Telescope Parts

If you buy a telescope from a retail outlet, it will come with all the parts it needs to be fully functional. However, if you are looking to make your own telescope, you will need to amass several different parts in order to build a telescope that is fully functional. Of course, it always helps that you know the parts of your telescope whether you plan to build one or just use one.

Knowing the parts of your telescope depends on what type of telescope you will be using. There are refracting telescopes that bend the light and then there are reflecting telescopes that reflect the light. While some of the parts of each type of telescope are the same, there are still some huge differences between them.

Both types of telescopes contain a tube that houses the lenses that make the telescope work. They also have a base that holds the entire unit along with a mounting unit that keeps it stable. Both types of telescopes will also have eyepieces that you look through to see images. That’s where the telescope parts split between the types of telescope you are talking about.

A refracting telescope will contain two separate types of lenses. One of them is a primary lens which is bigger and a secondary lens which is slightly smaller than the primary lens. They are inserted into the tubing and adjusted so that they can make small images appear larger. The eyepiece will usually be adjustable in a refracting telescope so that images will also appear clearer.

In a reflecting telescope, you will find much different parts. The reflecting telescope employs a primary lens to magnify objects, but instead of a secondary lens, it has a mirror that will project the image you are seeing into the lens and then invert it. Reflecting telescopes also come with parts inside them that will invert the inverted image so that it appears correctly when you look through the eyepiece.

Another telescope part you might want to look at is a camera that is attachable to your eyepiece. Having a camera attached to your eyepiece will allow you to take pictures of what you are seeing. These pictures can be life changing as you look at the images of the cosmos that you are able to see through the lenses of the telescope.

While each type of telescope contains different parts, they are still essentially the same. They allow small objects to be viewed in larger form and faraway objects become clearer. But overall, you will find many parts are the same while others are markedly different.