Reflecting telescopes - which direction?

[george7378]

Hi everyone,

This is a really elementary question, but I never actually got an answer to it. With a reflecting telescope, which compass points are inverted? For example when I'm looking at a planet, are north, south, east and west all inverted, or is it just north and south?

Thanks.

[nicnac]

reflectors are pretty much "all wrong"

upside down so north is south

west and east is screwie too, you get used to after a while though

[george7378]

Thanks So North is down and East is left...

[nicnac]

yep

[KaStern_Former_Member]

Hi George,

With a reflecting telescope, which compass points are inverted? For example when I'm looking at a planet, are north, south, east and west all inverted, or is it just north and south?

you cannot tell any answer without knowing what sort of reflector AND accessoire will be used.

For example a sinple paraboloidal mirror will invert up-down and left-right.

Like it will be in a normal refractor too.

If you use an additional mirror (secondary mirror or a diagonal on a refractor)

things get more complicated.

The additional mirror inverts 1 direction. Wich one depends on the orientation

of the secondary mirror or the diagonal mirror.

There are mirror telescopes wich do not invert any direction at all.

The gregorian telescope:

Gregorian telescope - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It does not invert and can be used for terrestrial observations.

Cheers, Karsten

Edit:

OMG! I did correct some of my typos!

[kniclander]

.. and be careful using north and south etc for up and down because if you're ever starhopping north is not necessarily up etc

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

.. and be careful using north and south etc for up and down because if you're ever starhopping north is not necessarily up etc

It can be handy when you are starhopping with an EQ mount