what are some similarities and difference between a refracting telescope and a reflecting telescope?

Answer 1

They both collect and focus light. A refractor uses conventional lenses to do the job, a reflector uses 1 or more mirrors and a conventional lens to do the work.

Answer 2

One similarity is that both allow you to see long distances and allow you to focus on that image gathered with a lens.
The differences are the way the image is gathered to the focusing lens. A refractor telescope receives the in coming light of the object through a lens, while a reflector receives its image on a curved mirror and reflects and focuses the image to a diagonal mirror where it is again reflected to the focusing lens.
Another difference is a refractor lets you see an object greatly magnified in a narrow field of view while a reflector has a wider field of view of the sky.
Costs for a quality reflector are so much less expensive than for a refractor that this is the reason it's design and use is so prominent in scopes for amateur as well as in observatories.

Answer 3

refracting telescopes use only lenses to help focus light, similar to a pair of binoculars or a spyglass. Reflecting telescopes use a series of specially bent mirrors and lenses to focus the light. I think a good reflecting telescope will be cheaper than the same quality refracting telescope. Hope this helps!