Expert: Paul Wagner - 7/3/2007

Question
Hello sir,

Im a grade nine student in need of help. I have serveral questions about telescopes.

1. do infrared telescopes use infrared radiation or do they detect it in space?
2. How do infrared telescopes work...?
3. What are optical telescopes? are they the normal ones where you just see the object?
4. What are some advantages of a telescope that uses infared radiation over an optical telescope.?

thank you.

Answer
HI Raisa

These sound a bit like homework questions...but I will give you a little help anyway.

1.  They detect it in space.
2.  They use mirrors, just like many optical telescopes--but the mirrors have a special coating to reflect infra-red radiation.
3.  Yes...although most are now connected to computers, not human eyes.
4.  You see different objects, and you see the same objects in a different way, because the infra-red radiation of an object is different from that object's radiation in the visible light spectrum.

Paul Wagner