List of telescope parts and construction

Hardware

Accessories

• Finderscope
• Iron sight
• Reflector sight
• Cheshire collimator: A simple tool to collimate a telescope

  Control

• Clock drive
• GoTo

  Mechanical construction

• Mirror support cell
• Serrurier truss
• Silvering

  Mounts

• Telescope mount - Types include:
• * Altazimuth mount
• * Equatorial mount
• ** Equatorial platform
• *** Poncet Platform
• ** Fork mount
• ** German equatorial mount
• ** Springfield mount

  Optics

• Objective: The first lens or curved mirror that collects and focuses the incoming light.
• *Primary lens: The objective of a refracting telescope.
• *Primary mirror: The objective of a reflecting telescope.
• Corrector plate: A full aperture negative lens placed before a primary mirror designed to correct the optical aberrations of the mirror.
• *Schmidt corrector plate: An aspheric-shaped corrector plate used in the Schmidt telescope.
• *Meniscus corrector: A meniscus-shaped corrector plate usually used in the Maksutov telescope.
• Focusing mask: A full aperture mask temporarily placed before the primary mirror to aid in focusing the telescope.
• *Bahtinov mask
• *Carey mask
• *Hartmann mask
• Sub-aperture corrector: One or a series of corrective lens placed after a primary mirror designed to correct the optical aberrations of the mirror. These can be just a small version of the corrector plate, but since they are usually used in a Cassegrain configuration in front of the secondary mirror they require additional modification since the light passes through them twice.
• Secondary mirror
• Mirror#Instruments
• Curved mirror
• Honeycomb mirror
• Liquid mirror
• Parabolic reflector

• Field lens: A correcting lens placed just before the image plane of a telescope.
• Telecompressor or focal reducer: Optical element to decrease the telescope's focal length and magnification and widen the field of view, providing opposite effects of a Barlow lens.
• Star Diagonal: Used to change the angle of the light coming out of a telescope, for easier viewing.
• Herschel Wedge: Similar to a star diagonal with a wedge-shaped unsilvered prism reflector that reduces incoming light by up to 95% for solar viewing.
• Coma corrector a correcting lens used to reduce coma distortion in fast reflecting telescopes.
• Field flattener a correcting lens used to reduce field curvature in refracting telescopes for astrophotography.
• Barlow lens: Optical element to increase the telescope's focal length and magnification, narrow the field of view and reduce coma distortion, providing opposite effects of a telecompressor.
• Astronomical filter: Used to select specific colors for astrophotography.
• Filter wheel: One manner to easily insert filters into the optical train. Mostly used for photography.
• Focuser: Allows the user to adjust the focus by moving the eyepiece along the optical axis.
• Eyepiece: Performs the final focus correction before the light reaches the eye.
• Charge-coupled device : A light-sensitive integrated circuit digital sensor that turns light into an electrical charge used to collection image data.

• Metallizing: A way of coating mirrors for high-efficiency light reflection.
• Optical coating: Thin layers applied to mirrors, filters, and lenses to avoid reflections, as well as absorb certain colors.

  Software and control interfaces

• Active optics
• Adaptive optics
• ASCOM
• EQMod
• INDI
• PLate OPtimizer
• Versatile Real-Time Executive

  Support equipment and buildings

• Observatory