Creating Your Own Telescope
Materials that you will need: Magnifying glass, Masking tape, Flashlight, Thin piece of paper, a pair of reading glass with low numbers, yardstick, and an assistant.
Tape the reading glasses to the yardstick making sure one lens is out on the side.
Place the flashlight on a stand about twelve feet away. Shine the light at the lens that is sticking out.
Place the thin sheet of paper on the side across from the flashlight. Walk away from the paper until you see a small picture of the flashlight on the paper.
Tell your assistant take the paper to the focal point. Go around to the back side of the paper and check the image in your magnifying glass. Adjust until the image from the flashlight is enlarged.
Take the paper away and keep looking thought the eyepiece or lens. The image will be brighter since the paper was removed.
Look at other sundry items near the flashlight. Move the eyepiece or lens up and down or side to side to get a good image.
With a little time and effort, you can have your own telescope up and running in a few minutes. You will see how light helps to focus the image and that lower magnification can give you a clearer image. You also have an assistant who can try different objects to see how clear they can be viewed and whether the magnifying glass needs to be moved in or out. This is a simple experiment not requiring power tools or complicated schematics. You can learn so much from this experiment that will tell you if this is something you would like to pursue as a hobby. Don't get frustrated that it may take a few times to get the image right, but once you get the hang of it, there are so many neat objects out there to view.
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