Telescope – Introduction:-

In day to day life, we come across many gadgets; you might have seen some persons
wearing glasses or aspects. Have you ever thought about the function of such glasses?
The crystals which are mainly used for curing problems such as shortsightedness or
longsighted etc. are called lenses. These lenses can also be prepared in many ways; for
example, these are practiced in a telescope, microscope eye lenses, binoculars etc.
In this investigatory project, we shall discuss one of the uses of the arrangement of
lenses, i.e., and we shall discuss the telescope.
The telescope is used for seeing distant objects such as stars, planets etc. Let us see
their function, how they can bring a thing near to us.
 
THEORY:-
An astronomical telescope is an optical instrument which is applied for observing distinct
images of heavenly bodies like sources, planets etc.
It consists of two lenses, the objective lens O, which is the vast focal small aperture. The
two lenses are mounted co-axially at the three ends of two tubes. The distance between
these lenses can be adjusted using a rack and pinion arrangement.
In the normal adjustment of the telescope, the final image is formed at infinity. A parallel
beam of light from an astronomical object is made to form on the objective lens of the
telescope. It forms a real, inverted and diminished image of the object. The eyepiece is
so adjusted that A’B’ lies just at the focus of the eyepiece. Therefore a final highly
magnified image is formed at infinity. The final image is erect concerning A’B’ and is
inverted concerning the object.
 
However, in an astronomical telescope, final image being inverted w.r.t. The object does
not matter, as the astronomical object are usually spherical.
Magnifying Power of an astronomical telescope is a normal adjustment is defined as the
ratio of the angle subtended on the eye by the final image of the angle subtended on the
eye, by the object directly when the final image and the object both lie at an infinite
distance from the eye.
Principle of Astronomical Telescope:-
An astronomical telescope works on the principle that when an object to be improved is
placed at a significant distance from the objective lens of the telescope, a virtual,
inverted and magnified image of the object is formed at the least range of distinct vision
from the eye held close to the eyepiece.
Construction of Astronomical Telescope:-
An astronomical telescope consists of two convex lenses: an objective lens O and an
eyepiece E. the focal length fo of the objective lens of a solar telescope is large as
compared to the focal length few of the eyepiece. And the aperture of actual lens O is
large as compared to that of eyepiece so that it can receive more light from the distant
object and form a bright image of the remote object. Both the objective lens and the
eyepiece are fitted at the free ends of two sliding tubes, at a suitable distance from each
other.
 
Working of telescope:-
The ray diagram to show the working of the  telescope. A parallel beam of light from a
heavenly body such as stars, planets or satellites falls on the objective lens of the
telescope. The objective lens forms a real, inverted and diminished image A’B’ of the
heavenly body. This image (A’B’) now acts as an object for the eyepiece E, whose
position is adjusted so that the image lies between the focus for’ and the optical center
C2 of the eyepiece. Now the eye piece forms a virtual, inverted and highly magnified
image of the object at infinity. When the final image of an object is formed at infinity, the
telescope is said to be in ‘normal adjustment’.
It should be seen that the final image of an object (such as stars, planets or satellites)
formed by an astronomical telescope is always prepared concerning the object. But it
does not matter whether the image formed by an astronomical telescope is inverted or
not, as all the heavenly bodies are usually spherical shapes.
 

Magnifying Power of an Telescope:-

 
The Magnifying Power of a telescope is given by:
m = Magnifying Power of an Astronomical Telescope
Where, fo = Focal length of the objective lens
fe = Focal length of the eye-piece lens
And the length (L) of the tube of the telescope is equal to the sum of the focal lengths of
the objective lens and the eyepiece. Thus,
L = fo + fe

