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.

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