Refracting Telescope: On Brightness and Magnification

So you want to build a telescope just like how Galileo Galilei built his version of the refracting telescope – the Galileo Telescope.

If you are an astronomical newbie who wishes to start on the hobby not by buy an astronomical telescope but instead want to build a telescope – a refracting telescope – go ahead. The mechanics of building a refracting telescope are simple enough for someone with little knowledge about telescope to comprehend.

Likewise, if you are a dedicated and knowledgeable astronomy enthusiast – the refracting telescope is also an excellent stargazing instrument of choice. The refracting telescope can offer you vivid and crisp images of the moon, the planets and other sky objects within our Solar System.

In building your own “Galileo telescope”, you must realize not important fact – magnification of sky objects is not that all important!

What is magnification? It means enlarging sky objects such as the planets and stars in order for us to see and enjoy such objects’ more detailed features. The problem however is that many of these objects are so distant that magnification becomes useless. Even if we try enlarging the images, it is impossible for such images to come clear and vivid to us.

Which makes sense for you to try and get a larger objective lens for your refracting telescope. Larger objective lens means brighter, and hence more vivid sky objects to enjoy.

So in building a refracting telescope (your version of Galileo Telescope), you should put weight more on the brightness that your objective lens will bring to the images, rather than the magnification.