The Telescope
The Telescope (Reflecting)
Introduction:
The true beauty of the universe cannot be seen by just the naked eye, the telescope is controversially the most important optical instrument in history. Telescopes are widely used around the world and come in different shapes, sizes and go by a variety of different names. They can be used to detect noise and sound and even be used to study the stars and supernovas but are more commonly used to gain another perspective into space, watching planets such as Jupiter or Saturn. As easy as it is to stare into space, some people don’t all fully appreciate the work and especially maths that goes into making these amazing optical instruments.
Functions:
The telescope has three main basic functions: light gathering, resolving, and magnifying, these are all interdependent and interrelated with each other. The telescope must perform all three functions at once at once for it to work.
Light gathering:
Light gathering power is a measure of how much light the objective (primary mirror in a reflector, lens in a refractor) can collect from distant objects. Nominally, it is proportional to the square of the diameter of the aperture. Doubling the aperture results in gathering four times as much light.
Resolving:
Resolving power is a measure of the amount of detail that is possible to see in the image. Nominally, it is proportional to the diameter of the aperture. Doubling the aperture results in resolving details that are half the size, ideally, at least.
Magnification:
Magnification is not an inherent property of the telescope, but rather something that the telescope must be made to do to be able to see anything through it. In other words, the image produced by the telescope’s optical train must be made large enough so that you can see details in it.
The Mathematics behind the Reflecting Telescope:
A reflecting telescope is one that causes an image to reflect at a focus point by using mirrors. It was greatly developed in
Introduction:
The true beauty of the universe cannot be seen by just the naked eye, the telescope is controversially the most important optical instrument in history. Telescopes are widely used around the world and come in different shapes, sizes and go by a variety of different names. They can be used to detect noise and sound and even be used to study the stars and supernovas but are more commonly used to gain another perspective into space, watching planets such as Jupiter or Saturn. As easy as it is to stare into space, some people don’t all fully appreciate the work and especially maths that goes into making these amazing optical instruments.
Functions:
The telescope has three main basic functions: light gathering, resolving, and magnifying, these are all interdependent and interrelated with each other. The telescope must perform all three functions at once at once for it to work.
Light gathering:
Light gathering power is a measure of how much light the objective (primary mirror in a reflector, lens in a refractor) can collect from distant objects. Nominally, it is proportional to the square of the diameter of the aperture. Doubling the aperture results in gathering four times as much light.
Resolving:
Resolving power is a measure of the amount of detail that is possible to see in the image. Nominally, it is proportional to the diameter of the aperture. Doubling the aperture results in resolving details that are half the size, ideally, at least.
Magnification:
Magnification is not an inherent property of the telescope, but rather something that the telescope must be made to do to be able to see anything through it. In other words, the image produced by the telescope’s optical train must be made large enough so that you can see details in it.
The Mathematics behind the Reflecting Telescope:
A reflecting telescope is one that causes an image to reflect at a focus point by using mirrors. It was greatly developed in