Construction of Telescope

An astronomical telescope consists of two convex lenses: an objective lens O and an eyepiece E. the
focal length fo of the objective lens of a solar telescope is large as compared to the focal length few
of the eyepiece. And the aperture of actual lens O is large as compared to that of eyepiece so that it
can receive more light from the distant object and form a bright image of the remote object.
History of telescope:-
The earliest existing record of a telescope was a 1608 patent submitted to the government in
the Netherlands by Middelburg spectacle maker Hans Lippershey for a refracting telescope. The
actual inventor is unknown but word of it spread through Europe. Galileo heard about it and, in
1609, built his own version, and made his telescopic observations of celestial objects.The idea
that the objective, or light-gathering element, could be a mirror instead of a lens was being
investigated soon after the invention of the refracting telescope. The potential advantages of
using parabolic mirrors—reduction of spherical aberration and no chromatic aberration—led to
many proposed designs and several attempts to build reflecting telescopes. In 1668, Isaac
Newton built the first practical reflecting telescope, of a design which now bears his name,
the Newtonian reflector.
The invention of the achromatic lens in 1733 partially corrected color aberrations present in the
simple lens and enabled the construction of shorter, more functional refracting telescopes.
Reflecting telescopes, though not limited by the color problems seen in refractors, were
hampered by the use of fast tarnishing speculum metal mirrors employed during the 18th and
early 19th century—a problem alleviated by the introduction of silver coated glass mirrors in
1857, and aluminized mirrors in 1932. The maximum physical size limit for refracting telescopes
is about 1 meter (40 inches), dictating that the vast majority of large optical researching
telescopes built since the turn of the 20th century have been reflectors. The largest reflecting
telescopes currently have objectives larger than 10 m (33 feet), and work is underway on several
30-40m designs.
The 20th century also saw the development of telescopes that worked in a wide range of
wavelengths from radio to gamma-rays. The first purpose built radio telescope went into
operation in 1937. Since then, a large variety of complex astronomical instruments have been
developed.

Types of telescope:-
The name "telescope" covers a wide range of instruments. Most detect electromagnetic
radiation, but there are major differences in how astronomers must go about collecting light
(electromagnetic radiation) in different frequency bands.
Telescopes may be classified by the wavelengths of light they detect:

 X-ray telescopes, using shorter wavelengths than ultraviolet light

 Ultraviolet telescopes, using shorter wavelengths than visible light
 Optical telescopes, using visible light
 Infrared telescopes, using longer wavelengths than visible light
 Submillimetre telescopes, using microwave wavelengths that are longer than those of
infrared light
 Radio telescopes that use even longer wavelengths
As wavelengths become longer, it becomes easier to use antenna technology to interact with
electromagnetic radiation (although it is possible to make very tiny antenna). The near-infrared
can be collected much like visible light, however in the far-infrared and submillimetre range,
telescopes can operate more like a radio telescope. For example, the James Clerk Maxwell
Telescope observes from wavelengths from 3 μm (0.003 mm) to 2000 μm (2 mm), but uses a
parabolic aluminum antenna. On the other hand, the Spitzer Space Telescope, observing from
about 3 μm (0.003 mm) to 180 μm (0.18 mm) uses a mirror (reflecting optics). Also using
reflecting optics, the Hubble Space Telescope with Wide Field Camera 3 can observe in the
frequency range from about 0.2 μm (0.0002 mm) to 1.7 μm (0.0017 mm) (from ultra-violet to
infrared light).
With photons of the shorter wavelengths, with the higher frequencies, glancing-incident optics,
rather than fully reflecting optics are used. Telescopes such as TRACE and SOHO use special
mirrors to reflect Extreme ultraviolet, producing higher resolution and brighter images than are
otherwise possible. A larger aperture does not just mean that more light is collected, it also
enables a finer angular resolution.
Telescopes may also be classified by location: ground telescope, space telescope, or flying
telescope. They may also be classified by whether they are operated by professional
astronomers or amateur astronomers. A vehicle or permanent campus containing one or more
telescopes or other instruments is called an observatory.
Light Comparison

Name Wavelength Frequency (Hz) Photon Energy (eV)

Gamma
less than 0.01 nm more than 10 EHz 100 keV – 300+ GeV X
ray

X-Ray 0.01 to 10 nm 30 EHz – 30 PHz 120 eV to 120 keV X

Ultraviolet 10 nm – 400 nm 30 PHz – 790 THz 3 eV to 124 eV

Visible 390 nm – 750 nm 790 THz – 405 THz 1.7 eV – 3.3 eV X

Infrared 750 nm – 1 mm 405 THz – 300 GHz 1.24 meV – 1.7 eV X

Microwave 1 mm – 1 meter 300 GHz – 300 MHz 1.24 meV – 1.24 μeV

Radio 1 mm – km 300 GHz – 3 Hz 1.24 meV – 12.4 feV X

Optical telescopes:-
An optical telescope gathers and focuses light mainly from the visible part of the electromagnetic
spectrum (although some work in the infrared and ultraviolet). Optical telescopes increase the
apparent angular size of distant objects as well as their apparent brightness. In order for the
image to be observed, photographed, studied, and sent to a computer, telescopes work by
employing one or more curved optical elements, usually made from glass lenses and/or mirrors,
to gather light and other electromagnetic radiation to bring that light or radiation to a focal point.
Optical telescopes are used for astronomy and in many non-astronomical instruments,
including: theodolites (including transits), spotting scopes, monoculars, binoculars, camera
lenses, and spyglasses. There are three main optical types:

 The refracting telescope which uses lenses to form an image.

