The Refracting Telescope: The Earliest Form Of Optical Telescope

The refracting telescope uses various lenses to collect light in order to produce an image. The technology used in these telescopes was first used to form spy glasses and early telescopes, including Galileo's telescope. Today, refracting telescopes use the same technology that binoculars and long telephoto lens cameras use.

The First Use Of Refraction Technology


Takahashi Sky-90II Refracting Telescope

Refracting telescopes were first used around the early sixteen hundreds in the Netherlands. Around that time, Galileo, the great early astronomer, heard about this type of telescope and used what he knew about light refraction to build his own version of the refracting telescope. Galileo was first thought to have invented the telescope until historical records showed that it was first invented in the Netherlands by Hans Lippershey.

The Use Of Lenses

The refracting telescope uses a convex objective (front lens) to refract the light where it is then delivered to the eyepiece, another lens that allows the viewer to see the objects being amplified by the telescope. By using the refracting telescope, a viewer can see objects larger, brighter and clearer than he or she could with the naked eye. That makes refracting telescopes great for viewing the cosmos or for looking at objects far away, such as with binoculars.

Space Observatories

Many well known space observatories use refracting telescopes. They use these telescopes to map the heavens, to view and discover comets and other space objects, and to just get a better understanding of space. By using refracting telescopes, astronomers throughout history have discovered everything we now know about space. If you would like to view space through your own telescope that uses refractive lenses, simply go to your local hobby store and pick one up. They are used both in observatories and by hobbyists to see into space, so even if you're not a scientist, you can still view the space in all its glory, right form the comfort of home.

For more information on the refracting telescope, look around this website, do an internet search, or look up one of the observatories where information on the telescopes they use are on display. Refractors have helped many people see things in way they otherwise couldn't, in space as well as here on Earth. That means that as long as there are things to view far away, refracting telescopes are not going away anytime soon.


Refracting Telescope News

September 2010

2 Sep 2010 at 10:30am  Kinky. In this show we hear about theoretical cosmology and kinky vortons from Jonathan Pearson [12:00 - 28:128]. As always, Megan brings us the latest astronomical news [02:56 - 11:32] and we hear what can be seen in the September night sky in the northern hemisphere from Ian Morison [37:03 - 47:12] and in the southern hemisphere from John Field at the Carter Observatory [47:33 - 52:58].


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Observing podcast: Belt of Venus, the Magic Carpet Nebula, and emission nebul...

2 Sep 2010 at 12:00am  Read more...

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The Superwind Galaxy NGC 4666

1 Sep 2010 at 3:00am  The galaxy NGC 4666 takes pride of place at the centre of this new image, made in visible light with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. NGC 4666 is a remarkable galaxy with very vigorous star formation and an unusual ?superwind? of out-flowing gas. It had previously been observed in X-rays by the ESA XMM-Newton space telescope, and the image presented here was taken to allow further study of other objects detected in the earlier X-ray observations.
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Observing podcast: Corona Australis, the Castaway Cluster, and the Red Spider...

26 Aug 2010 at 12:00am  Read more...

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Richest Planetary System Discovered

24 Aug 2010 at 1:00am  Astronomers using ESO?s world-leading HARPS instrument have discovered a planetary system containing at least five planets, orbiting the Sun-like star HD 10180. The researchers also have tantalising evidence that two other planets may be present, one of which would have the lowest mass ever found. This would make the system similar to our Solar System in terms of the number of planets (seven as compared to the Solar System?s eight planets). Furthermore, the team also found evidence that the distances of the planets from their star follow a regular pattern, as also seen in our Solar System.
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Observing podcast: Open cluster M25, the Black Swallowtail Butterfly Cluster,...

19 Aug 2010 at 12:00am  Read more...

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How Much Mass Makes a Black Hole?

18 Aug 2010 at 3:00am  Using ESO?s Very Large Telescope, European astronomers have for the first time demonstrated that a magnetar ? an unusual type of neutron star ? was formed from a star with at least 40 times as much mass as the Sun. The result presents great challenges to current theories of how stars evolve, as a star as massive as this was expected to become a black hole, not a magnetar. This now raises a fundamental question: just how massive does a star really have to be to become a black hole?
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