That's a nice picture well. In his the light is gathered by a large mirrior and bounced up to a small mirror which deflects the light to the eye piece. That's a reflector isn't it. He was trying to get me to get a scope but the light pollution around our way is ridiculous. I have to travel 15 miles to get dark skies and even then you still see the orange glow of Carrickfergus, Glengormely and Belfast. Does my head in.
Yup it sounds to me like its Dobsonian, which is a reflector, it works similar to a Newtonian type, but the Newtonian tend to be of a smaller aperture. Though they can be much larger. Is the scope tripod mounted, or mounted on a floor based rotating stand. Dobs have a standing mount which is much more portable and simpler to use and Newtonians will be mounted to a tripod or in the case of a large 16" aperture scope I expect its mounted to a pier or some other form of solid standing mount.
But they generally have an open end, mirror at the bottom, light bounces up to a smaller mirror which is directed out the top side of the telescope to the focuser and eyepiece.
Mine is a reflector also, but a different design, its known as catadioptric telescope. Light comes in the front, through a glass corrector plate to a mirror at the back, that bounces the light to a smaller one at the top which channels it back down a tube inside the scope to a diagonal and eyepiece. The large back plate mirror is moveable, so acts to focus the image. The benefit of this type is they have a very large focal length in a smaller more compact scope.