how can this spotting scope possibly be a newtonian reflector?
May 22, 2010 by
Filed under spotting scopes
This is the site, at the bottom of the page they say something but I doubt they know what they are talking about:
http://main.yukonopticsglobal.com/product-overview-yukon-20-50×50-wa.html
You are right. That description is inaccurate.
They are not in the Yukon (they are in Lithuania).
Newtonian physics is any physics that came before Relativity.
Newton experimented with optics. He used prisms for his experiments (when he was not busy planting needles in his own eyeballs).
In Newton’s descriptions (of the prisms, not the eyeballs), light is treated as particles bouncing off the inside faces of prisms.
The sighting scope uses prisms (probably two) and its design assumes that light bounces off the inner faces of the prisms.
That is making use of the principles of Newtonian reflection.
However it is definitely not what astronomers call a “Newtonian reflector”.
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Note also that it allows “long distance observation”; other scopes probably don’t let you see the Moon which is located at a long distance.
It allows “clear viewing in all weather conditions”. Good, I have always looked for a scope that works in fog.
“including forested and closed in areas” I might use it inside my living room.
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On an ever so slightly more serious note:
Some scientists have worked on so many things that their name (attached to a scientific word) may be used in more than one sense. Newton is one such scientist.
Another is Euler (great mathematician). If someone asks you for Euler’s constant, you should ask “which one?”
Same thing when talking about Newton and optic systems. Especially in other languages (the text was probably translated from Lithuanian or even Russian).
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I went away to do some reading, and found that in most cultures, what we call a Newtonian “reflector” is really called a Newtonian “telescope”.
Saying Newtonian telescope automatically implies that it is a reflector, made with a parabolic mirror. The word “reflector” is not used in naming the telescope. However, because we use the word “reflector” to indicate a reflecting telescope (as opposed to a refractor), then there are such things as Newton’s reflectors (reflecting telescopes actually built or owned by Newton). In such cases, the ” ’s ” part is the key.
Newtonian telescopes are reflectors, but not always paraboloidal. Some Newtonian reflectors are spheroidal.