From the Greek:tele = 'far' and skopein = 'to look or see'; teleskopos = 'far-seeing'

Refracting Telescope A refracting telescope (or spyglass) uses the principle of an objective lens to gather light and an eyepiece lens to focus it. The lenses refract (bend) the light. The greater the quality of the lens, the better the image.

Reflecting Telescope A reflecting telescope uses a system of curved mirrors to collect light. An eyepiece is used to focus the light for viewing. Nearly all large telescopes are reflectors. They are less likely to distort the images and are easier to make on a large scale.

Jodrell Bank ( ) Hi there! I’m the Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank in the North West of England. I’m the biggest steerable radio telescope in the world and am personally responsible for the discovery of Pulsars in deep space!

Very Large Array ( ) Hello! I’m part of the Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico. We started scanning the skies in Each dish is 25 meters across and weighs 209 tonnes! These were used to receive radio signals from the Voyager 2 spacecraft as it flew past the planet Neptune! Impressive!

Chandra X-Ray Telescope Hi there, I’m the Chadra X-ray telescope. This image is of me just before I was carried into orbit by the space shuttle. I need to be up there because the Earth’s atmosphere absorbs x-rays. One of my most famous discoveries was a jet of x-rays emanating from a Supermassive Black Hole in the constellation of Sagittarius.

Hubble Space Telescope ( ) Hello, I’m the Hubble Space Telescope! I was launched in 1990 as an orbiting optical telescope. I have a 4m mirror which has allowed me to capture some stunning images of deep space (like these ones on the right). I still need periodic maintenance as I was originally only designed to work for five years!

Telescopes:Observing Space A Telescope is a device which makes things visible to the naked eye which we would not normally be able to see. The Earth’s atmosphere absorbs almost all electromagnetic radiation (except light, ultraviolet and radio waves). This limits the amount of information we can collect from space. We need to use satellites to collect data on the wavelengths of the spectrum that are absorbed high in the atmosphere. We can also use orbiting optical telescopes to get clearer views of deep space. These orbiting observatories have been used to discover gamma ray bursts, pulsars, black holes and extra solar planets.