All About Telescopes

Kishor Kr. Baruah

Tezpur University
 All About Telescopes

The earliest evidence of working telescopes were

the refracting telescope that appeared in the
Netherlands in 1608.

Their development is credited to three individuals:

Hans Lippershey and Zacharias Janseen, who
were spectacle makers in Middelburg, and
Jacob Metius of Alkmaar.

Galileo greatly improved upon these

designs the following year.
 MAGNIFICATION POWER AND RESOLVING POWER

The magnification of the telescope (M) is given

by the ratio between the objective (fob) and
eyepiece (fob) focal lengths.

M = Fob / Fep

The maximum magnification you can reach with a telescope is limited

by the diameter of the objective. The larger the diameter of the
objective, the closer are the points it is able to distinguish as
separated.
 Interference Pattern

Waves, coming in from the left, and

passing through a hole. Notice
how the waves that go straight
through the hole are brighter,
and as the angle from the
centerline goes up or down, you
can see the waves get
alternately darker and brighter.
That's the interference pattern.

The hole represents the opening of

your telescope.
 Airy Disk

Parallel light rays which pass through a small aperture begin to diverge and interfere
with one another. This becomes more significant as the size of the aperture
decreases relative to the wavelength of light passing through, but occurs to some
extent for any size of aperture or concentrated light source.

Large Aperture Small Aperture

Since the divergent rays now travel different distances, some move out of phase
and begin to interfere with each other-- adding in some places and partially or
completely canceling out in others. This interference produces a diffraction
pattern with peak light intensities where the amplitude of the light waves add, and
less light where they cancel out. If one were to measure the intensity of light
reaching each position on a line, the data would appear as bands similar to those
shown below.
For an ideal circular aperture, the 2-D diffraction pattern is called an "airy disk," after its
discoverer George Airy. The width of the airy disk is used to define the theoretical
maximum resolution for an optical system (defined as the diameter of the first dark
circle).

Airy Disk
3-D Visualization
When the diameter of the airy disk's central peak becomes large relative to the
pixel size in the camera (or maximum tolerable circle of confusion), it begins to
have a visual impact on the image. Alternatively, if two airy disks become any
closer than half their width they are also no longer resolvable (Rayleigh criterion).
 Airy Disk
The circular opening of the telescope creates a circular interference pattern.

Idealized picture of Airy disk Two close stars appear as two Airy disks.
How a star's Airy disk usually When you look at Castor
looks in a telescope (due to (constellation Gemini) closely in
atmospheric disturbance) the telescope you can see that
this star is a double.
Diffraction Limit
The bending of light which causes this interference pattern is known as
"diffraction", and the Airy disk is also known as the diffraction pattern of
the scope. The radius of the central disk of this pattern (R in radians) :

Where, λ is the wavelength of light, DO is the diameter of the objective.

The size of the Airy disk depends on the diameter of the objective only.
As the diameter of the objective gets bigger, the Airy disk gets smaller.
(This means as the diameter of your scope gets bigger, you can see smaller and smaller detail -- or
equivalently, you can split stars that are closer together. Conversely, this means that there is a limit to the
detail you can see with your scope. That limit is dictated entirely by the diameter of the scope, and it is
due to the diffraction effects caused by the scope opening.
For this reason, the radius of the Airy disk, as calculated above, is known as the "diffraction limit".)
The minimum angular separation of two sources
that can be distinguished by a telescope depends on
the wavelength of the light being observed and the
diameter of the telescope. This angle is called the
DIFFRACTION LIMIT (R).
Dawes Limit
(The diffraction limit equation gives an answer in radians, whereas most dimensions in astronomy are
given in degrees, minutes, or seconds of arc. Also because of various other factors, the actual limit of
detail that an observer can see does not match exactly to the diffraction limit. Interestingly, a skilled
observer can do better than the diffraction formula would suggest.)

