Maksutov Cassegrain Telescopes - National Geographic

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. (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). 

A short presentation of the Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope type is available here.

Slideshare presentation of Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope

Short Presentation | Maksutov-Cassegrain Telescope | Optics Trade from Optics-Trade