There are many different type of scopes available both for visual and photograpjy. These are normally found in several designs and will vary in price from a hundred to thousands of pounds. Once your mount has been chosen then this will be your next important item that you will purchase.

You will find on offer reflectors, refractor and mak scopes as a general rule.

Reflectors

These use two mirrors. The primary and secondary. The light is taken in from the opening of the scope and is bounced from the primary to the secondary and the reflected 90 degrees through the eyepiece. These scopes will need you to periodically collimate the mirrors.

These will be the cheaper option but this will no always mean lower quality.

 

Refractors

The design of a refractor is probably the most recognizable styles of telescopes and are what many visualize a telescope will look like. Although the design may seem very simple do not allow that you put you off. These can be some of the most expensive telescopes available and not only will give you stunning views but are very much like by astro-photographers. With the eyepieces being mounted on the very end of this scope viewing is very easily achieved regardless of the angle of the mount and made even easier when combined with a 90 degree attachment. Due to the lenses being fixed these scopes rarely need and lens adjustment.

 

Schmidt-Cassegrain

These scopes are one of the smallest available but beware as they can be heavier than they appear. These are compact scopes that use multiple lens to bounce the image into focuser which like the refractor is located at the bottom of the scope. Like a refractor these need very little user intervention. The celestron SE series is a very popular model amongst visual astronomers and this type of scope is very popular with astronomers who are taking images of the planets in our solar system.

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