In 1867, William Rutter Dawes determined the practical limit on resolving power for
a telescope, known as the Dawes limit. Dawes expressed this as the closest that two
stars could be together in the sky and still be seen as two stars. The Dawes Limit
is 4.56 seconds of arc, divided by the telescope aperture in inches. We can
multiply the Dawes limit by 25.4 to convert to the metric system (in mm), which
gets you to 115.8, and then round to a number that is more convenient when doing
the math in your head , and we get the resolving power of the scope, PR as

The diffraction limit equation gives an answer in radians, whereas most dimensions in
astronomy are given in degrees, minutes, or seconds of arc. Also because of various
other factors, the actual limit of detail that an observer can see does not match
exactly to the diffraction limit. Interestingly, a skilled observer can do better than the
diffraction formula would suggest.
The resolving power (RP) of a corrected
objective, expressed in seconds of arc, is given
by RP" = 120/D where D is the diameter of the
objective in millimeters.

The human eye has an RP of about 60". Hence,

the maximum magnification you can obtain from
an objective (MM) is given by the ratio between
the RP of the eye and that of the objective:

(maximum magnification) MM = RPeye / RPob.

For instance, an achromatic objective with a
diameter of 80 mm has an RP of

120 / 80 = 1.5".

Hence, the right magnification using this

objective should be

60 / 1.5 = 40X.
 All refracting telescopes use the same principles. The
combination of an objective lenses and some type of
eyepiece is used to gathered more light than the human
eye could collect on its own, focus it, and present the
viewer with a brighter, clearer, and magnified virtual
image. The objective in a refracting telescope refracts or
bends light.
Refractors must chose glass for its optical qualities.
Unfortunately, the best optical qualities, the best
strengths and the best temperature insensitivity are
not found in a single type of glass.

The diameter of the objective lens determines

how much light can be gathered to form an
image. It is usually expressed in millimeters.

The smaller is the focal ratio, the more concentrated

is the light in the focal plane and the easier it is to
see faint extended objects like nebulae.
Galilean telescope

This is what you usually think of as a telescope: it has a lens at

one end, and another on the other side where you look straight
through. This is sometimes called as a "Galilean" telescope, as it
is of the same design that Galileo used (although a Galilean
telescope is a specific kind of refractor, one with a simple convex
objective lens (like from a magnifying glass) and a simple
concave eye lens.

Keplerian telescope

The Keplerian Telescope, invented by Johannes Kepler

in 1611, is an improvement on Galileo's design. It uses
a convex lens as the eyepiece instead of Galileo's
concave one. The advantage of this arrangement is the
rays of light emerging from the eyepiece are
converging. This allows for a much wider field of view
and greater eye relief but the image for the viewer is
inverted.
Reflector telescopes

Also called the Newtonian telescope and it's the

first and the simplest of the reflecting telescopes
(1668). Sir Isaac Newton was surely one of the
greatest physicist and to this day and the greatest
Euclidean geometer of all times. It was during his
mathematical studies when he realized that a
parabolic surface would form a focused image at
least as well as a lens. To prove his point, he
formed a small reflecting telescope out of a
tin/copper alloy.
Cassegrain telescopes

Is a type of reflecting telescope with a folded optical path

achieved by two mirrors – a large concave paraboloidal primary
with a central hole and a small hyperboloidal convex mirror
mounted on the large front corrector plate. Light strikes the
primary mirror, which reflects the image back to the smaller
convex secondary mirror, which in turn reflects the magnified
image through the center hole and on to the eyepiece. The
design was conceived in about 1672 by the Frenchman
Guillaume Cassegrain. This type of scope does not have a
corrector plate/lens. The advantage of this design is not in the
least the portability because it can be made relative small.

