Telescope Crazy!
Genesis 1:16 says “God made the stars…” Wow! God cares about everything so much. I’m amazed that someone who made the stars would even want to care about me. God is so magnificent there is no possible way that we could understand all of Him. But by studying the stars, we can know even more about his character than just reading the Bible alone. Telescopes can help us study the stars.
The first real telescope was made by Galileo Galilei in 1609. He improved on the ideas of Lippershey, a lens maker who created a crude telescope. Galileo saw things like Jupiter’s moons, Saturn’s rings, and the stars in the Milky Way. It changed the way people saw our place in the universe.
Most of the well-known telescopes used by astronomers today are reflecting telescopes. Most of the designs of the reflecting telescopes (except off-axis designs) have a mirror in the pathway between the end the light comes through and the end you see through. Reflecting telescopes are much more complicated than refracting telescopes. There are 7 common types of reflecting telescopes.
There is another type of telescopes called refracting telescopes. The same principle for these telescopes is used in binoculars and some long camera lenses. Refracting telescopes are actually simpler than reflecting telescopes, but sound much more complicated. It uses a concave mirror to reflect the image to a smaller mirror. This reduces the size of the image so it is easier to see.
There are 4 common different types of refracting telescopes (see the diagram). The longest telescope ever built was the Archenhold Observatory in Berlin. It is 21cm and the focal length is 21 meters. It is still functioning today! Just go to Berlin and ask your interpreter for the Archenhold Observatory.
To some people, astronomy is a hobby. For others it’s a job. Everybody should look through a telescope at least once. There are telescopes that will magnify Pluto so big you can’t see the whole thing at one time.
Telescope diagrams courtesy
http://www.williams.edu/astronomy/Course-Pages/111/Images/reflect-tel-types.gif
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Gabrielle Hawthorne is 10 and home educates with her sister and two brothers. She enjoys arts and crafts. When she grows up she would like to do something in the medical field. Visit her Etsy shop, My Sister and Me!
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Links you might like to add:
400 years of the telescope
http://www.norcalblogs.com/telescope/production/
Cool kid website about astronomy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refracting_telescope
NASA kids club
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forkids/kidsclub/flash/index.html
