3 Optical Instruments
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN BEFORE YOU READ
• the difference between a Astronomers study stars that are too far away to be seen by using
refracting telescope and a just their eyes. Biologists study cells that are too small to be seen
reflecting telescope
by using just their eyes. On the lines below, describe how you
• how a microscope magnifies think these scientists look at these objects.
images
• how a camera works
READ TO LEARN
Telescopes
STUDY COACH You know from your experience that it is difficult to see
Summarize Read the lesson. faraway objects clearly. When you look at an object, only some of
Close your book and make a
the light reflected from its surface enters your eyes. As you move
list of the lesson’s main ideas.
Look at the lesson again to farther away from the object, the amount of light entering your
check your list. Then, write a eyes decreases, as shown below. As a result, the object appears
summary of the lesson’s main dimmer and less detailed.
ideas.
A telescope uses a lens or a concave mirror that is much larger
than your eye to gather more of the light from distant objects. As
a result, objects such as distant galaxies appear much brighter
and more detail can be seen when the image is magnified.
Telescopes and many other technologies based on the
understanding of waves and their interactions with matter are
part of everyday experiences in the modern world and in
scientific research.
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Refracting telescopes
One common type of telescope is the refracting telescope. A
telescope that uses lenses to gather light from distant objects is D Compare and Contrast
called a refracting telescope. A simple refracting telescope uses Make a 3-tab Foldable to
two convex lenses to gather and focus light from distant objects. organize and compare
information about optical
Look at the telescope shown below. Incoming light from distant
instruments.
objects passes through the first lens, called the objective lens.
Light rays from distant objects are nearly parallel to the optical
axis of the lens. As a result, the objective lens forms a real image Telescopes
at the focal point of the lens, within the body of the telescope.
The second convex lens, called the eyepiece lens, magnifies this Microscopes
real image. When you look through the eyepiece lens, you see an
enlarged, upside down, virtual image of the real image formed by
the objective lens. Cameras
In order to form detailed images of distant objects, the objective
lens of a refracting telescope must be as large as possible. A
telescope lens can be supported only around its edge. A large lens
can sag or flex due to its own weight, distorting the image that it
M13_005A_685545
forms. Another class of telescopes, called reflecting telescopes, do
not have this problem.
Objective
lens
Real image of
distant object Light from
distant object
Focal
point
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Eyepiece
lens
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PICTURE THIS
1. Describe What type of Eyepiece Light from
image do you see when lens distant object
using both types of Real image of
telescope discussed? distant object
Plane
mirror
PICTURE THIS
Concave
2. Explain To where does the mirror
plane mirror reflect the light
in a reflecting telescope?
Reflecting telescopes
A telescope that uses mirrors and lenses to collect and focus
light from distant objects is a reflecting telescope. Mirrors, unlike
lenses, can be supported from behind. This additional support for
mirrors prevents mirrors from sagging inside reflecting
telescopes. As a result, reflecting telescopes can be much larger
than refracting telescopes. The figure above shows a reflecting
telescope.
For this reflecting telescope, light from a distant object enters
Get It? one end of the telescope and strikes a concave mirror at the
3. Identify the interactions of opposite end. The light reflects off this mirror and converges.
waves and matter that allow Before it converges at a focal point, the light hits a plane mirror
reflecting telescopes to inside the telescope tube. The light is then reflected from the
function.
plane mirror toward the telescope’s eyepiece. The light rays
converge at the focal point, creating a real image of the distant
Copyright © McGraw-Hill Education
object. Just like a refracting telescope, a convex lens in the
eyepiece then magnifies this image.
Space telescopes
Imagine being at the bottom of a swimming pool and trying to
read a sign by the pool’s edge. The motion of the water in the
pool would distort your view of any object beyond the water’s
surface. In a similar way, Earth’s atmosphere distorts the view of
objects in space.
To overcome the blurriness of humans’ view into space, the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) built a
telescope called the Hubble Space Telescope and launched it into
space, high above Earth’s atmosphere. Because Hubble is above
Earth’s atmosphere, it has produced incredibly sharp and
detailed images.
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With the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists can detect light from Get It?
planets, stars, and galaxies that would otherwise be scattered by 4. Explain why a space
Earth’s atmosphere. Hubble is not the only space telescope. Other telescope is able to
produce clearer images
space telescopes, such as the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the than telescopes on Earth.
Spitzer Space Telescope, help scientists study the universe through
X-ray and infrared radiation.
The Hubble telescope is a type of reflecting telescope that uses
two mirrors to collect and focus light to form an image. The
primary mirror in the telescope is 2.4 m across. A next-generation
space telescope, called the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), is
due to be launched in 2021. The primary mirror on JWST will be
6.5 m across.
Microscopes
A telescope would be useless if you were trying to study the
cells in a butterfly wing or the differences between a human hair
and a horse hair. A microscope is a device that uses two convex
lenses with relatively short focal lengths to magnify small, close
objects. A microscope, like a telescope, has an objective lens and
an eyepiece lens. However, it is designed differently because the
objects viewed are close to the objective lens.
Look at the simple microscope below. The object to be viewed is
placed on a transparent slide and is illuminated from below. The
light passes by or through the object on the slide and then travels
through the objective lens. The objective lens is a convex lens. It
forms a real, enlarged image of the object because the distance
from the object to the lens is between one and two focal lengths.
Eyepiece lens
Magnified real image
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Objective lens
Object
Lightbulb
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Get It? The real image is then magnified again by the eyepiece lens
5. Compare the image (another convex lens) to create a virtual, enlarged image. This
formed by the objective final image can be hundreds of times larger than the actual object,
lens of a microscope with
the image formed by the
depending on the focal lengths of the two lenses. The total
eyepiece lens. magnification is the magnification of the objective times the
magnification of the eyepiece.
Cameras
With the click of a button, you can capture a beautiful scene in
a photo. How does a digital camera make a reduced image of a
life-sized scene? The figure below shows the path that light
follows as it enters a camera from a distant object. The light rays
from distant objects are almost parallel to each other. When you
take a picture with a camera, a shutter opens to allow light to
enter the camera for a specific length of time.
The light reflected off the object enters the camera through an
opening called the aperture. The camera lens focuses the image
onto an image sensor, which converts light into electric signals. A
computer then processes these signals into an image that can be
displayed on a screen or printed.
PICTURE THIS
6. Circle the part of the figure
that has the same function
Image
as the retina in an eye.
Lens Shutter Image sensor
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Object
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