| TELESCOPES |
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| Telescopes are certainly one of the most useful and innovative inventions ever created. Even though what they do seems rather spectacular to some observers, the way in which they work is quite basic and straight-forward. Light is the primary factor that enables telescopes to function. Without light, it would be impossible for telescope to make an image appear as though it is closer to the human eye. Lenses are also an indispensable component of a telescope. The shape of the lenses rather than the lenses themselves is what makes them important. At this point, it is worth mentioning that not all telescopes use lenses. There are certain types of telescopes which use mirrors. Similarly, as with the case of telescopes which use lenses, it is the shape of the mirrors that make the telescope work and not the mirrors themselves.
When trying to explain how telescopes work, it is important to note that there are two main types of telescopes. These are the refracting and reflecting telescopes. Both these telescopes work using the same principles and provide the same output. The main differences between the two stem from the fact that one uses mirrors whilst the other uses lenses. A reflecting telescope is one that uses only mirrors to focus light. This type of telescope uses what is called a concave mirror. Concave mirrors are those which have the ability to bend light: such mirrors are able to do this by reflecting light rather than by bending light as it passes through their surface. One of the main disadvantages of using a reflective telescope is the fact they can be highly impractical. Telescopes of this type have to be of a spectacular size before they can actually work. In fact, these telescopes have been known to be at least 3 times the size of a fully grown adult.
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World’s Largest Telecopes
The Hubble Telecope
History of Telescopes
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| On the other hand, refracting telescopes are those which use only lenses to gather light. By focusing the light on their surfaces, these, lenses are able to make distant objects appear as though they were much closer. The two lenses used in a refractive telescope are convex-shaped. Convex lenses are actually able to bend light as it passes through their surface. This of course is quite different to reflecting telescope which bends light through reflection. The convex lenses of refracting telescope are specifically what makes distant objects look smaller. Of course, refracting telescopes are usually a lot smaller than reflecting telescopes. However, in order to view objects like stars which are very far away, refracting telescopes have to be a lot bigger than hand held versions.
This larger size is necessary because it allows the user to obtain a higher degree of resolution when viewing an object. Resolution is the ability of a telescope to not only make an object appear closer, but to also show minute details. The largest refracting telescope is located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. It should also be noted that there are some telescope variants which use both mirrors and lenses. These types of telescopes are often complicated contraptions which also work in an almost inexplicable fashion.
In any case, when trying to understand how such telescopes work, the important thing to focus on is the ability to identify what kind of light they pick up. Examples of such telescopes include the X-ray telescopes and radio telescopes. These types of telescopes can be regarded as more advanced and sophisticated versions of the reflecting and refracting telescopes. They are also significantly more expensive than other telescopes because they can be used to view many diverse things like gases and pulsars. |
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HOW TELECOPES WORK
