page_title: Quito Astronomical Observatory
section_title: Activities and services
hierarchical_section_title: Quito Astronomical Observatory / Activities and services
caption_attribution_description: English: A replica of Isaac Newton's second reflecting telescope of 1672. This was a new design of telescope - the Newtonian reflector. Newton's work on optics and splitting white light, led him to believe that all refracting telescopes would suffer from chromatic aberration. His new design of reflecting telescope minimized this problem. However, due to problems with accurately grinding the mirror, Newton's telescope actually caused more image distortions than other contemporary telescope and more than a century passed before reflecting telescope became popular. Newton's first telescope had an objective concave primary mirror diameter of about 1.3 inches (33 mm) with a 6 inch (150mm) long focal length. It had the ability to magnify about 40 times, with a performance similar to a 6 foot (2m) long refracting telescope Newton compared it to (PBS/Nova: Newton's Dark Secrets). Newton presented a second version of his reflector to the Royal Society in 1672 (The History of the Telescope By Henry C. King, Page 74) and was admitted as a fellow of the society in the same year. This replica of that second Royal Society reflector and is in the Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Cambridge.
context_page_description: The Quito Astronomical Observatory is a research institute of EPN, the National Polytechnic School in Quito, Ecuador. Its major research fields are astronomy and atmospheric physics.
  The Quito Astronomical Observatory is one of the oldest observatories in South America and was founded in 1873. In 1963, The Government of Ecuador transferred title of the Observatory to the National Polytechnic School. The Quito Astronomical Observatory is the National Observatory of Ecuador and is located 12 minutes south of the Equator in the Historic Center of Quito.
context_section_description: The activities and services currently provided by the OAQ are:
  Night observations by telescopes
  Astronomical information on the equatorial zone
  Tour inside the entire Quito Astronomical Observatory.
  Basic astronomy courses
  Library
  Operation of the museum on the premises
  Annual publications
  Antique seismometers
caption: Replica of the second reflecting telescope, by Isaac Newton which he presented to the Royal Society in 1672[5]
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