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< back to Telescopes
Types of Telescopes
There are three main classes of telescopes available to the amateur astronomer:
Refractor telescopes - these are the classic "department store look" telescopes that use refracting lenses housed in a long, thin tube mounted on a tripod. Refractors are great for viewing the sun, moon and planets where magnification detail is important but brightness is not.
Reflector telescopes - these are large telescopes that uses mirrors housed in large tubes often mounted in a low "rocker" style mount (called a Dobsonian mount). Reflectors are "light buckets" and are great for viewing faint, deep-sky objects like galaxies, star clusters and nebula.
Compound telescopes - also called cadioptric telescopes, use both refracting lenses and reflecting mirrors in their design to provide a compact form factor. Compound telescopes include those of Schmidt, Cassegrain (Cass), Maksutov (Mak) and hybrid designs.
The following lists the various types of telescopes and their approximate starting prices:
| Telescope Type |
Abbrev |
Apertures |
Start Cost |
| Achromatic refractors |
- |
2.4" - 6" |
$200 |
| Apochromatic refractors |
Apo |
3" to 8" |
$2,500 |
| Equatorial Newtonian reflectors |
Newt |
4.5" - 16" |
$300 |
| Dobsonian Newtonian reflectors |
Dob |
4.5" - 30" |
$300 |
| Schmidt-Newtonian telescopes |
SNT |
5" - 16" |
$600 |
| Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes |
SCT |
5" - 16" |
$1,200 |
| Maksutov-Newtonian telescopes |
MNT |
3.5" - 10" |
$400 |
| Maksutov-Cassegrain telescopes |
MCT |
3.5" - 10" |
$2,500 |
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