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 CHAPTER 6

LIGHT AND TELESCOPES

GUIDEPOST
In previous chapters of this book, you viewed the sky the way the first astronomers did, with the unaided
eye. Then, in Chapter 4 , you got a glimpse through Galileo’s small telescope that revealed amazing things
about the Moon, Jupiter, and Venus. Now you can consider the telescopes, instruments, and techniques of
modern astronomers.
Telescopes gather and focus light, so you need to study what light is, and how it behaves, on your
way to understanding how telescopes work. You will learn about telescopes that capture invisible types of
light such as radio waves and X-rays. These enable astronomers to reach a more complete understanding of
the Universe. This chapter will help you answer these five important questions:
► What is light?
► How do telescopes work?
► What are the powers and limitations of telescopes?
► What kind of instruments do astronomers use to record and analyze light gathered by telescopes?
► Why are some telescopes located in space?

6-1 RADIATION: INFORMATION FROM SPACE

What is light?
Visual light is the visible form of electromagnetic radiation , which is an electric and magnetic
disturbance that transports energy at the speed of light c . The wavelength (λ) of light, or the
distance between the peaks of a wave, is usually measured in nanometers (nm) (10 × 9 m) or
angstroms (Å) (10 × 10 m) . The wavelength band of visual light is from 400 nm to 700 nm (4000
to 7000 Å).
Frequency (v) is the number of waves that pass a stationary point in 1 second. The frequency of an
electromagnetic wave equals the speed of light c divided by the wave’s wavelength λ.
A photon is a packet of light waves that can act as a particle or as a wave. The energy carried by a
photon is proportional to its frequency and inversely proportional to its wavelength.
A spectrum is a display of light that is viewed or recorded after being sorted in order of
wavelength or frequency. The complete electromagnetic spectrum includes gamma-rays , X-rays ,
ultraviolet (UV) radiation, visible light, infrared (IR) radiation, microwaves , and radio waves .
Gamma-rays, X-rays, and ultraviolet radiation have shorter wavelengths and higher frequencies
and carry more energy per photon than visible light. Infrared, microwave, and radio waves have
longer wavelengths and lower frequencies and carry less energy per photon than visible light.
Seeds’ FOUNDATIONS OF ASTRONOMY Instructors Manual 13e

Earth’s atmosphere is transparent in some atmospheric windows : visible light, shorter-wavelength

infrared, and short-wavelength radio.

6-2 TELESCOPES
How do telescopes work?
Refracting telescopes use a primary lens to bend and focus the light into an image. Reflecting
telescopes use a primary mirror to focus the light. The image produced by the telescope’s primary
lens or mirror can be magnified by an eyepiece . Lenses and mirrors with short focal lengths must
be strongly curved and are more expensive to grind to an accurate shape.
Because of chromatic aberration , refracting telescopes cannot bring all colors to the same focus,
resulting in color fringes around the images. An achromatic lens partially corrects for this, but
such lenses are expensive and cannot be made much larger than about 1 m (40 in.) in diameter.
Reflecting telescopes are easier to build and less expensive than refracting telescopes of the same
diameter. Also, reflecting telescopes do not suffer from chromatic aberration. Most large optical
telescopes and all radio telescopes are reflecting telescopes.

What are the powers and limitations of telescopes?

Light-gathering power refers to the ability of a telescope to collect light. Resolving power refers to
the ability of a telescope to reveal fine detail. Diffraction fringes in an image, caused by the
interaction of light waves with the telescope’s apertures, limit the amount of detail that can be
seen. Magnifying power is the ability of a telescope to make an object look bigger. This power is
less important because it is not a property of the telescope itself; this power can be altered simply
by changing the eyepiece.

6-3 OBSERVATORIES ON EARTH: OPTICAL AND RADIO

Astronomers build optical observatories on remote, high mountains for two reasons:
(1) Turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere blurs the image of an astronomical object, a phenomenon
that astronomers refer to as seeing . The air on top of a mountain is relatively steady, and the
seeing is better.
(2) Observatories are located far from cities to avoid light pollution . Astronomers also build radio
telescopes remotely but more for the reason of avoiding interference from human- produced radio
noise.
In a reflecting telescope, light first comes to a focus at the prime focus , but a secondary mirror
can direct light to other locations such as the Cassegrain focus . The Newtonian focus and
Schmidt-Cassegrain focus are other focus locations used in some smaller telescopes.
Because Earth rotates, telescopes must have a sidereal drive to remain pointed at celestial objects.
An equatorial mount with a polar axis is the simplest way to accomplish this. An alt-azimuth
Seeds’ FOUNDATIONS OF ASTRONOMY Instructors Manual 13e

mount can support a more massive telescope but requires computer control to compensate for
Earth’s rotation.
Very large telescopes can be built with active optics to control the mirror’s optical shape. These
telescopes usually have either one large, thin, flexible mirror or a mirror broken into many small
segments. Advantages include mirrors that weigh less, are easier to support, and cool faster at
nightfall. A major disadvantage is that the optical shape needs to be adjusted gradually and
continuously to maintain a good focus.