 The reflecting telescope which uses an arrangement of mirrors to form an image.
 The catadioptric telescope which uses mirrors combined with lenses to form an image.
A Fresnel Imager is a proposed ultra-lightweight design for a space telescope that uses
a Fresnel lens to focus light.
Beyond these basic optical types there are many sub-types of varying optical design classified by
the task they perform such as astrographs, comet seekers and solar telescopes.

Principles:-
The basic scheme is that the primary light-gathering element, the objective  (the convex
lens or concave mirror used to gather the incoming light), focuses that light from the distant
object to a focal plane where it forms a real image . This image may be recorded or viewed
through an eyepiece , which acts like a magnifying glass. The eye then sees an
inverted magnified virtual image  of the object.

Radio telescopes:-
Radio telescopes are directional radio antennas that typically employ a large dish to collect radio
waves. The dishes are sometimes constructed of a conductive wire mesh whose openings are
smaller than the wavelength being observed.
Unlike an optical telescope, which produces a magnified image of the patch of sky being
observed, a traditional radio telescope dish contains a single receiver and records a single time-
varying signal characteristic of the observed region; this signal may be sampled at various
frequencies. In some newer radio telescope designs, a single dish contains an array of several
receivers; this is known as a focal-plane array.
By collecting and correlating signals simultaneously received by several dishes, high-resolution
images can be computed. Such multi-dish arrays are known as astronomical interferometers and
the technique is called aperture synthesis. The 'virtual' apertures of these arrays are similar in
size to the distance between the telescopes. As of 2005, the record array size is many times the
diameter of the Earth — utilizing space-based Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI)
telescopes such as the Japanese HALCA (Highly Advanced Laboratory for Communications and
Astronomy) VSOP (VLBI Space Observatory Program) satellite.
Aperture synthesis is now also being applied to optical telescopes using optical
interferometers (arrays of optical telescopes) and aperture masking interferometry at single
reflecting telescopes.
Radio telescopes are also used to collect microwave radiation, which has the advantage of being
able to pass through the atmosphere and interstellar gas and dust clouds.
Some radio telescopes are used by programs such as SETI and the Arecibo Observatory to
search for extraterrestrial life.

Radio Telescope Workings:-

A radio telescope is simply a telescope that is designed to receive radio waves from space. In its
simplest form it has three components:
 1. One or more antennas to collect the incoming radio waves. Most antennas are parabolic dishes that
reflect the radio waves to a receiver, in the same way as a curved mirror can focus visible light to a point.
2. A receiver and amplifier to boost the very weak radio signal to a measurable level. These days the
amplifiers are extremely sensitive and are normally cooled to very low temperatures to minimise
interference due to the noise generated by the movement of the atoms in the metal (called thermal noise).
3. A recorder to keep a record of the signal. Most radio telescopes nowadays record directly to some form
of computer memory disk as astronomers use sophisticated software to process and analyse the data.

Let us see how these components work on the Parkes radio telescope.

The support struts on the underside of the Parkes antenna

The Antenna
Parkes has a parabolic dish antenna, 64 m in diameter with a collecting area of 3,216 m 2. The dish is
made up of aluminium panels supported by a lattice-work of supporting struts. To incoming radio
waves from space, the dish surface acts in the same manner as a smooth mirror. The waves are
reflected and focused into a feedhorn in the base of the telescope's focus cabin. The dish has a mass
of 300 tonnes and distorts under its own weight as it points to different parts of the sky. Due to clever
engineering design, however, this distortion is accounted for so that the radiowaves are always
reflected to the focus cabin.

The focus cabin houses the receivers.

The telescope operates at frequencies from 440 MHz to 23 GHz which corresponds to radiowaves of
75 cm to 7 mm. For any radiowave to be reflected form the dish it must be smoother than a fraction of
the wavelength. For the Parkes telescope the dish surface is accurate to within 1-2 mm of the best-fit
parabola, allowing 7 mm radiowaves to be reflected.
Why is the dish so big?
The size of a dish determines the amount of incoming radiation that can be collected. The larger the
collecting area, the fainter the source that can be detected. Parkes is a 64 m antenna, the second-
largest single dish in the southern hemisphere.
For a single-dish radio telescope the size of the dish also determines the field-of-view of the
telescope. When a single receiver is used the Parkes telescope has a beamwidth of about 15 arc
minutes, half the size of the Moon in the sky.

