This telescope, though not powerful enough to see the outer-most planets is very capable of viewing saturn, mars, venus and the moon. It is nice to know that we have such a piece of equipment to use for our gazing. A reflecting telescope uses mirrors as opposed to lenses to magnify the image of a distant body. Named after its inventor, Sir Issac Newton, it is the formost type of telescope used today in astronomy. The more traditional refracting telescope relies on two lenses to bring the distant object into focus.
Light enters the telescope where it is refracted using the objective lens.
This light travels down the telescope to the eye piece where a the eyepiece lens focusses the image to be viewed. The refracting telescope is widely available, it is the most common type of telescope in use. Binoculars rely on the same principle to view distant objects. The above picture shows the basic principle behind the reflecting telescope. The light enters the telescope near the eyepiece end.