What are the different types of land based telescopes and space telescopes?
When we observe, we usually observe a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Ground Based Telescopes — Are easy to build, but hindered by the fact that much of the EM spectrum is blocked by the earth’s atmosphere: Radio Telescopes — Observe Radio Waves. These are the “big dishes out in the desert” Submilimeter Telescopes — Observe just above radio waves. Optical Telescopes — These are what live in domes. There are two main types: Reflecting Telescopes — Use giant mirrors. These are the only “large” modern telescopes, and are being built with single mirrors as large as 8.6 meters and multiple mirrors as large as 30+m. Refracting Telescopes — These use lenses (like a spyglass or binoculars). These have fallen out of favor, as they are hard to build and introduce problems in the incoming light. The largest in the world in only about 40 inches. Unlike ground based telescopes, space based telescopes can observe all the bands, including those that don’t penetrate the earth’s atmosphe
