Alternative Title: refractor
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Commonly known as refractors, telescopes of this kind are typically used to examine the Moon, other objects of the solar system such as Jupiter and Mars, and binary stars. The name refractor is derived from the term refraction, which is the bending of light when it passes from one medium to another of different density—e.g., from air to glass. The glass is referred to as a...
Optical telescopes are either refractors or reflectors that use lenses or mirrors, respectively, for their main light-collecting elements (objectives). Refractors are effectively limited to apertures of about 100 cm (approximately 40 inches) or less because of problems inherent in the use of large glass lenses. These distort under their own weight and can be supported only around the perimeter;...
history of telescopes
Refractor telescopes, too, underwent development during the 18th and 19th centuries. The last significant one to be built was the 1-metre (40-inch) refractor at Yerkes Observatory. Installed in 1897, it remains the largest refracting system in the world. Its objective was designed and constructed by the optician Alvan Clark, while the mount was built by the firm of Warner & Swasey.
instrument for viewing distant objects, the basis for the modern refractive telescope, named after the great German astronomer Johannes Kepler. Its eyepiece, or ocular, is a convex (positive, or convergent) lens placed in back of the focus, the point at which the parallel light rays converge; and the instrument produces an inverted (“real”) image that can be projected or made...