Identifying Telescope Parts
No one knows for sure who invented the first telescope but usually Hans Lippershay gets the credit. He was an optician who live in Holland in the early seventeenth century. Gallileo, Lippershay's Italian contemporary, made a telescope about a year later and by the end of the same century, Isaac Newton made a much more powerful one. There are three types of telescope: refractors, reflectors, and refracting-reflecting telescopes. Most beginners use refracting telescopes. It has an optical tube, lenses, an eyepiece, and a telescope mount.
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Instructions
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Start by finding the long optical tube. The optical tube is the main body of the telescope which protects the lenses inside. It also does not allow any air currents to interfere with the lenses which could hurt the quality of the image you see.
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Touch the front opening on the end of the optical tube. This is called the front and its job is to allow light to enter the optical tube so that you can see the far away image.
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Peek inside the front. Mounted inside the optical tube you will be able to see an achromatic objective lens. It is permanently set in place where it is correctly aligned for viewing. It bends the light so that it can reach the eye piece.
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Notice the rear-mounted eyepiece. Eyepieces come in barrel sizes. These are also called formats. Barrel sizes and formats both equal the measurement of the diameter of the eyepiece. A standard size for a rear-mounted telescope eyepiece is one and one-fourth inches.
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Identify the stand that holds your telescope. It is called the telescope mount. Probably your mount can move in two different directions, up and down, as well as side to side. If it can do this it is called an altazimuth telescope mount.
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