6-4 AIRBORNE AND SPACE OBSERVATORIES

Why must some telescopes be located in space?
The turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere distorts and blurs images. Telescopes in orbit are above this
seeing distortion and are limited only by diffraction in their optics. Earth’s atmosphere absorbs
gamma-ray, X-ray, ultraviolet, far-infrared, and microwave light. To observe at these wavelengths,
telescopes must be located at high altitudes or in space.

6-5 ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENTS AND TECHNIQUES

What kind of instruments do astronomers use to record and analyze light gathered by
telescopes?
Astronomers in the past used photographic plates to record images at the telescope and
photometers to precisely measure the brightness of celestial objects. Modern electronic systems
such as charge-coupled devices (CCDs) and other types of array detectors have replaced both
photographic plates and photometers in most applications.
Electronic detectors have the advantage that data from them are automatically digitized in
numerical format and can be easily recorded and manipulated. Astronomical images in digital
form can be computer-enhanced to produce representational-color images , sometimes called
false-color images , which bring out subtle details.
Spectrographs using prisms or a grating spread light out according to wavelength to form a
spectrum, revealing hundreds of spectral lines produced by atoms and molecules in the object
being studied. A comparison spectrum that contains lines of known wavelengths allows
astronomers to measure the precise wavelengths of individual spectral lines produced by an
astronomical object.
Adaptive optics techniques involve measuring seeing distortions caused by turbulence in Earth’s
atmosphere, then partially canceling out those distortions by rapidly altering some of the
telescope’s optical components. In some facilities a powerful laser beam is used to produce an
artificial laser guide star high in Earth’s atmosphere that can be monitored by an adaptive optics
system.
Seeds’ FOUNDATIONS OF ASTRONOMY Instructors Manual 13e

Interferometry refers to the technique of connecting two or more separate telescopes to act as a
single large telescope that has a resolution equivalent to that of a single telescope with a diameter
that is as large as the separation between the individual telescopes. The first working
interferometers were composed of multiple radio telescopes.

6-6 NON-ELECTROMAGNETIC ASTRONOMY

Cosmic rays are not electromagnetic radiation; they are subatomic particles such as electrons and
protons traveling at nearly the speed of light, arriving from mostly unknown cosmic sources.

CHAPTER OUTLINE
6-1 Radiation: Information from Space
Light as Waves and Particles
The Electromagnetic Spectrum
Doing Science: What would you see if your eyes were sensitive only to radio wavelengths?
6-2 Telescopes
Two Ways to Do It: Refracting and Reflecting Telescopes
The Powers and Limitations of Telescopes
How Do We Know? 6-1: Resolution and Precision
6-3 Observatories on Earth: Optical and Radio
Modern Optical Telescopes
Concept Page: Modern Optical Telescopes
Modern Radio Telescopes
Doing Science: Why do astronomers build optical observatories at the tops of mountains?
6-4 Airborne and Space Observatories
Airborne Telescopes
Space Telescopes
High-Energy Astronomy
6-5 Astronomical Instruments and Techniques
Cameras and Photometers
Spectrographs
Adaptive Optics
Interferometry
6-6 Non-Electromagnetic Astronomy
Particle Astronomy
Gravity Wave Astronomy
What Are We? Curious
Seeds’ FOUNDATIONS OF ASTRONOMY Instructors Manual 13e

KEY TERMS
achromatic lenses microwaves
active optics nanometers (nm)
adaptive optics Newtonian focus
alt-azimuth mount optical telescopes
angstroms (Å) photographic plate
array detectors photometers
atmospheric windows photon
Cassegrain focus polar axis
charge-coupled devices (CCDs) primary lens
chromatic aberration primary mirror
comparison spectrum prime focus
cosmic rays radio telescopes
diffraction fringes radio waves
digitized reflecting telescopes
electromagnetic radiation refracting telescopes
equatorial mount representational-color images
eyepiece resolving power
false-color images Schmidt-Cassegrain focus
focal length secondary mirror
frequency (ν) seeing
gamma-rays sidereal drive
grating spectral lines
infrared (IR) spectrograph
interferometry spectrum
laser guide star ultraviolet (UV)
light pollution wavelength (λ)
light-gathering power X-rays
magnifying power

