Orion Refractor Telescopes

Refractors are a type of telescope that utilize two or more lenses to focus light into a smaller area. The light path is bent or "refracted" as it passes through these lenses, hence the name refractor. Orion Telescopes and Binoculars offers achromatic refractors, and ED achromats, and apochromatic refractors. The difference between these lies in the degree of color correction.

Refractors offer the highest contrast of any telescope design due to the lack of a central obstruction, but they suffer to varying degrees from chromatic aberration or false color. Light bends in proportion to both its wavelength and the refractive index of the media it is passing through. In simple terms, that means red and blue light passing through a lens will not come into focus at the same place. Refractors compensate this by using additional lenses to reassemble the visible wavelengths at the same point.

When observing through a good refractors stars appear as pinpoints against an inky black background. The differences between the types of refractors become more apparent on brighter objects or at higher magnifications. Acrhomatic refractors are best suited for low to medium power widefield viewing. These instruments will produce a noticeable violet fringe or false color near bright objects, especially at higher magnification. ED achromats and apochromatic refractors will show little or no false color, respectively. These instruments are capable of higher magnifications and, as such, are more suitable to planetary observing.