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 Refractor Telescope

Refractor telescopes, also known as refracting telescopes or dioptric telescopes bend light to make parallel rays converge at a focal point. The refractor telescope design was predominantly used in spy glasses before its use in astronomical telescopes. The refractor telescope was the first kind of telescope invented. It utilises' a glass lens as a medium to refract the rays of light to form an image. Incidentally, the first refracting telescopes invented was by none other than Galileo Galilei. He invented the first refractor telescope with one large glass lens as the objective and a smaller lens as the eyepiece or focal point. In order to be able to refract light the glass lens had to be shaped perfectly depending on the desired size of the image. The focal point would have a glass lens shaped in the opposite fashion of the objective to keep the image from being seen upside down. This design, being one of the first refractor telescope, has come to be known as none other than the Galilean telescope.

As brilliant as the Galilean telescope was, there is always room for improvement, hence in 1611, another astronomer by the name of Johannes Kepler created another variation of the refracting telescope based on the designs of the Galilean telescope. The Keplerian Telescope, as it came to be known, used convex lenses as opposed to Galileo's version which used convex lenses.

This in essence gave the viewer a much wider field of view and much needed eye relief. The downside however being that the image would have been inverted. Other disadvantages of the refractor telescope was its' lack of ability to filter aberrations of the non converged rays. These shortcomings sparked the invention of an achromatic refracting telescope and apochromatic refractors. Achromatic refractor telescopes are pretty self-explanatory. They are intended to display the image without color to mitigate aberrations. Apochromatic refractor telescopes on the other hand, are designed to bring three colors. The viewer would be able to see red, green, and blue wavelengths with minimal aberrations making the apochromatic refracting telescope highly preferable for its time.

Fast forward to the 21st century and refractor telescopes have advanced to such an extent that with the right telescope, viewing a picture clear Pluto through the lenses is not impossible. Also with the advent of technology, computerised goto refractor telescopes are now the norm.
Refractor telescopes, also known as refracting telescopes or dioptric telescopes bend light to make parallel rays converge at a focal point. The refractor telescope design was predominantly used in spy glasses before its use in astronomical telescopes. The refractor telescope was the first kind of telescope invented. It utilises' a glass lens as a medium to refract the rays of light to form an image. Incidentally, the first refracting telescopes invented was by none other than Galileo Galilei. He invented the first refractor telescope with one large glass lens as the objective and a smaller lens as the eyepiece or focal point. In order to be able to refract light the glass lens had to be shaped perfectly depending on the desired size of the image. The focal point would have a glass lens shaped in the opposite fashion of the objective to keep the image from being seen upside down. This design, being one of the first refractor telescope, has come to be known as none other than the Galilean telescope.

As brilliant as the Galilean telescope was, there is always room for improvement, hence in 1611, another astronomer by the name of Johannes Kepler created another variation of the refracting telescope based on the designs of the Galilean telescope. The Keplerian Telescope, as it came to be known, used convex lenses as opposed to Galileo's version which used convex lenses.

This in essence gave the viewer a much wider field of view and much needed eye relief. The downside however being that the image would have been inverted. Other disadvantages of the refractor telescope was its' lack of ability to filter aberrations of the non converged rays. These shortcomings sparked the invention of an achromatic refracting telescope and apochromatic refractors. Achromatic refractor telescopes are pretty self-explanatory. They are intended to display the image without color to mitigate aberrations. Apochromatic refractor telescopes on the other hand, are designed to bring three colors. The viewer would be able to see red, green, and blue wavelengths with minimal aberrations making the apochromatic refracting telescope highly preferable for its time.

Fast forward to the 21st century and refractor telescopes have advanced to such an extent that with the right telescope, viewing a picture clear Pluto through the lenses is not impossible. Also with the advent of technology, computerised goto refractor telescopes are now the norm.

Company Resource:    Waterproof Binoculars, Gift Binoculars
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