Common Amateur Designs
Although the types of telescopes that amateurs build vary widely, including Refractors, Schmidt Cassegrains and Maksutovs, the most popular telescope design is the Newtonian reflector, described by Russell W. Porter as “The Poor Man's Telescope”. The Newtonian has the advantage of being a simple design that allows for maximum size for the minimum expense. And since the design employs a single front surface mirror as its objective it only has one surface that has to be ground and polished, as opposed to three for the Maksutov and four for the refractor and the Schmidt-Cassegrain. Typically a Newtonian telescope of 6” or 8" (15 or 20 cm) aperture is a standard starter project, constructed as a club project or by individuals working from books or from plans found on the Internet.
Read more about this topic: Amateur Telescope Making
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