Classic Cassegrain Modified Cassegrain

 The Five Seidel Aberrations

The five basic types of aberration which are

due to the geometry of lenses or mirrors, and
which are applicable to systems dealing with
monochromatic light, are known as Seidel
aberrations, from an 1857 paper by Ludwig
von Seidel. These are the aberrations that
become evident in third-order optics, also
known as Seidel optics.
 The five Seidel aberrations are:

Spherical Aberration: this is the aberration affecting rays

from a point on the optical axis; because rays from this point
going out in different directions pass through different parts of
the lens, then, if the lens is spherical, or otherwise not the
exact shape needed to bring them all to a focus, then these
rays will not all be focused at the same point on the other side
of the lens.
Coma: This aberration affects rays from points off the
optical axis. If spherical aberration is eliminated, different
parts of the lens bring rays from the axis to the same focus.
But the place where the image of an off-axis point is formed
may still change when different parts of the lens are
considered
Astigmatism: this is another aberration affecting rays from
a point off the optical axis. These rays, as they head through
the lens to the point in the image where they will be focused,
pass through a lens that is, from their perspective, tilted.
So they may not be focused at the same distance from the
lens, even if they do come to a focus in each case.
Curvature of Field: even when light from every point in
the object is brought to a sharp focus, the points at which
they are brought into focus might lie on a curved surface
instead of a flat plane.
Distortion: even when all the previous aberrations have been
corrected, the light from points in the object might be brought
together on the image plane at the wrong distance from the
optical axis, instead of being linearly proportional to the
distance from the optical axis in the object. If distance
increases faster than in the object, one has pincushion
distortion, if more slowly, barrel distortion.
The following diagram attempts to illustrate these aberrations:
 Chromatic aberriation

This happens due to an optical phenomenon called

chromatic aberration. Refractive index of a glass is
sensitive to wavelength of the light. This means that all
colors do not focus on the same plane. Violets and
Reds, which are on the edge of visible spectrum would
get focused at different plane than others and hence
create these colored edges (also called fringe
colouration).

Lens Coatings

The optical elements of the binocular are coated to reduce internal light loss and
glare, which in turn ensures even light transmission, resulting in greater image
sharpness and contrast.
Achromatic lens
An achromatic lens or achromat is a lens that's designed to limit the effects of
chromatic and spherical aberration ('false' colors that appear around an image).
Achromatic lenses are corrected to bring two wavelengths (typically red and
blue) into focus in the same plane.

Apochromatic lens
An apochromat, or apochromatic lens (apo), is a photographic or other lens that
has better color correction than the much more common achromat lenses.
Chromatic aberration is the phenomenon of different colors focusing at different
distances from a lens. In photography, it produces soft overall images, and color
fringing at high-contrast edges, like an edge between black and white.
Apochromatic refractors have objectives built with special, extra-low dispersion
materials. They are designed to bring three wavelengths (typically red, green,
and blue) into focus in the same plane. The residual color error (secondary
spectrum) can be up to an order of magnitude less than that of an achromatic
lens. Such telescopes contain elements of fluorite or special, extra-low
dispersion (ED) glass in the objective and produce a very crisp image that is
virtually free of chromatic aberration.
 Eyepieces

Astronomical telescopes have standard eyepiece tubes,

with which one can use eyepieces bought separately
from the telescope. Most astronomical telescopes use
eyepieces with a 1 1/4" barrel diameter, although many
amateur observers with larger telescopes designed for
viewing dim galaxies at relatively low magnification now
use eyepieces with a 2" barrel diameter. Some
inexpensive telescopes sold on the mass market use
interchangeable eyepieces whose barrel diameter is
approximately .965".
In the first part of the diagram, the focal length of the objective lens of the
telescope, and the effective focal length of the eyepiece, which is the same as the
focal length of the eye lens for the design shown here where the field lens
coincides with the image plane, are shown.

From the second part of the diagram, you can see why the magnification is
proportional to the ratio of the two focal lengths. The red ray passing through
the center of the objective lens goes at such an angle as to reach a height h
from the optical axis after traveling through a distance equal to the focal length
of the objective lens.
The third part of the diagram shows why
the ratio of the exit pupil to the aperture
is also given by the ratio of the two focal
lengths; the rays passing through the
center of the field lens enter and leave it
at the same angles, so the distance
between them at either other lens is
proportional to the distance of those
lenses from it.

