Telescopes

By Eric Johnson and Fernando Rios

How Telescopes Work

•The larger the light gathering area the more light that enters the telescope.

•The more light that enters the telescope the higher the resolution thus the more magnification you can have.

More light enters.

Less light enters.

Basic Telescope Design

Refracting telescope

Reflecting telescope

Refracting telescopes operate much like the human eye, using transparent glass lenses to focus the light from distant objects.

A reflecting telescope uses a precisely curved primary mirror to gather light. This mirror reflects the gathered light to a secondary mirror that lies in front of it. The secondary mirror then reflects the light to a focal point

Hubble Space Telescope

• Is a Ritchey-Chretien reflector telescope

• Launched April 24, 1990

•Instruments include:

• Has a diameter of 2.4 m

• Wavelength include:

Visible light

Ultraviolet light

Near-infrared light

Wide Field and Planetary Camera

Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph

High Speed Photometer

Faint Object Camera

Faint Object Spectrograph

• Has a collecting area of 4.5 m²

• Has a focal length of 57.6 m

NASA’s $2.5 billion F**K UP

The problem was caused from a wrong conic constant as well as a malfunctioning null corrector.

The Solution

Corrective lenses were used after the primary mirror to correct the problem similar to glasses for your eyes.

Before and after images from the HST.

Other Types of Telescopes

Radio TelescopeGamma-ray Telescope

X-ray Telescope

Infrared Telescope

Pictures from Hubble Telescope

Radio Telescopes (VLA)

• VLA Vary Large Array.• NRAO consists of an

array of 27 dishes with a radius of 25 m each.

• The 27 dishes are arranged in a “Y” shape spanning 50 mi.

• The combined dishes in the array give a resolution of a single dish spanning 22 mi across.

Pictures from VLA

Infrared Telescopes

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Pictures from Infrared Telescope

X-Ray Telescopes

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Pictures from X-ray Telescope