Optical Telescope

In the hundred years since the invention of telescopes, has been almost literally, hundreds and hundreds of new developments have also occurred. Constant improvement and the update has been followed by technological advances in telescope design and functionality.

A new development in the telescopes is to do with the optical resolution. A resolution optical telescope – the ability to see fine details – increases with the size of the lens or mirror. However, the turbulent Earth's atmosphere provides a practical limit on the resolution because it blurs incoming starlight. This effect makes the stars appear to glow at night.

Using computers, astronomers are developing adaptive optics that basically take the blur out of starlight. Astronomers use computers to analyze the confusion created by the atmosphere and compensate by rapidly distorting mirrors in a reflecting telescope.

Keck II telescope at Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii was equipped with this new technology in 1999, allowing it to take pictures that are 20 times more detailed than before. Optical telescopes of adaptation can resolve something the size of a quarter at a distance of more than 50 kilometers (30 miles).

Optical interferometry is another new telescopes development that has occurred in recent years. A new technique in optical astronomy is to combine the signals from the telescopes in separate locations so that the resulting image is equal to that received from a giant telescope, a method called optical interferometry.

In 2001, the European Southern Observatory opened the largest optical interferometer, the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in the Atacama desert in northern Chile. The VLT combines the light from four 323-in (820 cm) telescopes and several smaller telescopes to produce an image equivalent to a 630-in (1.600 cm) telescope.

Optical interferometers are useful for resolve the separation between the relatively bright, closely related objects, such as double stars. Astronomers hope that this technique will eventually possible to directly image small, Earth-sized planets orbiting distant stars.

New developments in telescopes are occurring all the time as technologies reveal more and more about our Earth and what is in the night sky. With these new developments, we can better understand our universe and how various planetary bodies are formed and how they coexist with each other in the vastness of space.

Astronomy is a science exciting and new developments in telescopes to be even more exciting. Things will change and even in the years ahead, and start seeing more and more of what he could not do before. New developments in telescopes are eagerly awaited.

To find out more about telescopes and how this can be a fun and rewarding hobby for the whole family please visit http://www.telescopehobby.com

Optical Telescope

Optical Telescope