Telescopes
The purpose of a telescope is to gather light from distant objects and produce a magnified image.
- Refracting telescopes use lenses so that the objects can be viewed directly.
- As in the microscope, we have two lenses, an objective and an eyepiece.
- Since the object is at a large distance, the objective lens should have a long focal length to obtain a large magnification.
- Reflecting telescopes use mirrors to create the image
- Most astronomical telescopes are reflectors, since the most important feature for these telescopes is the light gathering ability, and it is easier to make a large mirror than it is to make large lenses.