Receivers

The Parkes multibeam receiver, shown here in the workshop without its insulating cover. It has 13 feedhorns,
seen here as the bronze tubes.

The weak radio signals are channeled by the feedhorn into a receiver located in the focus

cabin located at the top of the telescope. Radio receivers amplifies the incoming signal about a million
times. Parkes has a suite of receivers that are optimised for different frequency ranges and
applications. The receivers are cryogenically cooled, typically with helium gas refrigerators that cool
them to about 10 Kelvin (-260° C) to minimise the thermal noise in the electronics that would
otherwise swamp the incoming signal.
For pulsar observations at Parkes observers typically use either the central beam of the Parkes
Multibeam receiver, the HOH receiver, both of which detect 21 cm (1420 MHz) radiation or the Dual-
Band receiver that can observe at 10 cm and 50 cm simultaneously.

Recorders
The amplified signals are carried by fibre optic cable from the recievers in the focus cabin down into
the tower where they are stored on computer disks. Depending on the type of observation some
processing of the data is performed on-site using computers in the tower. For pulsar observations the
rate at which data is received can be extremely high.
Parkes Radio Telescope Statistics

Telescope Statistics

Diameter of dish 64 m

Collecting area of dish 3,216 m2

Height to top of focus cabin 58 m

Focal length 27.4 m

Telescope Statistics

Weight of dish 300 tonnes

Weight above control tower 1,000 tonnes

Maximum tilt 60°

Time to maximum tilt 5 minutes

Time for 360° rotation 15 minutes

Surface accuracy 1-2 mm difference from best-fit parabola

Pointing accuracy 11 arcseconds rms in wind

Maximum operating wind speed 35 km per hour

Motors 4 × 15 hp 480 volt DC 40,000:1 gear ratios

Operating frequencies

440 and 660 and 1420 MHz (pulsar timing and surveys)

1420 MHz (atomic hydrogen in galaxies)

6 and 12 and 23 GHz (methanol and water masers)

23 GHz (ammonia in star-forming regions)

X-ray telescopes:-
X-rays are much harder to collect and focus than electromagnetic radiation of longer
wavelengths. X-ray telescopes can use X-ray optics, such as Wolter telescopes composed of
ring-shaped 'glancing' mirrors made of heavy metals that are able to reflect the rays just a
few degrees. The mirrors are usually a section of a rotated parabola and a hyperbola, or ellipse.
In 1952, Hans Wolter outlined 3 ways a telescope could be built using only this kind of mirror. [15]
[16]
 Examples of observatories using this type of telescope are the Einstein Observatory, ROSAT,
and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. By 2010, Wolter focusing X-ray telescopes are possible up
to photon energies of 79 keV.
Because of their high-energy, X-ray photons penetrate into the mirror in much the same way
that bullets slam into a wall. ... However, these X-ray photons reflect off the surface of few
materials if grazing incidence angles are used. This principle is used in construction of X-ray
telescopes.

Gamma-ray telescopes:-
Higher energy X-ray and Gamma-ray telescopes refrain from focusing completely and use coded
aperture masks: the patterns of the shadow the mask creates can be reconstructed to form an
image.
X-ray and Gamma-ray telescopes are usually installed on Earth-orbiting satellites or high-flying
balloons since the Earth's atmosphere is opaque to this part of the electromagnetic spectrum. An
example of this type of telescope is the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.
The detection of very high energy gamma rays, with shorter wavelength and higher frequency
than regular gamma rays, requires further specialization. An example of this type of observatory
is VERITAS.
A discovery in 2012 may allow focusing gamma-ray telescopes. At photon energies greater than
700 keV, the index of refraction starts to increase again.
The first gamma-ray telescope was carried on board the American satellite Explorer 11 in 1961.
In the 1960s the Vela defense satellites designed to detect gamma rays from clandestine nuclear
testing serendipitously discovered enigmatic gamma-ray bursts coming from deep space. In the
1970s Earth-orbiting observatories found a number of gamma-ray point sources, including an
exceptionally strong one dubbed Geminga that was later identified as a nearby pulsar.
The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, launched in 1991, mapped thousands of celestial
gamma-ray sources. It also showed that the mysterious bursts are distributed across the sky,
implying that their sources are at the distant reaches of the universe rather than in the Milky Way.
The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, launched in 2008, discovered pulsars that emitted only
gamma rays.