ScienceSource.ca Dry Lab Activity

Unit D - Chapter 12

Investigating Science 10

Quick Lab

Design and Build a Telescope

A telescope is a very useful optical instrument, but many users of telescopes don't have an idea of how the lenses inside the telescope work to form images of distant objects. In this activity, you will use raw materials to build your own telescope.


Purpose

To design and build a telescope.


Materials and Equipment

  • two paper towel tubes of slightly different diameter
  • objective convex lens
  • eyepiece convex lens
  • masking tape
  • metre stick

Dry Lab

A "dry lab" activity includes collected data and/or a video solution for your convenience. You can simply watch the following video and use the provided data, or if you wish to perform this lab for yourself, follow the procedure steps 1 through 5 described in the video. The same steps are included in written form in the documents available for download on the bottom of this page.




Questions

  1. How did the objects appear when you looked at them through the telescope? Were they upright or inverted? Explain, using a ray diagram, what you saw through the telescope.
  2. Use your telescope and careful measurements to produce a ray diagram that describes the image of an object that you choose to look at.