AS101 Lecture Notes - Spectroscopy, Incandescent Light Bulb, Photon
Document Summary
Light-gathering power (depends on size: gathers more light than our eyes are able to gather, bigger telescopes can gather more light. Resolving power: ability to distinguish fine details: depends on optical quality, diffraction limit, and the atmosphere: diffraction = ways waves bend, spreads out the light waves. Depends on focal length of eyepiece compared to objective: can change by changing the eyepiece. Diffraction limit: a basic limit on resolving power-- depends on wavelength compared to the size of the telescope. Refracting telescopes use an objective lens to focus light and produce an image, and an eyepiece lens to magnify the image and make it visible. Reflecting telescopes have a curved primary mirror instead of an objective lens: primary mirror does main job of focusing lights. The basic ideas are the same for both--- both have a part that does the main job of focusing light, and an eyepiece to magnify the image.
