A telescope is a tool that astronomers use to see faraway objects. Most telescopes, and all large telescopes, work by using curved mirrors to gather and focus light from the night sky. The early 1600’s marks the popularization of refracting scopes by Galileo. Yes, they’ve been around for that long.

The three most common types you’ll encounter are refractors, reflectors, and catadioptrics. They each their own pros and cons and have their various strengths in different types of astronomical observation and imaging. They each will give you a lifetime of stargazing to view stars, galaxies, nebulas, planets and more.