Chapter 20.1, Problem 1BYL

To determine

The factors that influence the way we observe objects in space and sketch it.

Answer to Problem 1BYL

The telescope should be kept away from artificial light as much as possible. A refracting telescope bends the light towards the observer using a lens while using mirror focuses the light without distorting it.

Explanation of Solution

First of all, telescopes should be kept far from any artificial source of light as much as possible. The artificial lights dominate the light coming from the outer space and make it difficult to observe.

The more focused the light is, the easier is to observe dim objects. The telescope should allow one to see farther objects clearly. To do so, it should be made large to accommodate the light coming from all the sources. It should however focus them clearly for the observer. The refracting telescope does both of the above.

The given figure shows refracting telescope.

Figure (1)

The lens converge the light to the point as shown in the above figure. However, lens may induce distortions that affect the observations. To counter this, mirror can be used for converging the light to a point.

The following figure shows a way of using the mirror.

Figure (2)

Therefore, the factors that influence the way we observe objects in space is discussed and the sketches are drawn.