TheTelescope

A telescope is used by professional astronomers and budding enthusiasts to study the celestial phenomena that take place throughout the universe (in our case, the Solar System). There are two general kinds of optical telescopes that are in use throughout the world today: one is called the reflecting telescope, the other is called the refracting telescope. How do these two types of optical telescopes work?

Well, the general difference between the two is power: refracting telescopes are often simpler types of telescopes that can be placed inside the bedroom, or in a small laboratory in the school. For purposes of observing simple phenomena and other types of celestial movements (such as planetary revolutions, et cetera), the simple refracting telescope can be put to good use. But there came a time in astronomy when the farthest reaches of the universes became interesting for studies, and so large, industrialized reflecting telescopes were designed and produced to magnify the already existing capacity of the regular refracting telescopes.

Now, how do these two types work? A reflecting telescope utilizes the capacity of a convex objective lens to collect visible color and light from a particular source (e.g. the sky) and is able to concentrate this concatenation of light and colors for the observer, who is on the other end of the telescope. This kind of telescope is also called dioptric, or light-refracting. There is a particular branch of science called dioptrics that specifically deals with this particular phenomenon of the bending and movement of light. The technology and method of refracting of refracting telescopes used for astronomy has also been utilized in developing binoculars, which are used for observing vast distances of terrain.

Many biologists and environmentalists and film makers make use of powerful handheld binoculars to search and evaluate terrain and sometimes even the seas. Refracting telescopes deliver a technically inverted image, something that most astronomers did not like. Also, there is also the issue of chromatic aberration, which sometimes causes fatal blurs in what is being observed. Also, the use of glass is also in question, since glass can never be completely bubble-free, and to create a powerful enough refracting telescope would mean constructing miles upon miles of convex glass to observe celestial phenomena in the sky. All this particularities made the use of refracting telescopes in academic astronomical studies impracticable.

Reflecting telescopes on the other hand, is a different issue altogether. Because of the defects and apparent shortcomings of the refracting telescope, the reflecting telescope was designed and constructed in the seventeenth century, and the development of this particular kind of optical telescope never ceased. How does it work? Well for one, reflecting telescopes do not have an objective lens the way objective convex lenses were used in refracting telescopes. Instead, these types of telescopes have concave mirrors that allow light to be collected from distant objects. The larger the mirror, the more powerful the magnification. This type of telescope is used by NASA and other such institutions.