The fourth part of the diagram illustrates another important eyepiece

characteristic, eye relief. The exit pupil indicates the size of the circular area
that can receive all the light collected by the telescope; but that circular area
must be situated a particular distance from the telescope to receive that light,
and that distance is known as the eye relief of the eyepiece. Note that the
aperture of the objective, in this type of simple telescope, is also the field stop
of the system; the rays shown, forming an image of the field stop, belong to
what is known as the conjugate system.
 The diagram below illustrates several popular types of eyepiece:

The eyepieces are all shown oriented so that the observer's eye is looking into them from the left side of the
page
 Telescope Mountings

A telescope mount is a mechanical structure which

supports a telescope. Telescope mounts are designed to
support the mass of the telescope and allow for accurate
pointing of the instrument. Many sorts of mounts have
been developed over the years, with the majority of effort
being put into systems that can track the motion of the
stars as the Earth rotates.
 Telescope Mountings
Fixed mounts
Fixed telescope mounts are entirely fixed in one position, such as Zenith
telescopes that point only straight up and the National Radio Astronomy
Observatory's Green Bank fixed radio 'horn' built to observe Cygnus X-1.

Fixed altitude mounts

Fixed-altitude mounts usually have the primary optics fixed at an altitude angle
wile rotating horizontally (in azimuth). They can cover the whole sky but only
observe objects for the short time when that object passes a specific altitude and
azimuth.

Transit mounts
Transit mounts are single axis mounts fixed in azimuth wile rotating in altitude,
usually oriented on a north-south axis. This allows the telescope to view the
whole sky, but only when the Earth's rotation allows the objects to cross (transit)
through that narrow north-south line (the meridian). This type of mount is used in
Transit telescopes, designed for precision astronomical measurement. Transit
mounts are also used to save on cost or where the instruments mass makes
movement on more than one axis very difficult, such as large radio telescopes.
 Altazimuth mounts

Altazimuth, altitude-azimuth, or alt-az mounts allow telescopes to be moved in

altitude, up and down, or azimuth, side to side, as separate motions. This
mechanically simple mount was used in early telescope designs and until 2nd
half of the 20th century was used as a "less sophisticated" alternative to
equatorial mounts since it did not allow tracking of the night sky. This meant until
recently it was normally used with inexpensive commercial and hobby
constructions. Since the invention of digital tracking systems, altazimuth mounts
have come to be used in practically all modern large research telescopes.
Digital tracking has also made it a popular telescope mount used in amateur
astronomy.
Besides the mechanical inability to easily follow celestial motion the altazimuth
mount does have other limitations. The telescope's field-of-view rotates at
varying speed as the telescope tracks, whilst the telescope body does not,
requiring a system to counter-rotate the field of view when used for
astrophotography or other types of astronomical imaging. The mount also has
blind spot or "zenith hole", a spot near the zenith where the tracking rate in the
azimuth coordinate becomes too high to accurately follow equatorial motion.
Alt-alt (altitude-altitude) mounts
Alt-alt mounts, or altitude-altitude mounts, are designs similar to horizontal
equatorial yoke mounts or Cardan suspension gimbals. This mount is an
alternative to the altazimuth mount that has the advantage of not having a blind
spot near the zenith, and for objects near the celestial equator the field rotation is
minimized. It has the disadvantage of having all the mass, complexity, and
engineering problems of its equatorial counterpart, so is only used in specialty
applications such as satellite tracking. These mounts may include a third azimuth
axis (an altitude-altitude-azimuth mount) to rotate the entire mount into an
orientation that allows smother tracking.

