what is a schmidt cassegrain telescope

Best telescopes guide
2 min readDec 9, 2022
what is a schmidt cassegrain telescope

One of the most popular types for amateur astronomers is a Newtonian reflector, which was invented by Isaac Newton in 1670. TheseIsaac Newtonscope’s are named after him because they bear his fingerprints; each reflecting surface has two mirrors that share light equally before sending it out toward infinity . These devices are what make up some types of mirrors that help us see deep into space and their age dates back centuries! One big drawback is that they’re bulky; because these single-mirror units direct light back to another flat surface (the secondary), it takes up much more room than other designs where there’s an objective lens between object and viewer or eyepiece — so while 12" aperture f/6 no longer sounds

The Cassegrain telescope has been around since 1672, when it was invented by an obscure French Catholic priest named Laurent. This type of reflector uses two mirrors that each fold into shorter lengths in order to expand its functionality; this same technology is used today with many professional astronomy telescopes and nearly all amateur ones as well

A Cassegrain design uses a mirror at one end of the tube, which reflects light from its primary to an extremely small secondary. This process is usually hyperbolic in modern Cossgraphs and produces an effect similar to that seen when two lenses are aligned together: they will produce less aberration than either object individually because they have been combined into one compact shape with no Corners or Corners cut off by sharp edges.

Cassegrain telescopes were not a hit with the public in 17th century. Dutch scientist Christian Huygens criticized Cassegrain’s design, and William Herschel of England stuck to Newtonian models even after his own country had adopted it as well . Few people used this type until about 100 years ago when glass technology advanced enough for casting large mirrors inexpensively- relatively speaking.

In 1930, as reflectors were coming back into vogue and people realized how much light they could pack onto a single plate for scientific observations, German optician Bernard Schmidt came up with an ingenious design. He combined his simpler spherical primary mirror with specially figured lenses at the front of tube to correct for different types of aberrations like coma (spherical aberration). The result: A camera unlike any other before it — one that was able capture wide field views not just deep sky objects!

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