The Humble Telescope: How to Make One at Home

https://leftbraincraftbrain.com/how-to-build-a-telescope/

You don’t need a Hubble Telescope to observe the stars, just a humble one. With just a few household items and patience, you can make your own telescope and get a closer look at the moon, planets and stars. 

For a diy telescope you can easily build at home, try making a refracting telescope. All you need is: 

• Two convex lenses (one larger and one smaller eyepiece lens)

• Two cardboard tubes to put one into the other (like a mailing tube or paper towel tube)

• Tape and scissors

  
  

Here’s how it works: the larger lens (objective lens) gathers light from your target in the sky, and the smaller lens (eyepiece) magnifies that image so your eyes can see it closer. Basically, you’re bending starlight to bring faraway objects into view!

Steps to build:

1. Tape the larger lens securely at the outer end of the tube, with the curve facing outward .

2. Tape the eyepiece lens at the other end, with the curve facing inward, making sure it lines up with the first lens.

3. Look through the eyepiece and slowly adjust the tube until your target comes into focus. You might need to adjust the distance between the lenses to get a sharp image.

So, what can you see with a humble telescope? You can see the craters on the moon, planets like Jupiter, Jupiter’s largest moons, Saturn’s rings on clear nights, and maybe even some star clusters and nebulae. 

The next time your friends come over to visit, leave the screen off, and have some fun building telescopes and head out for some adventure.