A Baker-Nunn satellite-tracking
camera on an altitude-altitude-
azimuth mount.
Equatorial mount
The equatorial mount has north-south "polar axis" tilted to be parallel to Earth's
polar axis that allows the telescope to swing in an east-west arc, with a second
axis perpendicular to that to allow the telescope to swing in a north-south arc.
Slewing or mechanically driving the mounts polar axis in a counter direction to the
Earth's rotation allows the telescope to accurately follow the motion of the night
sky. Equatorial mounts come in different shapes, include German equatorial
mounts (GEM in short), equatorial fork mounts, mixed variations on yoke or
cross-axis mounts, and equatorial platforms such as the Poncet Platform.
Tilting the polar axis adds a level of complexity to the mount. Mechanical systems
have to be engineered to support one or both ends of this axis (such as in fork or
yoke mounts). Designs such as German equatorial or cross axis mounts also
need large counter weights to counter balance the mass of the telescope. Larger
domes and other structures are also needed to cover the increased mechanical
size and range of movement of equatorial mounts. Because of this, equatorial
mounts become less viable in very large telescopes and have been pretty much
replaced by altazimuth mounts for those applications.
Hexapod-Telescope
Instead of the classical mounting using two axles, the mirror is supported by
six extendable struts (hexapod). This configuration allows moving the
telescope in all six spatial degrees of freedom and also provides a strong
structural integrity.
 Types of telescope mount

The diagram below illustrates the basic types of equatorial mounting, as used both for
amateur and professional telescopes:
The electromagnetic spectrum
 Atmospheric electromagnetic opacity

Since the atmosphere is opaque for most of the electro-magnetic spectrum, only a
few bands can be observed from the Earth's surface. These bands are visible – near-
infrared and a portion of the radio-wave part of the spectrum. For this reason there
are no X-ray or far-infrared ground-based telescopes as these have to be flown in
space to observe. Even if a wavelength is observable from the ground, it might still be
advantageous to fly it on a satellite due to astronomical seeing.

A diagram of the electromagnetic spectrum with the Earth's atmospheric transmittance (or opacity) and the types
of telescopes used to image parts of the spectrum.
 Telescopic image from different telescope types

A 6′ wide view of the Crab nebula supernova remnant, viewed at different

wavelengths of light by various telescopes
 X-Ray Ultraviolet Extreme UV

Visible White Light Invisible ( Calcium-K) Visible (H-alpha)

SUN
with different
Infrared Radio Wave frequencies
 Telescopes that operate in the electromagnetic spectrum:
Telescope Astronomy Wavelength
Name
:
Radio astronomy
Radio Radio telescope more than 1 mm
(Radar astronomy)

Submillimetre Submillimetre telescopes* Submillimetre astronomy 0.1 mm - 1 mm

Far Infrared – Far-infrared astronomy 30 µm - 450 µm

Infrared Infrared telescope Infrared astronomy 700 nm - 1 mm

Visible Visible spectrum telescopes Visible-light astronomy 400 nm - 700 nm

Ultraviolet Ultraviolet telescopes* Ultraviolet astronomy 10 nm - 400 nm

X-ray X-ray telescope X-ray astronomy 0.01 nm - 10 nm

Gamma-ray – Gamma-ray astronomy less than 0.01 nm

 Radio Astronomy

In 1932, Karl Jansky (Bell Labs physicist), detected

cosmic radio noise from the center of the Milky Way
Galaxy while investigating radio disturbances
interfering with transoceanic telephone service.

A few years later, the young radio engineer and

amateur radio operator, Grote Reber built the first
radio telescope at his home in Wheaton, Illinois, and
found that the radio radiation came from all along the
plane of the Milky Way and from the Sun.
Radio observations of quasars led to the discovery of
pulsars by Jocylen Bell and Tony Hewish in
Cambridge, England in 1967.

Pulsars are highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars

that emit a beam of electromagnetic radiation.

