The World Of Refractor Telescopes

Refractor telescopes are some of the oldest telescopes available, utilized at around the beginning of the 15th century & still around today the refractor telescope is quite possibly one of the oldest telescopes in use today. Made up of concave lenses that allow the light to be refracted & images to appear bright & larger than looking at it with the normal eye the refractor telescope can greatly aid in seeing stars, planets & moons.

These telescopes are made up of convex lenses & an eyepiece lens similar to binoculars, these refractors gather light & bend it in order to view objects at a distance, which is particularly useful when looking at stars & the night sky Refractor telescopes may seem complicated & are made up of lenses that are concave & refract the light.


The telescope come in a variety of versions; the Galilean telescope which is named after its creator was one of the first versions & was improved upon by Johannes Kepler with the Keplerian Telescope, which is a refractor telescope that utilized a convex eyepiece as opposed to a concave of the Galilean model. The decades & centuries since have observed newer inventions & different lenses, with the achromatic refractors invented in the mid 16th century & later with apochromatic refractors.

Pros & Cons of Refractor Telescopes

I stated previously that refractor telescopes have been around a long time & with that comes a definite plus since there is a definitive ability to know what the pros & cons of the telescope. These telescopes have obviously come a long was since the 15th century yet the technology has increased to a point in which the refractors have improved yet the size of refractor telescopes pose a problem in the fact that the larger the refractor lens the more chance that it can have defects or begin to sag.

While technology continues to grow & there is no telling where refractor lenses in telescopes will go to in the future one thing for sure is that refractor telescopes have been around for centuries & thus show no decline in their use by many of astronomers. So… So no matter what telescope you select to utilize to view the universe or neighborhood, you can not dismiss the value of the refractor telescope & the impact that its utilization has had on astronomy & the search of the skies.

By: Ann Marier -

Ann Marier has written many articles on health questions providing help-ful tips & advice. Read all about her latest articles on telescopes & how to use a child telescope to generate their interest in the universe

Ann Marier -


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