What is the difference between refracting and reflecting telescopes

The other end of the tube is open to let in the light. Within the tube a small flat mirror is placed at a 45 degree angle. This small mirror reflects light out through an opening in the side of the telescopes housing containing a convex eyepiece.

These mirrors are used to manipulate the the light that enters the telescope from an object like a Star.

As the light enters the telescope, the first curved mirror positioned at the end of the tube reflects the light onto a smaller, flatter mirror positioned in the center of the tube.

From there the image is reflected to the eyepiece. Size and Light Collection: As mirrors are easier to build compared to lenses, it is possible to make them larger and more durable.

And as only one mirror is required to collect the and focus the light, the opposing side can easily be positioned on a surface for extra support. This enables the mirror to be constructed a lot larger than that of a lens. As a larger device means more light can be collected, the more you will ultimately be able to see. Cost: Another advantage of the user of mirrors is that they do not cost as much to manufacture. This means a Reflecting telescope is a lot cheaper to produce than that of a Refractor.

The result is that a stronger performing Reflector telescopes is available for less money than a Refractor equivalent. This means you can purchase more magnification power for less. Use of Mirrors can cause Loss of Light: Due to the nature of mirrors, some loss of light is to be expected. This can slightly reduce the surface area of the objective. As you can imagine, both the small secondary mirror and the opening in the objective reduce the effective surface area of the objective mirror, but just like the Newtonian design, this reduction is rather small.

Mirrors Curving: Depending on how the Telescope was constructed, transported etc, the Mirrors may not be a perfect curve. This can lead to image being reflected not coming to and forming a perfect point. Consequently a dragging effect may be observed; where a single point instead is seen as a line or cross. However, refracting telescopes is very common in the second half of the nineteenth century, reflecting telescopes have since replaced them for more scientific purposes, as they allow for a larger hole.

Refractor telescopes use specialized lenses that make them a favourite for deep space objects like galaxies. On the other hand, reflector telescopes are more popular with larger and brighter objects like the moon and planets. Refractors telescope utilize specially designed lenses to focus the light on an image.

Reflectors telescope is use mirrors, which causes light to reflect at different angles within the optical tube and extending the overall light path. Reflecting telescopes have many advantages as compared to refracting telescopes.

The reflector telescope price is cheaper to make than refractors of the same size. Because the light is reflecting off the objective, comparing to passing through it, only one side of the reflector telescope's objective needs to be perfect. Hence the reflector telescope price is less than the refracting telescope. A reflecting telescope is also called a reflector. It works by using signals or a collection of curved mirrors to reflect light and create an image.

In the seventeenth century, a reflecting telescope was discovered by sir isaac newton as a replacement for the refracting telescope, at that time, was a design that had a lot of chromatic aberration on it. The telescope design allows for very large diameter objectives. Since the mirror used in telescope, the design of the telescope is referred to as a "catoptric" telescope.

Besides, the reflected telescope concept has been extended to other wavelengths of light, and for example, x-ray telescopes also use the reflection principle to make image forming optics. Let discuss some reflecting type telescopes and their major differences. The reflecting telescope does not suffer chromatic aberrations as reflected light does not get dispersed according to its wavelength. The telescope tube is shorter in length hence reducing the cost of the tube.

The reflecting telescopes are heavy in weight, produce disappointing optical quality and it has an open tube which make it vulnerable to dust and humidity as compared to the refracting telescopes.

A refracting telescope is an optical telescope that uses a lens as its objective lens in order to form an image of a distant object.

The refracting telescope consists of two lenses, one is Objective and other is the eyepiece. The objective lens produces an image of a distant object at its focus point and the eyepiece lens magnifies the image formed. A refracting telescope have good contrast and sharpness, are light and transportable and has a closed tube that protects it against the humidity and dust.

The main telescope designs you can choose from are the refractor telescope and reflector telescope. Many people buying the first telescope are making the decision based on the look of the telescope.

That is a huge mistake because there are big differences between refracting and reflecting telescopes. The main difference between refractor and reflector telescope is that the refractor uses optical lenses, and the reflector telescope uses mirrors. The difference is also in the maintenance required between those two. The refractor telescope requires less maintenance than a reflector telescope. Refractor telescopes usually have smaller apertures and are more expensive than reflector telescopes.

There are also other telescope designs like Schmidt Cassegrain and Maksutov Cassegrain telescope, but in this article, I will only talk about Refractor vs. Reflector telescopes. If you want to learn more about the other designs, you can read my article Schmidt Cassegrain vs. Maksutov Cassegrain. Refracting telescopes are very common telescopes used by amateur astronomers.

These telescopes are using only lenses to magnify the distant object. Modern refracting telescopes are using Keplerian Refractor design. This design allows for a more significant apparent field of view in the eyepiece and a longer focal length telescope to achieve higher magnification.

Galilean Refractor design is using a convex lens and concave lens in the eyepiece, but the eyepiece is placed before the focus point of the primary lens.

This design is producing a true image that is not inverted. Galilean Refractor design is more like a spying glass, and it is not used in the modern refracting telescopes. The reflecting telescope is also called the Newtonian telescope because it uses the Newtonian design.

This design uses mirrors to produce an image.