What type of image is formed by a reflecting telescope?

Answer 1

I am not sure whether you mean an ordinary optical telescope or a small telescope. You can see a lot through either, and anything you can see in a small telescope can be seen through any other optical telescope. The advantage of a large telescope is often just that it can be used to observe dim nebulae and galaxies.

First off, a warning: NEVER look at the sun with a telescope, unless it is especially set up for the purpose. It will destroy your eyes.

Actually, observing the stars can be fun without a telescope and is a good way to learn about constellations and planets.

You can see some really beautiful things with binoculars. Comets are one good thing, when the are around (you might have to watch the news for this). Also, just looking at a constellation like Coma Berenices, which is not very interesting to the naked eye, can be very memorable. I think it is an astonishingly beautiful, rich field of stars.

A small telescope can give a very nice view of the moon. You do not want to use high power, if you want to see the whole moon, but you can use it to look at craters and so on.

Some of the planets are quite beautiful through a small telescope. Jupiter can be seen at low power, along with four of its moons. If you have access to Sky and Telescope magazine, you will be able to find out when the moons eclipse or occult each other, and this can usually be seen through a small telescope. The rings of Saturn can be seen through a good small telescope, but to get a really nice view, it has to be a good one.

Some small telescopes are especially designed for looking at comets.

Some small telescopes are especially built to look at the Sun. Again NEVER look at the Sun, unless the equipment you have is especially designed for the purpose.

A small telescope can be used to observe some of the galaxies and start clusters. A star cluster sometimes looks rather like a small galaxy, and is quite beautiful. The actual galaxies, however, are much better with bigger instruments. The same is true of nebulae.

One thing you really need to do astronomical observation - and this is by far the most important thing - is to learn about astronomical observation. Learn as much as you can, and the whole thing is much, much more fun. If you can, find a club with experienced observers in it. They do not need to be professional, just experienced.

The most limiting factor in observation is lack of knowledge. The telescope is only secondary.

And, by the way, some things are too big to be seen in a telescope. There is a nebula in the southern sky that is too wide to be seen in a telescope and too dim to be seen by eye. It can be photographed in a camera with a fairly wide angle lens. I don't know, but perhaps a person could see it with a reducing lens (like a magnifying glass, except it makes images smaller).

Answer 2

Yes you can because telescopes can see planets lightyears away so it will be incredibly easy to see stars (it would be easy because telescopes enlarge the images and you can see stars with your bare eyes so it would be easy with a telescope

Actually you can't see planets outside our Solar System with any telescope. Planets do not emit light and the only reason we can see the other 7 planets in our Solar System is because they reflect the light from our sun. In order to see planets Astronomers focus a special telescopes on a star to see if it either "wobbles" or "blinks". The wobble is detected by seeing if the star is pulled around by another gravitational force. The blink is just like our lunar eclipse when the moon goes between us and the sun. We point a telescope at the star and see if it flickers from a planetary object orbiting it. Of course, once we find out if there is a planet (only a few hundred discovered outside our solar system) we have to use everything we have to determine it's mass and point a inferred telescope at it to see what it's made of. Then we can determine if it's terrestrial and possible to support life.

And on top of being able to see stars. You can see Galaxies, Nebula within our Galaxy, constellations, gas clouds, and if you're lucky; name a star.

Answer 3

Probably the Moon.

The most probable recorded observation was by Galileo Galilei in 1610 when he observed - amongst other things - the "four" moons of Jupiter. The Galilean moons.

Factually, we will never know. The first recorded telescope was built in 1608 but did they "look upwards" towards the sky?

The best guess is that Galileo would have looked at the Moon before looking further.

Answer 4

As a matter of fact, you can see at least 3 galaxies with the naked eye: the Andromeda Galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, and the Small Magellanic Cloud. The latter two only if you live in the Southern Hemisphere. With even a small telescope, you can see many more.

Answer 5

Since this question is similar to "How far can you see in a reflecting telescope," the answer is similar. First of all, there are three types of telescopes: 1. reflectors, which use mirrors, 2. refractors, which use lenses and 3. catadioptrics, which use a combination of both. They all have their advantages/disadvantages, but basically you can see the same things in all types. However, what you can see is limited to the diameter of the objective - the lens or mirror that gathers the light: the bigger the diameter, the more you can see, and the better you can see it. A small telescope, 2 to 3 inches, will show the craters of the moon, the phases of Venus, Jupiter with its belts and the 4 bright moons, Saturn with its beautiful rings and the moon Titan. A 4 to 6 inch scope will show all 110 of the Messier Objects, which includes 70 star clusters and nebulae in the Milky Way Galaxy plus 40 galaxies out beyond ours. After that, the bigger the scope, the more of these "deep sky" objects you can see and the more detail you can view.

Answer 6

the images are clear and can be focused unlike a refracting telescope witch sags under its own weight causing images to be distorted

Any telescope forms a real image. Otherwise, it's pretty useless as a telescope.

Comments: Refracting telescopes are good these days. They should not sag. Also, Galileo's telescope formed a virtual image, and that wasn't useless.

An important point about the image in a reflecting telescope is that it is inverted, as well as being a real image.

Answer 7

A real image is formed at the "prime focus" by the objective lens. The image may be recorded, by placing film or a CCD at the prime focus. Alternatively, it may be inspected visually with an eyepiece placed behind the prime focus.

Answer 8

shooting star

star, moon, eclipse, Orion, planets, neighbor : )

Answer 9

The same images that any reflecting telescope produces, but with a sharper focus.