On the Optical Telescope

Optical telescope is defined as a telescope that collects light and focuses it primarily from the spectrum’s visible portion to make a direct view of a magnified or enlarged image, or taking a photograph among others.

If you know or have seen a monocular, then optical telescope is another term for it. Monoculars are optical gadgets that have state mount used in the sky gazing and observing. On the other hand, binoculars are especially for other gazing and observing purposes.

There are three major types of the optical telescope – the refracting telescope, which utilize its lenses, the reflecting telescope, which uses mirror, and the mirror-lens system, which as the name suggest makes use of both mirrors and lenses. Example of a refracting telescope is the earliest scope, the popular Galileo telescope. Examples of the mirror lens system are the Schmidt camera and Maksutov scope.

The Hubble Space Telescope is another optical telescope that is perhaps the most popular telescope today. It is circling an orbit past the atmosphere of the Earth for it to gather observations that are clear of atmospheric elements. With the Hubble Space Telescope, the images can be limited in diffraction, and the coverage is in infrared and ultra-violet rays. Another popular optical telescope is the Keck telescope, which is said to be one of the largest scopes in the world.