A quasi-stellar radio source (quasar) is a very

energetic and distant galaxy with an active galactic
nucleus.
 Radio Telescope Design
Radio telescopes are made up of
a large metal dish, which gathers
radio waves coming from space.
These radio waves get reflected
from the dish and falls on the
focus point above the centre of
the dish. The aerial at the centre
of the dish turns them into weak
electric signals and they are later
feed onto a computer which A SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM OF A
transforms the weak electric RADIO TELESCOPE

signals into images.

 Importance of arrays
Very Large Arrays (VLA) of radio telescopes are used to
enhance the instrument’s sensitivity, frequency range and
resolution. All the telescopes of the array are widely
separated and are connected together using co-axial cables
or optical fibres. The data from the antennae are combined
electronically to give the resolution. The technique of
increasing resolution is by interfering of signal waves from
different telescopes.
Block Diagram of Radio
Telescope array
SUN
 Sources of Radio Waves
Pulsars:- Pulsars are highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars
that emit a beam of electromagnetic radiation. The observed
periods of their pulses range from 1.4 milliseconds to 8.5
seconds. The radiation can only be observed when the beam
of emission is pointing towards the Earth. This is called the
lighthouse effect and gives rise to the pulsed nature that
gives pulsars their name. Because neutron stars are very
dense objects, the rotation period and thus the interval
between observed pulses is very regular.
 Contd….
Quasars:-A quasi-stellar radio source (quasar) is a very
energetic and distant galaxy with an active galactic nucleus.
Quasars were first identified as being high redshift sources
of electromagnetic energy, including radio waves and
visible light, that were point-like, similar to stars, rather
than extended sources similar to galaxies.

A third source of radio waves within our own galaxy

consists of the atoms and molecules in the interstellar
matter. This radiation is at discrete frequencies instead of
over a broad band, or continuum, of frequencies.
Interstellar space is filled with extremely tenuous clouds of gas which are mostly
Hydrogen. The neutral hydrogen atom consists of 1 proton and 1 electron. The
proton and electron spin like tops but can have only two orientations; spin axes
parallel or anti-parallel. It is a rare event for Hydrogen atoms in the interstellar
medium to switch from the parallel to the anti-parallel configuration, but when they
do they emit radio waves with a wavelength of 21 centimeters (about 8 inches) and
a corresponding frequency of exactly 1420 MHz. Tuned to this frequency radio
telescopes have mapped the neutral Hydrogen in the sky. The above image
represents such an all-sky HI survey with the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy
running horizontally through the center. In this false color image no stars are
visible, just diffuse clouds of gas tens to hundreds of light years across which
cluster near the plane. The gas clouds seem to form arching, looping structures,
stirred up by stellar activity in the galactic disk.
 Pulsars: "Lighthouses" in the Sky
A pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star.
It is a sphere composed mostly of
neutrons, approximately 10 miles in
diameter, but with 40 percent more mass
than the Sun. A typical pulsar has a
magnetic field a trillion times stronger
than the Earth's, represented by the red
belts emanating from its surface. These
fields and associated electrical fields
accelerate electrons and other subatomic
particles to nearly the speed of light,
causing them to emit beams of radio
waves and other forms of radiation. As
the pulsar rotates, these beams sweep
across space. If the beams intersect the
Earth, the pulsar can be seen switching
'on' and 'off,' much like a lighthouse.
Optical image of Venus Radar image of Venus
Sub-disciplines of Observational Astronomy
Subdiscipline Band or particle type
Radio Astronomy Below 300 micrometres
Submillimetre Astronomy 200 µm to 1 mm
Infrared Astronomy 0.7–350 µm
Optical Astronomy 380–750 nm

Ultraviolet Astronomy 10–320 nm

X-ray Astronomy 0.01–10 nm

Gamma-ray Astronomy Below 0.01 nm
Cosmic ray Astronomy Cosmic rays, including plasma
Neutrino Astronomy Neutrinos
Gravitational wave Astronomy Gravitons
 ( Class taken on 12 & 13th August,2014)
For the course of Introduction to the Cosmos.
Developed by : Dr. Kishor Kr. Baruah
Dept. of Physics,
Tezpur University.