Essay On Telescopes

Space: up until a few centuries ago astronomers knew little about the universe outside of our planet. But now, with vastly improved technology, astronomers are able to uncover so much more about what lies outside of Earth. While today’s observational technology is greatly superior to that of the past, we can’t disregard the accomplishments of astronomers in the past, because without their work our knowledge of space would far less than it is today. From Galileo’s first telescope to the Webb space telescope that has yet to be launched, there are so many observational technologies that made important contributions to the observation and exploration of space.
The credit for the invention of the first telescope is given to a Dutch glasses maker,

With new technology and machines gave people the ability to grind glass lenses, and mirrors to different shapes. James Gregory, a Scottish astronomer, created the parabolic mirror, a mirror that curved differently than a spherical mirror. With this type of mirror the light rays bounce off the mirror and meet in the same place, resulting in a clear image. Thus making reflectors the first type of telescope to have clear images. Astronomers started building larger reflecting telescopes, to accommodate a larger primary mirror. Larger mirrors allowed the telescopes to collect more light, which allows astronomers to see objects that are dimmer or further away. It used to be that size of the telescope showed how powerful it was, but now it is the size of the primary mirror. Glass lenses began to improve, but it was still easier to make mirrors. Glass lenses couldn’t have any imperfections or the image would be distorted, but mirrors just needed to be shiny. At this point reflecting telescopes began to be more popular than refracting telescopes. In the mid 1700s it was learned that when white light travels through glass it splits into a rainbow, which is what causes the circles of colour around bright objects. In 1729, Chester Moor Hall came up with a solution to this problem by combining a convex lens with a concave lens. From the late 1700s to early 1800s Pierre Louis Guinand worked with Joseph von Fraunhofer worked together on making glass lenses with less imperfections. In the 1800s as reflectors got larger, there started being a problem of the Earth’s atmosphere distorting the images. When light passes through air pockets it gets distorted and results in a blurry image.