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What's the technical difference between a refractor and a reflector?

Refractor Telescopes vs. Reflector Telescopes

The two most popular kinds of telescopes are refractors and reflectors. Refractor Telescopes are composed of a long tube. The light is received and focused through the objective lens and it sends it to the eyepiece for magnification. Refractors often utilize many complex lenses and produce some of the best telescopic images. In reflector Telescopes, a concave mirror collects light from a star, reflects it up to a diagonal mirror along the tube, which then redirects it to the eyepiece for magnification. Reflector telescopes are the simplest kind of telescopes, and many of the earliest telescopes were based on the reflector model.

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10/6/2007 9:15:10 AM
Maggie G. said:

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