30 November 2008 13:33
- a telescope design utilizing both mirrors and lenses, as opposed to reflectors - which only have mirrors, and refractors, which only have lenses
- popular catadioptric designs include the Schmidt-Cassegrain (SCT), the Maksutov-Cassegrain (MCT), and the Schmidt-Newtonian (SN), among others
- catadipotric is often shortened to "cat," - an astronomer who is called a "cat fancier" most likely doesn't know a tabby from a Russian Blue, but probably owns one or more catadioptric optical instruments
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in the image below, light entering the instrument from the left passes through a lens (the Schmidt corrector), reflects off the primary mirror at the far right, back to the secondary mirror on the left, and finally out the right hand-side through the visual back to an eyepiece or camera
