Everything looks blurry and wavy, even when the water is still and clear. That limits how much Earth’s atmosphere can blur the telescope’s views of space.įor a telescope, peering up through the atmosphere is like looking toward the surface of a swimming pool when you’re underwater. It also helps to build telescopes high up, such as on mountaintops. It makes sense to build large telescopes away from cities and their light pollution. Both the dome and its telescope rotate so that all parts of the night sky can be observed. Each dome has a large door that rolls open so the telescope can peer out. The dome protects the instrument from wind, dust and precipitation. This keeps the building as cool as possible. These buildings are dome-shaped and painted white or silver to reflect sunlight. Some observatories house multiple telescopes. Very large telescopes are often housed in observatories. Telescopes help by gathering more light than the unaided eye could ever see. Since most objects in space are very far away, their light is extremely dim by the time it reaches Earth. Just as a bigger bucket will collect more raindrops, a bigger telescope will collect more light. You can think of this like setting a bucket outside during a rainstorm. A telescope also collects additional light that’s too faint to be seen. It might seem like a telescope is just a big magnifying glass. But how? Understanding light and other forms of energy on the move Far bigger instruments can peer much, much deeper into the heavens. Larger telescopes can show Jupiter’s bands of clouds. A backyard telescope can easily see craters on the moon or the rings around Saturn. Have you ever looked through a telescope to see these celestial objects even more clearly?Ī telescope uses lenses, mirrors or both to focus incoming light from very far away sources. On a cloudless night in a small town or out in the country, you may see thousands of stars. When you look up at the night sky, how many stars can you see? In a big city, you can probably see the moon and just a handful of bright stars.
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