Things You Need To Know About A Refractor Telescope

You may be having a refractor telescope in your schools science lab and you might have used it couple of times to teach astronomical facts to your students. Here are some interesting things that you should know about refractor telescopes and should share the same with your students.

• The first refractor telescope was invented by Hans Lippershey, Zacarias Janssen and Jacob Metius and it was made in 1608 in Netherlands.
• Galileo was the first person who used the refractor telescope in 1609. He modified and re-oriented the design elements of the telescope made by Lippershey and came up with his own version.
• The refracting telescope invented by Galileo was less than 2 inches. Today, however one can find telescopes varying in length, ranging between 1 and 5 feet.
• The length of refractory telescope lenses is not more than 8 inches.
• In 1733, a newer and better version of the refractor telescope was invented. It was named achromatic refractor telescope and was invented by Chester Moore Hall.
• The Galilean refractor telescope is not considered to be as reliable as they distort the images quite easily. It is believed that one sees false colors or a rainbow coloured ring of light around the outer edge of the planets when using earlier model of refractor telescope.
• In order to overcome these problems, Johannes Kepler invented a new and better telescope. The refractor telescope invented by him utilized convex eyepiece as opposed to the concave eyepiece used in the Galilean telescope model.
• A refractor telescope consists of a tapered tube and a lens placed inside either end of the tube. The larger lens is a convex piece of glass. It directs light to a central image inside the tube and the smaller lens is the eyepiece, which magnifies the image.
• Refractor telescopes are closed tubes and therefore do not get dust, and other elements. It is quite easy to maintain these telescopes.