gcsescience.com                                       48                                       gcsescience.com

Stars and the Universe

Visible Light Telescope.

The first telescopes collected light waves from distant objects.
This type of telescope is called a visible light telescope.
It is also called an optical telescope.

A convex lens called an objective lens
is used to collect light from stars or planets.
Another convex lens called an eyepiece is used to
magnify the image produced by the objective lens.

A telescope can also be made using a curved mirror
instead of an objective lens. This is called a reflecting telescope.
The mirror is concave and reflects light
to a focus to produce an image.
An eyepiece is then used to magnify the image.
Most large telescopes used today are reflecting telescopes
because it is easier (and cheaper) to produce a
very large mirror than it is to produce a very large lens.

back    Links    Universe    The Solar System    Revision Questions    next

gcsescience.com       Physics Quiz       Index       Solar System Quiz       gcsescience.com

Home      GCSE Chemistry      GCSE Physics

Copyright © 2015 gcsescience.com. All Rights Reserved.