Many people have experienced the beauty of stargazing when the conditions are right, and most can pick out at least the Big Dipper in the sky. Some people take this hobby further and spend nights studying the stars and planets. But sometimes the naked eye just isn’t enough to easily view the details in the heavens, so they use an optical telescope to view what they can’t see normally. Once a neophyte astronomer is familiar with the layout of the sky, purchasing an optical telescope is the natural step to take. Optical telescopes range from those that fit in your hand to ones that require entire buildings to house. An overview of these devices will help to show that optical telescopes are more varied then one long, thin tube.
The Binocular
Since the purpose of an optical telescope is to reflect and magnify light for viewing images, this means binoculars are actually two telescopes set side by side. These compact devices are not the tripod-mounted tubes that most people associate when they talk about telescopes, but nevertheless are part of the same family. Binoculars are popular for sight-seeing, watching nature, and even by opera buffs, which use delicate little binoculars called opera glasses to better see the details on stage. But if you own a pair of these, then you have your first optical telescope. The big advantage to these is a wide field of vision, but the downside is that due to the natural shaking of a hand holding binoculars, magnification beyond several times what you could normally see is difficult.
The Home Telescope
Beyond binoculars there are the types of telescopes most people imagine when hearing the word, the long cylinders that are mounted on a stand for stability. The magnification power of these optical telescopes is much greater than that from even a pair of binoculars, though magnification power isn’t everything; telescopes in your average discount store might boldly claim large magnification power, but still be a cheap telescope. What’s more important is image quality is the size of the lens or mirror that helps to focus and magnify the light passing through the telescope. Before purchasing a telescope for home use, it’s recommended that a home astronomer be committed to their hobby and research their purchase, as a quality purchase will make all the difference.
The Big Guns: Research Telescopes
At the high end of the scale are the research telescopes, which are large enough to need entire buildings to be housed in, and are operated by dedicated astronomers to study the sky. These optical telescopes aren’t for personal use, but help us to learn more about the universe as a whole. The Hobby-Eberly, telescope, for example, has been used to find planets orbiting around other stars. But while it’s unlikely that the hobbyist will ever get close to one of these telescopes, they’re essentially used to do the same thing that an amateur astronomer does, which is to study the beauty of space from Earth. Whether lifting a pair of binoculars to the sky or operating a sophisticated piece of machinery, users of optical telescopes hold that love of the sky in common.
