SPLIT IMAGE PHOTO
6 E Main St - Smithtown, NY 11787
(631) 265-2433

Now in our 25th year serving Long Island

Maksutov-Cassegrain
Nexstar Series

Refractor Telescopes
Refractor telescopes (also known as dioptrics) are probably what most of us think of when we hear the word "telescope." Refractors have a long, thin tube in which light passes in a straight line from the front objective lens directly to the eyepiece, at the opposite end of the tube.


Refractor telescopes have many advantages, including:

Simplicity of design, which translates into reliability and ease of use.
Little or no maintenance requirements.
Excellent lunar, planetary and binary star viewing.
High contrast images with no secondary mirror or diagonal obstruction.
Sealed optical tube, to protect the optics and reduce air currents, which tend to degrade image quality.
Permanently mounted and aligned objective lens.

Newtonian Reflector Telescopes
Newtonian telescopes (also known as catoptrics) usually use a concave parabolic primary mirror (longer focal ratios may use spherical primaries) to collect and focus incoming light onto a flat secondary (diagonal) mirror. This secondary mirror reflects the image out of an opening at the side of the main tube and into the eyepiece.


Newtonian reflector telescopes offer a number of excellent features including:

Freedom from most optical aberrations and delivery of very bright images.
Reasonably compact and portable to focal lengths of 1000mm.
Excellent performance observing faint deep-sky objects such as nebulae, remote galaxies and star clusters.
Lowest cost per square inch of aperture due to use of mirrors rather than lenses.
Generally fast focal ratios: f/4 to f/9.

Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescopes
Celestron has long been recognized as a leader in Schmidt-Cassegrain technology. Our line of Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes ranges from the highly portable C5+ all the way up to the powerful CG-14, and includes several cutting edge computerized telescopes. Celestron's potent combination of superior optics, fine drive systems and well-crafted mechanics puts these telescopes in a class by themselves.

Schmidt-Cassegrain, or catadioptric, telescopes use a combination of mirrors and lenses to fold the optics and form an image. Incoming light enters through a thin aspheric Schmidt correcting lens, then strikes the spherical primary mirror and is reflected back up the tube. The light is then intercepted by a small secondary mirror which reflects the light out an opening in the rear of the instrument, where the image is formed at the eyepiece.

Some of the advantages of the Schmidt-Cassegrain design are:

Excellent optical systems delivering razor sharp images over a wide field.
High performance in almost all situations; terrestrial viewing and photography; lunar, planetary and deep-sky observing; astrophotography with fast film; CCD imaging.
Best all-around, multifunction telescope design; it combines all the optical advantages of both mirrors and lenses, while canceling their disadvantages.
Focal ratios generally in the range of f/10, which is useful for all types of photography.
A telescope that's compact, portable, easy to use, durable, virtually maintenance free and has a closed tube.
The best near focus capability of any type of telescope design.
Large apertures at quite reasonable prices.
Many accessories available.

 

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Updated May 6, 2009

SPLIT IMAGE PHOTO
6 E Main St - Smithtown, NY 11787
(800) 558-3684