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Watching the Stars Have you ever looked up to the sky at night, and wondered what stars look like up close? Have you ever wondered how astronomers take pictures of other planets with such detail? Although the human eyes are superb detectors, they cannot see extremely faint objects or fine details on distant objects. For example, you would not be able to read the print on your skateboard magazine when it is on the other side of a dimly lit room. However, if you had something that would collect more light than your eye and also increase the details that are discernible, you would be able to read the fine print in the magazine. Now, imagine that your magazine is a star far away in space. A telescope would be the ideal instrument to better see that star. Telescopes allow observers to see faint objects in space by first gathering light, then focusing it by either reflection or refraction, and finally projecting the image to the observer. To understand how important the amount of light collected by a telescope is, it is important to understand how our eyes see an object. According to Thomas T. Arny, for our eyes to ?see an object, photons (light) from the object must strike the retina?, which is a light-sensitive membrane in the back of the eye that receives the light and sends the image to the brain (Arny 120).
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