Telescopes Mystery A Fun Rewarding Hobby for Everyone PDF Download

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History of the Telescope

New Developments in Telescopes

Telescope Timeline

How to Use a Telescope

Current Astronomy News for the Sky and Telescope

Optical Telescope

Radio Telescope

Famous Telescopes

Hubble Space Telescope

History of Hubble Space Telescope

Facts about the Hubble Space Telescope

When Was the Hubble Telescope Launched Into Space

The Next Generation Space Telescope

Galileo’s Telescope

Galileo’s First Telescope

Amateur Telescope Making

How to Make a Telescope

Reflector Telescope

Telescope Kit

Telescope Lens

How to Buy a Telescope

Telescope Review

Coronado Telescope Review

Celestron CPC 800 telescope review

Telescope Review of LX200R

Tasco 48t telescope

Unitron Telescope

Telescope Photos

Hubble Telescope Photos

Space Telescope Photos

Pictures of the Spitzer Space Telescope

Telescope Accessories

Telescope Parts

Tasco Telescope Accessories

Celestron Nexstar 80 Telescope Accessories

Telescope Outdoor Furniture

Homemade Telescope Roof Mount

Meade Telescope Accessories

Telescopes for Kids

Kid’s Toy Telescope

Conclusion

History of the Telescope 

The history of the telescope dates back to the early 1600’s when an Italian mathematician named Galileo Galilei peered through an odd new device he had invented to look at the stars in the night sky. 

Suddenly, this well-known and familiar place revealed itself as a barely exposed mystery. It was then that Galileo knew that his telescope was a groundbreaking device and history was made. 

This first telescope used the same principle that all telescopes would eventually rely on. That principle held that the combination of the two lenses gathered more light than the human eye could collect on its own. The lenses would focus that light and form an image.

Because the image was formed by the bending of light, or refraction, these telescopes came to be known

as refracting telescopes, or simply, refractors. 

History has shown that telescopes would evolve into powerful tools as the years passed. Refractors and reflectors would become the two basic types of telescope and as technology became more and more advanced, so did the telescopes. They became bigger as astronomers desired to see further and further into the night sky. In fact, in the history of the telescope, there was a time when the size of a telescope was almost cartoonish in proportion.

Modern day history of the telescope has really been made mostly in the field of commercial telescopes and those that are used by the government as well as professional astronomers. Telescopes such as the Hubbel used by NASA are very powerful and make it possible to see images hundreds of light years away. 

Another exciting development in the history of telescopes occurred when manufacturers began to make some models with cameras attached to them. Over the years, this advancement has made for some amazing pictures of the galaxies that exist above us. If you have ever seen a picture of the Milky Way taken with a powerful telescope, the result is absolutely brilliant and breathtaking.

Now, there are millions of people who really enjoy going out on a clear night and looking at the stars, the moon, and the constellations. If Galileo hadn’t made history by having the desire to make the first telescope, we would simply be relegated to looking with our naked eye. Luckily, we don’t have to. Now we have the advantage of a variety of telescopes to meet all our needs - whether it be astronomy as a hobby or astronomy as a job. 

New Developments in Telescopes 

In the hundreds of years since telescopes were invented, there have nearly literally been hundreds and hundreds of new developments that have come about as well. Constant improving and updating has been followed by technological advancements in telescope design as well as functionality.

One new development in telescopes has to do with the optical resolution. An optical telescope’s resolution—the ability to see fine detail—increases with mirror or lens size. 

However, Earth’s turbulent atmosphere provides a practical limit on resolution because it blurs incoming starlight. This effect makes stars appear to twinkle at night. With the use of computers, astronomers are developing adaptive optics that essentially take the blur out of starlight. Astronomers use computers to analyze the blurring created by the atmosphere and compensate for it by rapidly distorting the mirrors in a reflecting telescope.

The Keck II telescope at Hawaii’s Mauna Kea Observatory was outfitted with this new technology in 1999, enabling it to take pictures that are 20 times more detailed than before. Telescopes using adaptive optics can resolve something the size of a quarter at a distance of more than 50 kilometers (30 miles). 

Optical interferometry is another new development in telescopes that has occurred in recent years. A new technique in optical astronomy is to combine signals from telescopes in separate locations so that the resulting image is equal to that received from one giant telescope, a method called optical interferometry. 

In 2001 the European Southern Observatory opened the largest optical interferometer, the Very Large Telescope (VLT), in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. The VLT combines the light from four 323-in (820-cm) telescopes and several smaller telescopes to produce an image equivalent to that of a 630-in (1,600-cm) telescope. 

Optical interferometers are useful for resolving the separation between relatively bright, closely paired objects, such as double stars. Astronomers hope this technique will eventually make it possible to directly image small, Earth-sized planets orbiting distant stars.

New developments in telescopes are occurring all the time as technologies reveal more and more about our Earth and what is in the night sky. With these new developments, we are better able to understand our universe and how various planetary bodies are formed as well as how they co-exist with each other in the vastness of space. 

Astronomy is an exciting science and new developments in telescopes make it even more exciting. Things will change yet still in years to come, and we will start to see more and more of what we couldn’t before.

New developments in telescopes are...

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