HOME

TheInfoList



OR:


Hardware


Accessories

*
Finderscope A finderscope is an accessory sighting device used in astronomy and stargazing, typically a small auxiliary refracting telescope/monocular mounted parallelly on a larger astronomical telescope along the same line of sight. The finderscope usua ...
*
Iron sight Iron sights are a system of physical alignment markers (usually made of metallic material) used as a sighting device to assist the accurate aiming of ranged weapons (such as a firearm, airgun, crossbow or even compound bow), or less commonly a ...
* Reflector (reflex) sight * Cheshire collimator: A simple tool to collimate a telescope


Control

*
Clock drive In astronomy, a clock drive (also known as a field rotator) is a motor-controlled mechanism used to move an equatorial mounted telescope along one axis to keep the aim in exact sync with the apparent motion of the fixed stars on the celestial s ...
* GoTo


Mechanical construction

*
Mirror support cell In astronomy, a mirror support cell - more commonly mirror cell - is a component of a reflecting telescope that supports the mirror in place to hold optical alignment, allow collimation adjustment, and protect it from falling out. The common usa ...
* Serrurier truss * Silvering


Mounts

* Telescope mount - Types include: **
Altazimuth mount An altazimuth mount or alt-azimuth mount is a simple two-axis mount for supporting and rotating an instrument about two perpendicular axes – one vertical and the other horizontal. Rotation about the vertical axis varies the azimuth (compass bea ...
** Equatorial mount *** Equatorial platform **** Poncet Platform *** Fork mount *** German equatorial mount *** Springfield mount


