How do refracting and reflecting telescopes differ?
Refracting telescopes were invented first, and the biggest of them is in the Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin. It scans the skies with a glass lens 40 inches wide. Reflecting telescopes are far more powerful, and the granddaddy of them all is housed high on Mt. Palomar in California. Its mirror bright, round. Eye is 200 inches wide. A telescope is a clever gadget for making faraway things look near. It does the trick with curved glass lenses or mirrors or with both. A simple refracting telescope refracts or bends light rays through glass lenses. One end of the tube is pointed at a distant object and the Viewer looks through an eye piece at the opposite end. A reflecting telescope has mirrors for reflecting the light, and. In most of these instruments the eye piece is on the side of the tube. A refracting telescope may be simply two glass lenses fitted in a metal tube, one at each end. The tube is in two sections, one inside the other. It can be adjusted to move the lenses closer or fart
