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 usu ...

* Iron sight * 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 ...

* 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 A Serrurier truss is used in telescope tube assembly construction. The design was created in 1935 by engineer Mark U. Serrurier when he was working on the Mount Palomar Hale telescope.Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Physics, "Reflecting Telescopes" ...

Silvering Silvering is the chemical process of coating a non-conductive substrate such as glass with a reflective substance, to produce a mirror. While the metal is often silver, the term is used for the application of any reflective metal. Process Mos ...

Mounts

* Telescope mount - Types include: ** Altazimuth mount ** Equatorial mount *** Equatorial platform **** Poncet Platform *** Fork mount *** German equatorial mount ***

Springfield mount Springfield may refer to: * Springfield (toponym), the place name in general Places and locations Australia * Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast) * Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council) * Springfield, Queensl ...

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 ...

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Primary mirror A primary mirror (or primary) is the principal light-gathering surface (the objective) of a reflecting telescope. Description The primary mirror of a reflecting telescope is a spherical or parabolic shaped disks of polished reflective meta ...

: The objective of a

reflecting telescope A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternati ...

. *Corrector plate: A full aperture negative lens placed before a primary mirror designed to correct the optical aberrations of the mirror. **

Schmidt corrector plate A Schmidt camera, also referred to as the Schmidt telescope, is a catadioptric astrophotographic telescope designed to provide wide fields of view with limited aberrations. The design was invented by Bernhard Schmidt in 1930. Some notable e ...

: An aspheric-shaped corrector plate used in the Schmidt telescope. **

Meniscus corrector A meniscus corrector is a negative meniscus lens that is used to correct spherical aberration in image-forming optical systems such as catadioptric telescopes. It works by having the equal but opposite spherical aberration of the objective it is d ...

: 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 o ...

* 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 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 A honeycomb mirror is a large mirror usually used as the primary mirror in astronomical reflecting telescopes whose face is supported by a ribbed structure that resembles a honeycomb. The design provides sufficient rigidity for ultra-high-precision ...

* Liquid mirror *

Parabolic reflector A parabolic (or paraboloid or paraboloidal) reflector (or dish or mirror) is a reflective surface used to collect or project energy such as light, sound, or radio waves. Its shape is part of a circular paraboloid, that is, the surface gener ...

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 us ...

: A correcting lens placed just before the image plane of a telescope. * Telecompressor 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: Used to change the angle of the light coming out of a telescope, for easier viewing. * Herschel Wedge: 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 ...

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: Optical element to increase the telescope's focal length and magnification, narrow the field of view and reduce coma distortion, providing opposite effects of a telecompressor. *

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 othe ...

: 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. The ...

: 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 Metallizing is the general name for the technique of coating metal on the surface of objects. Metallic coatings may be decorative, protective or functional. Techniques for metallization started as early as mirror making. In 1835, Justus von Li ...

: 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 *

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 *

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 ha ...

Support equipment and buildings

* Observatory :* Equatorial room