RESOURCES AND TIPS

Here we give the most useful interactive figures from the publisher of our text on chapter topics.
Refractors and Reflectors
http://www.cengage.com/physics/book_content/143905035X_Seeds/active_figures/13/index.html
Resolution and Telescopes
http://www.cengage.com/physics/book_content/143905035X_Seeds/active_figures/14/index.html
Seeds’ FOUNDATIONS OF ASTRONOMY Instructors Manual 13e

Videos
Excellent video of a talk (What's the next window into our universe?) given by astronomer Andrew
Connolly detailing the large amounts of data being collected about our universe, recording the
constant changes over time.
http://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_connolly_what_s_the_next_window_into_our_universe

Many observatories have home pages and a little web searching will find many of them. The links provided
below are representative of home pages of observatories. Most of these contain pictures that can be
downloaded for classroom use.
Hubble Space Telescope: http://www.stsci.edu/
National Optical Astronomy Observatory: http://www.noao.edu/
National Radio Astronomy Observatory: http://www.nrao.edu/
Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/homepage/
Anglo-Australian Observatory: http://www.aao.gov.au/
Arecibo Observatory: http://www.naic.edu/index_scientific.php
Spectroscopy page with links to other topics:
http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/Outreach/Edu/Spectra/spec.html

Related smart phone apps (free):

HubbleSite (iPhone) – Hubble images, facts, and scientific discoveries
Hubble Space Telescope (Android) - Photos, videos, and information about the Universe
Refractor Telescope - Updates, news, information, videos, photos, events and deals.
Telescope Flashlight - Red astronomy flashlight for the amateur astronomer and telescope user

ANSWERS TO REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Yes, light includes radio waves because they are made of varying electric and magnetic fields and
travel at the speed of light.
2. One would not plot sound waves because they are not electromagnetic waves, i.e., sound waves are not
made of varying electric and magnetic fields. Instead, sound waves are variations in air pressure.
Similarly, a wave on the surface of a pond would not be plotted either.
3. If the frequency increases, the number of waves passing by you increases and the wavelength
decreases. If the wavelength decreases, then the energy of the photon increases.
4. UV has shorter wavelengths and higher energy than IR waves.
5. Red light has lower energy, lower frequency, and longer wavelengths than blue light.
6. One would choose a reflector or mirror telescope because the refractor (lens) telescope:
a. would require large objective lenses, which are very expensive to build
b. is more difficult to build than a large mirror
c. objective lens would be difficult to support, i.e., only around its edges, not the entire back like
a telescope mirror
d. objective lens would not hold its shape well because it would be supported only around its
perimeter
e. objective lens cannot be completely corrected for chromatic aberration.
Seeds’ FOUNDATIONS OF ASTRONOMY Instructors Manual 13e

7. Nocturnal animals usually have large pupils which let more light into their eyes. The larger the pupil
(entrance aperture) the greater the amount of light that reaches the retina (detector), and the easier it is
to detect the object. Telescopes with large objectives (entrance apertures) gather more light and will,
therefore, increase the amount of light that reaches the detector.
8. No, I could not see.
9. The atmosphere doesn't affect radio signals from celestial sources; therefore, it isn't necessary to get
above the atmosphere. Secondly, radio telescopes are affected by radio noise from various human-
made sources. The best way to avoid this noise is to hide the telescopes in isolated valleys. On the
other hand, visible light is affected by the atmosphere, resulting in blurring and absorption. Thus, for
visible light a mountain top is better in order to see through a smaller thickness of the atmosphere.
10. There would not be any real advantage to building radio telescopes on the tops of mountains and, in
fact, they would be less shielded from radio noise from various human-made sources.
11. A thin mirror will weigh less and require a less sturdy or expensive mount. The thin mirror may,
however, bend as the telescope points in different directions. However, telescope mirrors made of very
thin glass can have their shape controlled by computer-controlled actuators supporting the back of the
mirror. In fact, adaptive optics uses computers to control the shape of a mirror so that distortions in the
image of an object caused by Earth's atmosphere can be corrected before the light reaches the detector.
12. One should state the diameter of the primary lens/mirror and the optical quality and give a few
examples of what this means for that telescope.
13. For the same size dish and mirror, a radio telescope has worse resolving power than an optical
telescope. This occurs because diffraction is worse for longer wavelength radio waves than for the
shorter wavelength optical light.
14. The moon’s lack of atmosphere means that no radiation would be absorbed or scattered by it.
Therefore all wavelengths of light could be observed with lunar-based telescopes (gamma ray through
radio). Without atmospheric turbulence, there would be no image blur due to seeing. Further, we
wouldn’t have to worry about how the changes in the atmosphere affect data. We could observe
continually because there would never be any clouds. We could even observe during the day. Without
an atmosphere, sunlight isn’t scattered around, and the sky is dark, even if the sun is above the horizon.
We also wouldn’t have to worry about light pollution because there would be few lights on the moon,
and there is no atmosphere to scatter the small amount of artificial light that might be used.
15. Telescopes observing in the infrared must be cooled because at ordinary temperatures the mirror and
detector parts of the telescope emit significant thermal radiation at the very wavelengths at which one
wishes to observe. Cooling reduces this emission. To understand this imaging, imagine observing at
visual wavelengths with a mirror telescope that glows!
16. The false colors are usually used to represent variations in intensity. This technique allows us to
visualize the structure of fainter details.
17. An example would be the hot, thin gas in clusters of galaxies.
Seeds’ FOUNDATIONS OF ASTRONOMY Instructors Manual 13e

