Telescopes

Question 1

How do telescopes work?

Answer 1

Telescope – light collecting bucket
Instrument – attached to telescope to sort incoming light
Detector – permanently record what you “see” through the instrument

Question 2

refracting telescopes

Answer 2

Uses lens to collect and focus light

Type of telescope used by Galileo

Question 3

reflecting telescopes

Answer 3

Uses mirrors to collect & focus light

Several designs of reflectors which depends on the shape and arrangement of the mirrors

Question 4

how to compare the light-gathering power of telescopes?

Answer 4

LGP= D^2
LGP/LGP
(D1^2)/(D2^2)

Question 5

resolving power of a telescope

Answer 5

ability to separate close objects or reveal fine detail

like pixel resolution

Question 6

What problems do astronomers encounter when observing from Earth?

Answer 6

Daylight – most telescopes can only observe at night
Weather – clouds, precipitation, wind, humidity
Light pollution – Atmosphere scatters man-made light
Turbulence – Shifting pockets of air bend light
Absorption – Some wavelengths of light are absorbed before they reach the surface

Question 7

Best observing site for telescopes on earth

Answer 7

somewhere high, dry, dark, and calm.

Tall mountains in the desert far from towns

Question 8

telescopes that need to be in space?

Answer 8

Gamma ray, X-ray, Ultraviolet, infrared

Visible is nice but doesn’t need to be

Question 9

telescopes that can be on earth?

Answer 9

Visible and radio