Refracting Telescopes Photography Shack
Refracting Telescopes For Cleaner Images
By Cedric B Georges
Many of the early astronomers, including Galileo, were
using refracting telescopes. This is where the light
comes directly through the lenses and is refracted or
bent, so that it gets to a point where it creates a
small enough image, for the eye to see.
The telescopes Galileo used included a convex(meaning
curves outwards) and a concave lens (bends inward),
while his contemporary Johannes Kepler, began using
telescopes with two convex lenses. But, both telescopes
were refracting telescopes.
Polishing methods at the time, only worked well on
surfaces without much curvature. Therefore, the only
way to make telescopes that could see long distances
was to make keep extending the length of the telescopes
with wider lenses.
Became Too Long And Unwieldy
There was one time when Christian Huygens in Holland
was using a 23-foot long telescope with lenses that
were several inches in diameter. In Germany Johannes
Hevelius used an instrument that was 60 feet long.
Eventually the refracting telescopes became too long
and unwieldy, that it was impossible to get good results.
Just to lift them up and point in the right direction
was incredibly difficult and cumbersome.
Isaac Newton Created A Working Reflecting Telescope
It was around this time, Englishman, Isaac Newton,
took the idea of collecting the light in a curved mirror,
rather than a convex mirror and let the curve of the
mirror reflect the light in a smaller image.
It was harder to create a perfect curved mirror than
a lens, so the idea was not yet put into practical use.
Newton, had the skills and drive to make the kind of
mirror he needed, and finally created a reflecting telescope
that actually worked.
Clearer Images With Refracting Telescopes
Reflecting telescopes were in wide use by 1721, although
refracting telescopes continued to be used and improved.
Telescopes using the refracting method developed sharp,
clear images.
But they were still quite bulky and cumbersome as they
became larger. Meanwhile the reflectors were easier
to handle, even as they grew in size, and was certainly
the best to assemble all the available light for the
image. But the images produced were slightly blurred.
Discovery Of Uranus
British astronomer William Herschel, used reflecting
telescopes to discover the planet Uranus and partly
learned that the solar system was moving through the
Milky Way galaxy, and discovered that our galaxy was
shaped like a disk.
The clearest images were still being seen with refractor
telescopes. In the 1880s, the Great Lick Refractor (named
after the American tycoon and scientific patron James
Lick) was housed in a permanent observatory on Mount
Hamilton in California, the first of its kind in the
world.
Making Prints Of The Stars
The observatory was higher in the atmosphere and away
from the surface light, helped the scientific success
of 36-inch-wide telescope. But another important idea
gained traction here as well, when the researcher Edward
Emerson Barnard applied his first love of photography
to make prints of the stars.
Barnard wanted to create a panoramic view of the Milky
Way, and attached to the telescope a wide angle portrait
lens. After a number of attempts, finally made his breakthrough
"Photographic Atlas of the Milky Way", which
began to expose researchers to the space between the
stars was not empty after all, but full of dark clouds
and nebulae. Much of this pioneering study was conducted
with a refracting telescope.
All these photographic images created by Bernard inspired
other researchers working on methods that led into digital
photography and eventually into ways to detect spectrum
of ultraviolet, infrared and radio waves.
These days, reflecting and refracting telescopes are
key partners in the world of astronomy.
About the Author:
Cedric B Georges has written a number of articles on
digital photography including 35mm
Cameras, Best
Digital Camera, First
5 Megapixel Camera, People
in Photos, Image
Editor Software, Cheap
Digital Cameras, Digital
Camera Memory Card, Baby
Birth Announcements, Leather
Photo Albums.
Keep a lookout as more articles from this popular author
on this website in the near future.
More Binoculars Facts....
There are many sports out there for you to become involved
with and to enjoy all year long. But you do not have
to be a sporting enthusiast with a weapon in order to
enjoy nature.
When springtime rolls around and the world begins to
turn green, you can get outside and check out the new
baby animals as they enter the world. But you want to
stay away from them because a mad mama is the last thing
you want chasing you through the woods. The solution
is a pair of binoculars to observe the animals from
a distance.
It is a time to enjoy the blossoming life and see all
that there is to see with the new born animals and older
animals venturing out. The best way to observe these
creatures is through the telescopic lenses of binoculars.
You can find a pair of these miraculous wonders in many
sporting good stores and online.
Any sporting enthusiast or bird watcher can attest
that there is one piece of equipment that is absolutely
essential and that is a binocular. Binoculars are optical
devices used to look at objects far away.
They are not as powerful as a telescope but they do
the job pretty effectively. They allow the sporting
and bird watching enthusiast to get an up close view
of animals without putting themselves or the animal
in danger.
|
|
| Copyright
© 2007 - 2012 The Photography Shack, All Rights Reserved |
|
