Reflecting Telescopes
Instead of a lens, reflecting telescopes use a concave mirror to
concentrate the light to a single focal point. It has all the same
basic elements of a refracting telescope:
The possible hazard with using a mirror for your objective (or
primary) mirror is the light comes right back at you! In order
to keep the observer from blocking the light path, a small mirror
is placed within the telescope to bounce the light to the
side for viewing and placement of the eyepiece. The above design
is called a Newtonian Focus. The point where the telescope
would naturally come to focus without the mirror is called
Prime Focus.
Cassegrain and Schmidt-Cassegrain Focus
Another important optical design is shown above. In a
Cassegrain Telescope a convex secondary mirror sends
the incoming light back
through a hole in the objective (primary) lens and on to
the eyepiece. The mirror must be parabolic shaped. Spherical
mirrors are sometimes used because they are cheaper to make,
but they introduce spherical aberration (the stars will appear
distorted in shape). A Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope
uses a spherical objective mirror, but includes a correcting
lens out front of the telescope (usually the mounting point
for the secondary lens) to correct the spherical aberration.