18. Exploding stars make mostly gamma-rays and X-rays, so I would observe these wavelengths.
19. A glass prism actually separates light into its different wavelengths or colors via the same process that
happens to create chromatic aberration in a glass lens. In the first case it is desirable, in the second it is
not.
20. A spectrograph is an instrument that uses prisms or gratings to spread out light according to
wavelength to form a spectrum.
21. Active optics are computer-driven thrusters that control the shape of a very thin or segmented mirror to
account for changes in shape as the mirror sags under its own weight. Adaptive optics uses high-speed
computers to monitor atmospheric distortion of an image produced by turbulence in Earth’s
atmosphere and rapidly alter the optical components to correct the telescope image and remove the
distortion.
22. The long wavelength of radio waves makes diffraction, and therefore the resolving power, much worse
than for a visual light telescope. The solution to this problem is a larger dish, which gives better
resolving power. A more modern solution consists of many dishes hooked together to simulate a dish
the same size as the separation of the dishes.
23. No, cosmic rays are subatomic particles traveling near the speed of light.
24. An electron or photon.
25. How Do We Know? – The resolution of an astronomical telescope is a measure of the ability of the
telescope to see fine detail. The ability to see fine detail can allow astronomers to distinguish objects
and see structure on very small scales. Thus when measuring distance and lengths this can greatly
improve the precision of those measurements.

ANSWERS TO DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. It is likely that humans have evolved so that their eyes respond best to the wavelengths of light that can
penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere.
2. Astronomers don’t care for brightly glowing clouds, bright moonlit nights, and twinkling stars because
those conditions are not suitable for observing the night sky. Bright clouds and a full moon create what
astronomers call a bright (or noisy) background which makes stars or other dark objects in the night
sky appear fainter and thus harder to observe. Twinkling stars indicate a turbulent atmosphere which
degrades the “seeing” and reduces the resolution of observations as well as making objects fainter.
3. I would apply to use an optical telescope with a CCD camera attached to produce digitized images of
the lunar disk. I would be observing the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Because the
Moon is a relatively bright object in the night sky, so I could use a relatively small diameter telescope
to achieve sufficient light gathering power. To resolve a feature on the Moon that is ~1/1000 of the
Moon’s angular diameter, I would need a resolving power of ~1.9 arc seconds, which requires a
telescope with a primary diameter of at least 2.5 in (6.4 cm). I would use a reflecting telescope to avoid
the chromatic aberration issues associated with a refractive telescope. A ground-based on a mountain
or airborne telescope would be sufficient for collecting the images, but a space-based telescope might
Seeds’ FOUNDATIONS OF ASTRONOMY Instructors Manual 13e

be unable to collect an image of the entire lunar disk simultaneously. Active optics on such a small
telescope would probably not be necessary, but adaptive optics (to help deal with atmospheric
turbulence) might be useful for a ground-based telescope. A laser guide star, a spectrograph, or an
interferometer would be unnecessary for collecting lunar images in the visible wavelengths. I would
not be concerned about cosmic rays because they should be filtered out by the Earth’s atmosphere or
simply pass through the instrument.
4. No, it is not good seeing as the celestial objects (stars) are blurry. If the telescope was equipped with
adaptive optics, I would turn that system on and continue observing. However, if adaptive optics were
not available, I might consider postponing the start of my observing campaign to later in the night
(when atmospheric turbulence might die down) or to a later date because the viewing is poor enough
that I may not be able to resolve the celestial objects of interest.

