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Newtonian- History/Technical-Required


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Allegedly, my Skyliner 200P was built in all probability by Chi-ming or even Shu-fen at the Synta Company in Taiwan, and distributed by Skywatcher, via its distribution system to my location here in the UK.  


Supposedly invented by Sir Isaac Newton himself in the 17th century  to overcome chromatic aberrations caused by refractor telescopes, with John Dobson  designing my mounting system, the sturdy, no-nonsense Alt-Az Dobsonian mount, which  has made my life so much easier over any GEM (German Equatorial Mount ), and John Hadley developing and improving the construction of the parabolic mirror, in-turn, focusing the light  much better. Then came Sir Isaac Newton, Inventor of the first Newtonian Telescope, way back in 1668, the earliest known functional reflecting telescope. But the more I search, the more people I find were involved in the evolution of the reflector telescope so Ill try and start in reverse order of history.

Now, patents pending or not?  did Isaac know that Robert Hooke had built a working reflector from the design plans of James Gregory,  his so called Gregorian telescope? James never got the information from Giovanni, as he had already passed away in 1620, so maybe Galileo gave James the idea, who knows? But it was just still an idea, because Niccolo Zucchi, although claiming to have seen the spots on Mars and the belts on Jupiter, never let on that he was toying with mirrors from his own  DIY  telescope, but  insisted he was still using a refractor? But was his telescope built using the stolen plans and ideas of Cesare Caravaggi who in about 1626 had constructed one for his personal use! The list goes on.


I could go back a little further, but What actually distinguishes a Newtonian today, compared  to all the other reflectors, was the installation of the flat secondary mirror.


My little history lesson was trawled from the web. But does anyone have/know/recommend a "Telescope Bible" (No religious accounts ) that is the 'dogs' on everything telescope?  I checked essential reading, but not found what I'm after.

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Allegedly, my Skyliner 200P was built in all probability by Chi-ming or even Shu-fen at the Synta Company in Taiwan,

Minor correction, but oft wrongly quoted- Synta/Skywatcher are made in China

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzhou_Synta_Optical_Technology

and GSO telscopes are the Taiwanese manufacturer

http://www.gs-telescope.com/index.asp

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Minor correction, but oft wrongly quoted- Synta/Skywatcher are made in China

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzhou_Synta_Optical_Technology

and GSO telscopes are the Taiwanese manufacturer

http://www.gs-telescope.com/index.asp

Reading  that link produces.........In 1999, the brand Sky-Watcher was established by Synta Taiwan to sell optics produced by Suzhou Synta.

The fact that production has moved to China, doesn't change my  fictional story, I'm still happy with it!

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Have you seen (did your trawl include) Mel Bartels' page about Newton and 'his' telescope ?

Quite interesting !

" Think you know who invented the reflecting telescope? "

http://www.bbastrodesigns.com/Think%20you%20know%20who%20invented%20the%20reflecting%20telescope.html

Some refs. at the bottom may also be of interest.

PS

I could go back a little further, but What actually distinguishes a Newtonian today, compared  to all the other reflectors, was the installation of the flat secondary mirror.

whereas Bartels (is quoting Newton as saying) "He wrote that his design of a telescope with a spherical primary and elliptical plane mirror was fully adequate."

I dunno, I only just  started reading up on this myself a few days ago !

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