Telescope Image
How Does a Telescope Work?
Materials
- hand mirror
- pocket mirror
- magnifying lens
to be performed on a moonlit night
Try This
- Lay the hand mirror on a flat surface by a window facing the Moon.
- Hold the pocket mirror in one hand so you can see a reflection of the hand mirror in the middle of it.
- Hold the magnifying lens in the other hand so you can see the reflection of the Moon in the pocket mirror. First look at the reflection of the Moon in the pocket mirror, and then look at the Moon directly.
What's Going On?
The Moon looked much nearer when you looked through the magnifying lens at the Moon's reflection in the pocket mirror than when you looked directly at the Moon. A telescope uses lenses and mirrors to collect and enlarge images of faraway objects. In this simple model, the magnifying lens enlarged the image in the mirror but did not collect additional light. To collect additional light, a second, bigger lens would have to replace the pocket mirror.
