Mirror telescope or refracting telescope? Schmidt-Cassegrain or Maksutov? Anyone faced with these agonizing questions before buying a telescope needs to find out about the advantages and disadvantages of the different construction types.
Meade's ACF optical design eliminates the typical aberrations of all mirror optics.
An achromatic is a refracting telescope (refractor), which consists of two lenses. It is the classic refractor design.
Refractors with little chromatic aberration.
Telescopes that are suitable exclusively for astrophotography.
This telescope consists of a parabolic primary mirror with a central hole and a hyperbolic secondary mirror. In this way the construction can be kept as short as possible.
Celestron’s aplanatic EdgeHD optics revolutionized astroimaging.
Maksutov-Cassegrain telescopes have a compact design, but a very long focal length. At the front there is a Maksutov lens. These telescopes are very well suited for planetary observing.
Maksutov Newtonian telescopes are built like a classic Newtonian telescope, but have a Maksutov corrector lens at the telescope opening. With this, coma is eliminated. The telescope has excellent imaging capabilities.
Reflector telescope with a secondary mirror at the beginning of the tube which redirects light to one side.
A Schmidt Newtonian telescope is constructed like a Newtonian telescope, but includes a Schmidt corrector plate. Thus, this telescope is a closed system and there is no air turbulence in the tube.
A reflector telescope with a particularly compact design but a long focal length. In addition to two mirrors, it has a Schmidt corrector plate at the front.
With H-alpha telescopes you can observe prominences, flares and filaments on the Sun. Additionally, these telescopes have an etalon filter and a blocking filter. Caution: you can also buy versions without the blocking filter. You should never use these without a blocking filter.
Calcium K solar telescopes make the lower atmospheric layers of the chromosphere visible at 393nm. This blue short-wave region shows other equally interesting details of the Sun. These telescopes are popular for use in photography.