What's the difference between a light telescope and a radio telescope?

Question

I'm having a little bit of confusion.

Answer 1

One focuses light waves, the other focuses radio waves (i.e. x-rays and other forms of radiation). In both, the point is to allow gathering a sgnificant amount of the energy from a very small area of the sky.
Different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum...the portion that is visible to our eyes is very small.

Answer 2

Light Telescope

Answer 3

Visible light is a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum. It happens to be the part that our eyes can see. A radio telescope works in longer wavelengths of light that are invisible to our eyes. The advantages of a radio telescope is that we can see into the core of our galaxy, where much interstellar dust blocks visible light rays from getting through to a light telescope. Of course, you need a computer to analyze the data from a radiotelescope and then draw a picture of what it "sees", a radio telescope doesn't have an eyepiece, it's all computer imaging, and astronomers look for different things with a radio telescope. Not so much what the object looks like, but what its energy output is in the x-ray spectrum, for example. You can look at a distant galaxy with a light telescope and see a faint wisp, whereas a radio telescope may show you the extent of that galaxy to be much larger than what would appear through an ordinary telescope.

Answer 4

Visible Light Telescope

Answer 5

The difference is in what frequencies of light the two telescopes use to produce an image.

An optical (or light) telescope uses visual light, or infra-red and ultra-violet 'energy' to produce an image.

A radio telescope uses radio frequencies to produce an 'image' which is a dataset , processed by imaging software. These frequencies are usually between 1.0GHz and 10.0 GHz.

As an optical telescope measures the intensity of the frequencies it is designed to collect by producing an image, so does a radio telescope.

There are now X-Ray telescopes as well as Gamma-Ray telescopes producing images from those frequencies.

For more information, and really cool images, see www.nasa.gov and click on the Missions tab, then take a look at each of the telescopes in space, as well as those planned for launch in the near future. (The reason we put telescopes in space is due to the filtering effects of the Earth's atmosphere.)

Hope this helps!

Answer 6

The difference is in the part of the electromagnetical spectrum that is used to form the image. A light telescope uses the part of the spectrum that is visible to the human eye. A radio telescope uses longer wavelength radio waves to form an image.

Answer 7

Light telescopes (..optical telescopes..) are designed to gather light from distant objects and display it to the telescope user. Radio telescopes are designed to gather radio energy (..not from aliens..) and display that to the user. Optical telescopes can't detect radio energy, and radio telescopes can't detect light.

P.S.
My apologies to those who know that both light and radio energy belong to the electromagnetic spectrum. Left that out to minimize confusion.

Answer 8

Pickle,
Light telescopes gather and magnify light where radio telescopes gather and magnify radio waves . Both types of radiation are considered electromagnetic radiation. Light waves are higher in frequency than radio waves.

HTHs
Sparky

Answer 9

light telescopes look for light
radio telescopes look for radio frequencies

Answer 10

A light telescope detects light waves, and a radio telescope detects other waves - sound (not quite, but it makes it easier to think that way)