Newtonian, Cassegrain, etc....which is better?

[dazzst]

Hi all,

It's all rather confusing. Can some kind soul point out the advantages / disadvantages / differences in layman terms for the various type of scope such as Newtonian, Cassegrain, Schmidt-Cassegrain, Maksutov-Cassegrain, etc. etc.

Thanks

Dazz

[John]

There have been many books written on this subject so it's difficult to precis it. This web page offers some good basic descriptions:

Telescope, designs and their optical layout

Each design has it's strengths and weaknesses and each has it's fans as well. There is no single design that is the best at everything but most of them can show decent views of a wide range of objects. Some are more suitable for imaging than others.

Many folks here own more than one type of scope so that their "tool kit" can cope well with differing targets and activities.

[Luke]

Just to add another link:

Starizona's Telescope Basics

Hope it helps. I think many of us have been there agonising over decisions, I still find it hard now to choose gear! Best of luck finding what will work best for you!

[dazzst]

cheers guys for the links.

[Flyingpig]

My advice would be to find your nearest observing group or astronomy society and try to get as much chance as possible to have a look through different scopes. This will stop you from buying the wrong scope, and will give you an idea of what to expect from your purchase. Many people buy a telescope then because it didn't suit them or because they have no idea how to use it it ends up in an attic gathering dust. What a waste! You can start out with binoculars or just your naked eyes you don't need a telescope at the start of this hobby.

A few points worth considering;

1) Stars are too far away (usually many light years) no telescope is going to make the points of light you see any bigger! You may however see many more stars that you can't see with the naked eye.

2) You are not going to see views of the planets through your telescope with your naked eye that will equal the pictures you see in magazines. Those pictures either come from spacecraft or from the use of expensive (usually) dedicated ccd imaging cameras. all your going to see even at high magnifications are smallish circles of light possibly with a little banding or surface detail. But you will make out Jupiters 4 main moons, the rings of Saturn and notice that mars appears reddish. Through very large scopes you might get to see the polar caps on Mars and the Great red spot on Jupiter, but you won't see any craters on anything other than our own moon.

3) I dont wish to put you off but this hobby is mostly conducted at night time very often in cold sub zero temperatures often miles away in the countryside away from your back yard (if you live in a city or town with light pollution. Are you committed enough to it for an expensive purchase to be worth while?

4) A telescope is only one part of the equation, your going to need eyepieces of an equally good quality.

Hope all this helps

[todd8137]

flyinpiog as just about covered it,i do suppose it depends really what you want to do with a scope and mount,visual on deep space and general viewing ,or is it just planets your interested in ,images take in photos,or capturing video with simple web cams or expensive ccd cameras some scope take great images others do not