What is a refractor telescope

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Reviewer
 

 

 

 What is a refractor telescope
There are three basic ways to bring light rays to a focal point. The earliest method used by telescope makers, was to bend the rays by passing them through one or more pieces of glass which had curved, polished surfaces. This method produces a type of telescope called a refractor.

Refractors have several advantages over other designs. They are enclosed so that dust and moisture doesn’t enter the optical tube.
They have fixed optics so that they don’t require routine collimation, which means that the optics don’t have to be aligned by the user.They do not have a central obstruction, which reduces the amount of light entering the tube and causes an alteration of the diffraction pattern. The resulting high-contrast, fine-resolution images produced are considered ideal for planetary viewing. A problem with refractors is that since many wavelengths of light are passing through glass, the uneven bending of the rays causes false colour, around bright objects. This must be counteracted with additional lenses and special glass. Since at least four lens surfaces usually have to be very accurately shaped, polished and coated, they are more expensive to produce than other telescope
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