Maksutov Cassegrain Telescopes

General properties of Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescopes

Maksutov-Cassegrain is a sealed tube telescope very similar to the Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. Maksutov-Cassegrain uses a thicker corrector plate than the Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope.

Design of Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope

Design of Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope. (Available from:http://www.vikdhillon.staff.shef.ac.uk/teaching/phy217/telescopes/phy217_tel_catadioptric.html. [accessed 29 Oct, 2019] )

Path of the light in Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope

Light enters the tube through the corrector lens and is then reflected from the primary mirror which is located at the other end of the telescope.
Once reflected, the light travels to the secondary mirror. The secondary mirror is an aluminated plate in the center of the corrector plate.
From there, it passes through a small hole in the primary mirror to the eyepiece.

Observations with Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope

Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope is quite small in size, which gives it proper resolution and high contrast — great for planetary observing.

Because of a small secondary mirror obstruction, the image is very sharp.

With the focal ratio between f11 and f15, the field of view is rather narrow - meaning that the "deep-space" objects appear very small in the field. Although Maksutov-Cassegrain is small in size, it is quite heavy (heavy corrector lens).