Reflecting Telescopes

One of the first reflecting telescopes was developed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1680. Sir Newton was looking for a better way to view the heavans...

While there were refracting telescopes available, they had their difficulties. Refracted light splits into its various wavelengths or colors producing a rainbow effect when going through the tube of a refracting telescope at that time. This was a real problem as all the images were surrounded by a rainbow of color.

Isaac Newton concluded that it was impossible to refract light without this occurring. The mathematical genuis's "newtonian reflecting telescope" was followed up by John Hadley who in 1722, developed a telescope that used parabolic mirrors.

The reflecting telescope uses a curved mirror instead of a lens to focus the light and having a wider field of view than refracting telescopes as well as greater focal ratios and magnification. This means they are excellent for viewing distant nebulae and galaxies as well as nearby star clusters and comets.

They are fairly easy and cheap to make a simple reflecting telescope at home. It is essential that the mirrors are squeaky clean and in a perfect line to get a decent picture. If a mirror is ground wrong, it will distort the image. These scopes have huge light focusing ability and you will be able to get fantastic views of distant objects and take pictures of what you can see.

News About Reflecting Telescopes

NIRo Telescope debuts
Gary Post Tribune
The 20-inch reflecting telescope uses the Ritchey-Chretien design favored by the majority of the world's most powerful telescopes including the Hubble Space ...

BR area for Sept. 3-9, 2010
2TheAdvocate
Professional reflecting telescope available for public viewing. Free. (225) 768-9948 or http://hrpo.lsu.edu. CLICK, CLACK, MOO: COWS THAT TYPE: 7:30 pm, ...

The Guardian

Perseid meteor shower thrills viewers north of Toronto
Examiner.com
The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Toronto Centre, operates the 74-inch reflecting telescope and provides public education events at the observatory ...
Meteor shower tonight: Be ready to watch perseid meteor shower 2010New Delhi Chronicle.com (blog)

all 1,185 news articles »

Chancellor Cohan, modern-day Galileo
PUC Chronicle
The $275000 state-of-the-art 20-inch reflecting telescope will allow PUC students to study known sky objects and conduct astronomical research. ...

Telescopes For Astronomy - Help in Choosing the Right One Using Simple Mathematics
Boosh News (press release) (blog)
Following the same calculation, the 150mm aperture reflecting telescope would enable the same observer to see objects which were 353 times fainter than ...