ANSWERS TO PROBLEMS
1. About 1.4
2. 3m
3. The frequency of the FM radio station is ν=102.2 megahertz (or 102.2 million waves per second) with
a wavelength of ~3 m.
4. The 700-nm wavelength photon has less energy than the 400-nm wavelength photon. These
wavelengths are associated with red (700 nm) and violet (400 nm) ends of the visible spectrum. Violet
is associated with higher energy and has ~2 times as much energy as red.
5. The 10-m telescope has a light gathering power that is 278 times greater than that of the 0.6-m
telescope.
6. The 10-m Keck telescope has a light gathering power that is 1.6 million times greater than the human
eye.
7. Telescope A (152 cm) gathers ~1452 times more light than telescope B (4 cm).
8. The resolving power of Telescope A is ~0.07 arc seconds, while the resolving power of Telescope B is
~3 arc seconds. This means that Telescope A can resolve two points that are 0.07 arc seconds apart,
which is better resolving power than Telescope B that can only resolve two points that are 3 arc
seconds apart.
9. The 60-in (152 cm) telescope can resolve blue light better than red light. I know this because resolving
power is proportional to the wavelength, so shorter wavelengths (i.e., blue at ~475 nm) can resolve
smaller angular diameters than longer wavelengths (i.e., red at 700 nm).
10. 0.43 arc seconds; two points of light well separated from each other
11. No, his resolving power should have been about 5.65 arc seconds at best.
12. The 5-m telescope has a resolving power of 0.0226 arc seconds, and the Hubble Space Telescope has a
resolving power of 0.05 arc seconds. However, Earth's atmosphere affects the seeing for the 5-meter
telescope and limits the resolving power to about 0.5 arc seconds. The HST is not affected by seeing
distortion due to the atmosphere.
Seeds’ FOUNDATIONS OF ASTRONOMY Instructors Manual 13e

13. 0.013 m (1.3 cm or about 0.5 in.)

14. Diameter = 1.16 m, the focal length of the eyepiece must be 1/250th the focal length of the telescope.
You couldn't test the telescope by observing stars from Earth because of “seeing” effects of Earth’s
atmosphere which would blur the image too much.
15. About 50 cm (From 400 km above, a human is about 0.25 seconds of arc from shoulder to shoulder.)

ANSWERS TO LEARNING TO LOOK

1. The wavelength is ~6 mm.
2. There are two windows located in the visible and radio wave bands of the electromagnetic spectrum.
3. It is a reflecting telescope because it contains three mirrors.
4. The resolving power increased in the right image of Figure 6-25a because smaller celestial objects can
be seen in the right image.
5. Figure 6-23b shows intensity of radio radiation at just one wavelength, which indicates the strength of
the radio waves as viewed from Earth. I would have selected this false-color pattern as it is
conventional to use reds to indicate “highs” and blues to indicate “lows” and so this depiction is easy
to interpret.
6. Motions in the Earth’s atmosphere cause the blurring or bad seeing. Adaptive optics changes the mirror
shape or optical path to compensate for the blurring.
7. The angular sizes of the stars in the photo are much smaller than the resolving power of the telescope.
Consequently, the size of the star’s image in the photo is simply related to its relative brightness, with
the brightest stars having the largest diameters.
8. Images from radio telescopes and from x-ray, infrared, or ultraviolet space telescopes are at
wavelengths not visible to the human eye, and are therefore displayed in false color. False color images
can also be used for visible wavelengths, since they use different colors to represent different levels of
intensity, which can help to bring out otherwise invisible details.

ANSWERS TO DOING SCIENCE

1. Would you be in the dark if your eyes were sensitive only to X-ray wavelengths? You would be in the
dark and unable to see anything because there are almost no X-rays at Earth’s surface. And because the
Earth’s atmosphere blocks X-rays, even when you looked up at the sky, you would not see anything.
2. Freedom from radio interference is important, for example in a shielded valley or sparsely populated
region like the New Mexico desert for the VLA. If the telescope is an array of dishes, a flat plain like
the VLA location is good. A dry location enables observation at wavelengths absorbed by water vapor.
Arecibo actually uses the shape of a valley to help support a large dish.