What is the difference in telescope design (for amateurs) ?
Date:
10/09/2010
There are so many telescope designs out there it
can be pretty confusing to figure out which to get. This table provides some
technical details as to the fundamental design differences of each type of
telescope. If you do notice any errors
that should be corrected, please do let me know and contribute to making this
information useful !
Hope this helps !!
Joo Beng
|
|
Refractor |
Reflector (Newtonian or Dobsonian) |
Maksutov |
Schmidt Cassegrain (SCT) |
Schmidt Newton |
Ritchey Chretien |
Meade ACF |
|
|
|
Primary element |
Convex lens |
Concave Spherical or Parabolic mirror |
Spherical mirror |
Spherical mirror |
Spherical mirror |
Hyperbolic mirror |
Spherical mirror |
|
|
|
Secondary element |
|
Flat mirror |
Spherical mirror |
Convex mirror |
Flat mirror |
Hyperbolic mirror |
Hyperbolic mirror |
|
|
|
Correcting element |
|
|
Positive meniscus |
Schmidt corrector plate |
Schmidt corrector plate |
|
Corrector lens |
|
|
|
Optical Flaws |
Chroma (for non-APO), Spherical aberration |
Coma, Spherical aberration (for Spherical
mirrors) diffraction spikes, frequenct collimation |
|
|
Minor coma |
Astigmatism, field curvature |
|
|
|
|
Aperture size |
80mm-152mm |
4"->16" |
5" - 7" |
8"-16" |
6", 8", 10" |
|
8"-16" |
|
|
|
Focal ratios |
f4-f/16 |
f/4-f/6 |
>f/15 |
~f/10 |
|
|
f/10 |
|
|
|
Telescope use |
Wide field |
Wide field |
Narrow field, Lunar, planerary, globular
clusters, double stars. |
Deep Sky |
Wide field |
Deep Sky |
Deep Sky |
|
|
|
Price Range (OTA only) |
L-M |
L |
L |
M |
L |
H |
M |
|
|
|
