Different Kinds of Telescopes

Telescopes break down in to two main types: reflector telescopes and refractor telescopes. The two differ in the way they focus light in order to form an image -- refractors use lenses to focus light in to the eyepiece, and reflectors use a set of mirrors to project an image in to the eyepiece. There are additional types of telescopes that combine the technologies of the two. The Schmidt-Newtonian telescope focuses light with a lense before sending it on to a mirror, allowing it to be shorter than many reflector telecsopes. Schmidt Cassegrain and Maksutov-Cassegrain telescopes also use a corrector lens in conjunction with mirrors to produce a sharper image in an overall smaller telescope.