2005 NSF Research Experience for Teachers (RET) Program

 Looking at the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots representing towns and villages on a map.  Why, I ask myself, shouldn’t the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France?                                                                                                                               -Vincent van Gogh

Many early scientists probably wondered the same thing as van Gogh, and perhaps this is what first inspired Galileo to uses lenses to bring the stars closer.  Telescopes are one instrument of science which allows us to study those things which are at great distances.  From the first reflector telescope in Holland, to Galileo's own refracting telescope, the need to understand the heavens was one of the first drives in science.

If we look at the distances to the objects that telescopes observe, then we are indeed studying things that can only be reasonable understood in “Powers of Ten.” The distance to the nearest star: 3.8 x 10 ¹⁶ meters away.  The distance to the center of our galaxy: 2.46 x 10²⁰ meters.  The telescope, of course, helps bring these distant objects into focus.  Click the link below to see the PowerPoint on telescopes

Telescopes.ppt