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Activity 1 - Introduction to Telescopes

1.  Astronomers use telescopes to study objects that are too difficult to see without optical instruments.  Look at these pictures to see where you might be interested in seeing more detail by using a telescope.

This is a  night sky photo of  Sagittarius from Chews Ridge, near Carmel, in California. This is a 20 second exposure, f/1.7, 400 ASA slide film. The brightest object is the planet, Jupiter.  This picture was taken in 1996.

This Picture of the Milky Way, was taken by Richard Hackney, Director of Kentucky Space Grant Consortium.
Hardin Planetarium & Astrophysical Observatory, http://www.wku.edu/ksgc
Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101; 270-745-4156

2.  Use the web to research Historical Telescopes. Galileo is the famous scientist who first used a telescope to look at the sky.  He wrote about his observations so everyone would know about the amazing things he saw.  You can learn more about Galileo at these websites or by reading books such as the ones listed here.

This site contains a brief history of the building of telescopes and the people who did the construction. http://es.rice.edu:80/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Things/telescope.html. 

Go straight to the Museum of Science in Florence Italy, for information about Galileo.  http://galileo.imss.firenze.it/museo/b/egalilg.html

Recommended Literature:  Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel, Walker & Company, 1999.  http://www.galileosdaughter.com/home.shtml

3.  Here are a few pictures of telescopes.  See if you can pick out the essential components of telescopes.  What components do you think telescopes must have in order to do the work needed by astronomers.  Record your ideas and compare your thoughts to those of others in your class.

Pictures of Telescopes at The University of Chicago Yerkes Observatory

The University of Chicago Yerkes Observatory Webpage. http://astro.uchicago.edu/yerkes/

Center for Adaptive Optics http://cfao.ucolick.org/