescope
• Klevtsov–Cassegrain Telescope
• Argunov–Cassegrain Telescope