Telescope Buying Guide: Reflecting Telescopes

Video Transcript

"In this segment we're going to talk about reflecting telescopes. Now when refractors first appeared on the scene in the early 1600s, as astronomy progressed, it became obvious that larger lenses were going to be needed to see those more distant objects. The problem was that larger glass was expensive and difficult to manufacture. That was solved a little bit later when a guy named Issac Newton invented a telescope with a concave mirror as opposed to a convex glass. Mirrors were cheaper, less expensive to manufacture, and you can make them in larger sizes. So Newtonian telescopes, hence the name, are typically a little bit more cost effective for the light gathering ability. We'll discuss the different type of mounts here in just a moment. One of the things you should know about a reflecting telescope is that the light comes in through the shield right here and bounces off a mirror back up into a secondary mirror up near the eyepiece that actually throws the light into the eyepiece allowing you to view. Larger aperture telescopes, such as this ten inch right here, can still be broken down rather quickly and easily, and compacted. You can throw in the back of a small car and take out to a dark sky observing site. Starting at six to eight inches, these are ideal for getting starting with deep sky objects. Maybe you're starting a Messier list, you want to see the more distant globular clusters or supernovas... these are really the most cost effective way to get aperture. They are only for astronomy, however. You cannot use these scopes for daytime use. Everything would be upside down and backwards and a bit disorientating to try and use."