Optics

Mirrors and lenses are the critical light-bending components of a telescope. *
Objective Objective may refer to: * Objective (optics), an element in a camera or microscope * ''The Objective'', a 2008 science fiction horror film * Objective pronoun, a personal pronoun that is used as a grammatical object * Objective Productions, a Brit ...
: The first lens or curved mirror that collects and focuses the incoming light. **Primary lens: The objective of a
refracting telescope A refracting telescope (also called a refractor) is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens as its objective to form an image (also referred to a dioptric telescope). The refracting telescope design was originally used in spyglasses and a ...
. ** Primary mirror: The objective of a reflecting telescope. *Corrector plate: A full aperture negative lens placed before a primary mirror designed to correct the optical aberrations of the mirror. ** Schmidt corrector plate: An aspheric-shaped corrector plate used in the Schmidt telescope. ** Meniscus corrector: A meniscus-shaped corrector plate usually used in the Maksutov telescope. *Focusing mask: A full aperture mask temporarily placed before the primary mirror to aid in focusing the telescope. **
Bahtinov mask The Bahtinov mask is a device used to focus small astronomical telescopes accurately. Although masks have long been used as focusing aids, the distinctive pattern was invented by Russian amateur astrophotographer Pavel Bahtinov (russian: Пав ...
**
Carey mask A Carey mask (named after the inventor, George F. Carey) is a focusing aid for astronomical telescopes. The mask is in the form of a thin card or sheet that is placed over the front aperture of the telescope. There are four series of slits in ...
**
Hartmann mask Hartmann mask is a tool to help focusing telescopes, mainly used by amateur astronomers. It is named after the German astronomer Johannes Franz Hartmann (1865–1936), who developed it around 1900. Theory and practice Every part of a mirror ...
* Sub-aperture corrector: One or a series of corrective lens (sometimes combined with a corrective curved mirror) placed after (near the focus) a primary mirror designed to correct the optical aberrations of the mirror. These can be just a small version of the corrector plate, but since they are usually used in a
Cassegrain Cassegrain may refer to * Cassegrain reflector, a design used in telescopes * Cassegrain antenna, a type of parabolic antenna * Cassegrain (crater), on the Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest sate ...
configuration in front of the secondary mirror they require additional modification since the light passes through them twice. *
Secondary mirror A secondary mirror (or secondary) is the second deflecting or focusing mirror element in a reflecting telescope. Light gathered by the primary mirror is directed towards a focal point typically past the location of the secondary. Secondary mirro ...
* Mirror#Instruments *
Curved mirror A curved mirror is a mirror with a curved reflecting surface. The surface may be either ''convex'' (bulging outward) or ''concave'' (recessed inward). Most curved mirrors have surfaces that are shaped like part of a sphere, but other shapes are ...
* Honeycomb mirror * Liquid mirror * Parabolic reflector Subsequent (sometimes optional) components realign, segment, or in some way modify the light of an incoming image: *
Field lens In imaging optics, a field lens is a positive-powered lens or group of lenses that comes after the objective lens and before the image plane or the eyepiece, serving to change the size of the image or to provide image-space telecentricity. It is use ...
: A correcting lens placed just before the image plane of a telescope. *
Telecompressor A telecompressor or focal reducer is an optical element used to reduce focal length, increase lens speed, and in some instances improve optical transfer function (OTF) performance. It is also widely known under the name “Speed Booster”, which is ...
or focal reducer: Optical element to decrease the telescope's focal length and magnification (usually by a fixed percentage) and widen the field of view, providing opposite effects of a
Barlow lens The Barlow lens, named after Peter Barlow, is a diverging lens which, used in series with other optics in an optical system, increases the effective focal length of an optical system as perceived by all components that are after it in the system. ...
. *
Star Diagonal A star diagonal, erecting lens or diagonal mirror is an angled mirror or prism used in telescopes that allows viewing from a direction that is perpendicular to the usual eyepiece axis. It allows more convenient and comfortable viewing when the tel ...
: Used to change the angle of the light coming out of a telescope, for easier viewing. *
Herschel Wedge A Herschel wedge or Herschel prism is an optical prism used in solar observation to refract most of the light out of the optical path, allowing safe visual observation. It was first proposed and used by astronomer John Herschel in the 1830s. Ov ...
: Similar to a star diagonal with a wedge-shaped unsilvered prism reflector that reduces incoming light by up to 95% for solar viewing. *
Coma corrector A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...
a correcting lens used to reduce coma distortion in fast reflecting telescopes. * Field flattener a correcting lens used to reduce field curvature in refracting telescopes for
astrophotography Astrophotography, also known as astronomical imaging, is the photography or imaging of astronomical objects, celestial events, or areas of the night sky. The first photograph of an astronomical object (the Moon) was taken in 1840, but it was no ...
. *
Barlow lens The Barlow lens, named after Peter Barlow, is a diverging lens which, used in series with other optics in an optical system, increases the effective focal length of an optical system as perceived by all components that are after it in the system. ...
: Optical element to increase the telescope's focal length and magnification, narrow the field of view and reduce
coma A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...
distortion, providing opposite effects of a
telecompressor A telecompressor or focal reducer is an optical element used to reduce focal length, increase lens speed, and in some instances improve optical transfer function (OTF) performance. It is also widely known under the name “Speed Booster”, which is ...
. *
Astronomical filter An astronomical filter is a telescope accessory consisting of an optical filter used by amateur astronomers to simply improve the details and contrast of celestial objects, either for viewing or for photography. Research astronomers, on the oth ...
: Used to select specific colors (or light frequencies) for astrophotography. * Filter wheel: One manner to easily insert filters into the optical train. Mostly used for photography. * Focuser: Allows the user to adjust the focus by moving the eyepiece along the optical axis. *
Eyepiece An eyepiece, or ocular lens, is a type of lens that is attached to a variety of optical devices such as telescopes and microscopes. It is named because it is usually the lens that is closest to the eye when someone looks through the device. Th ...
: Performs the final focus correction before the light reaches the eye. * Charge-coupled device (CCD): A light-sensitive integrated circuit digital sensor (commonly used in digital cameras) that turns light into an electrical charge used to collection image data. Generally applicable to all items: * Metallizing: A way of coating mirrors for high-efficiency light reflection. * Optical coating: Thin layers applied to mirrors, filters, and lenses to avoid reflections, as well as absorb certain colors.


Software and control interfaces

*
Active optics Active optics is a technology used with reflecting telescopes developed in the 1980s, which actively shapes a telescope's mirrors to prevent deformation due to external influences such as wind, temperature, and mechanical stress. Without active o ...
*
Adaptive optics Adaptive optics (AO) is a technology used to improve the performance of optical systems by reducing the effect of incoming wavefront distortions by deforming a mirror in order to compensate for the distortion. It is used in astronomical tele ...
* ASCOM * EQMod * INDI *
PLate OPtimizer PLate OPtimizer, or PLOP is a CAD program used by amateur telescope makers to design primary mirror support cells for reflecting telescopes. It was developed by telescope maker David Lewis, first described in 1999, and used to simplify calcula ...
*
Versatile Real-Time Executive Versatile Real-Time Executive (VRTX) is a real-time operating system (RTOS) developed and marketed by the company Mentor Graphics. VRTX is suitable for both traditional board-based embedded systems and system on a chip (SoC) architectures. It h ...


Support equipment and buildings

* Observatory :* Equatorial room


See also

* List of telescope types *
Lists of telescopes This is a list of lists of telescopes. *List of astronomical interferometers at visible and infrared wavelengths *List of astronomical observatories * List of highest astronomical observatories * List of large optical telescopes *List of largest ...
Astronomy-related lists Parts and construction
Telescope A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observ ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Telescope parts and construction