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A Nasmyth telescope is a type of reflector telescope that has a secondary mirror reflecting straight back toward the primary and a flat tertiary mirror reflecting the light at a right angle before it reaches the primary. This is useful for handling heavy or bulky instruments, and some major telescopes can be configured in this manner, including:
The Nasmyth design is common for bulky instruments on large telescopes using an altazimuth mount, whereas a variant, the coudé design, is common for those using an equatorial mount.
The term Nasmyth cabin is used for a feature of some radio telescopes: a small room-sized cabin attached to the telescope-mount so it rotates along with the telescope when aiming. It houses receivers that can observe via a Nasmyth configuration.