De La Salle University Dasmarinas

College of Engineering, Architecture and

Technology
Architecture Department

Research Paper:
Different Types of Optical Instruments

Name : Manalo, John Paulo C.

October 27, 2015
CSY: ARC22

A. Magleo

Date Submitted:

Instructor: ENGR. Lucy

Optical instrument
An optical instrument either processes light waves to enhance an
image for viewing, or analyzes light waves (or photons) to determine one of
a number of characteristic properties.

1. The refracting telescope

The telescope is a device for producing a magnified image of distant objects. It is
likely that the first telescope was invented in Holland in about 1608. In 1610, Galileo built
such an instrument, shown here on the right, and used it to make important astronomical
discoveries, such as the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn.
One of the tubes, still to be found on smaller modern astronomical telescopes, is
called the "seeker" (or "finder") , and is used to aim the telescope in the right direction
Very large refracting telescopes have been built, such as the 40-inch Yerkes
telescope.

For many years, the South African Astronomical Observatory used the Victoria
telescope (shown here on the left) as its main instrument.
It has been superseded by SALT, the South African Large Telescope, which is a reflecting
telescope.

The principle of the refracting telescope is quite simple, and in it most basic
design, such instruments are made up of two converging lenses, a long focal
length OBJECTIVE and a short-focal length EYEPIECE.

Parallel rays (shown in red in the above diagram) enter the objective lens (why are
they parallel?), and form a real, inverted, and diminished image (red arrow) in the focal
plane of that lens, at a distance F1 from that lens. The eyepiece is at a distance such that
its principal focal plane (at a distance F2 from the front of that lens) overlaps the focal
distance F1 of the objective. Note that the focal length of the objective, F1, is longer than
the focal length of the eyepiece, F2.
The rays (shown in blue in the above diagram) are now refracted by the eyepiece, and
form a magnified, inverted virtual image (blue arrow), which is seen by the observer.
Normally, the eyepiece is adjusted in such a way that the principal focal planes of the two
lenses coincide (F1 + F2 = the length of the telescope). The image is then formed at
infinity.

2. The microscope

A microscope is an
instrument
designed to produce
magnified
imaged
of
small objects.
The
simplest
is
simply
a
single
converging
lens
with
a
short
focal
length,
which
generates a virtual, magnified image of an object placed within its principal
focus. Here, however, we are concerned with the so-called COMPOUND
MICROSCOPE, which consists of a tube, in which two converging
lenses (or two assemblies of lenses, each acting as a converging lens), the EYEPIECE and
the OBJECTIVE are mounted. The specimen to be examined is placed on a glass slide, fixed
to a STAGE, which is very close to the objective, which has a short focal length. Light from a
lamp is reflected onto a mirror, passes through a CONDENSER (which forms a beam of
parallel rays, and hence through the stage and the specimen.

Most of the better microscopes have several objective lens assemblies, mounted on a
turret, thus enabling the viewer to use objectives of different focal lengths, as the situation
demands it. Such a microscope is shown above, on the left. The viewer looks through the
eyepiece, which also has a short focal length.
The object is located at a distance between F1 (the focal length of the objective) and
2F1. It forms a real image between the focal plane (at F2) of the objective and the objective
itself.
This real image is magnified by the eyepiece, and is viewed as a virtual image.
Magnification of 1000 times or more the normal size of the object are readily obtained with
better class instruments.

3. The camera

A diagram of a (very!) simple camera is shown on the right, showing the principle of
its operation.
Light from a distant object is refracted through the objective. The diaphragm adjusts
the amount of light which is allowed into the camera (the so-called "f-stops"), and an
adjustable shutter isolates the inside of the camera from light until the picture is taken.
When the picture is taken, the shutter opens for a predetermined length of time (for
example, 1/250th of a second), allowing the image to form on the film, which is then said
to be EXPOSED.
Digital cameras do not use film; instead, the image is formed onto an image sensor
that turns the light into electric signals. Note that the principle of image formation by a
the camera is basically the same as that of image formation in the human eye

4. The slide or film projector

A slide or film projector is a device which sends a beam of light onto a slide or a
film, forming a greatly magnified, real, inverted image onto a screen. The basic principle
of its construction is shown above. A lamp acts as a powerful source of light. In order to
increase its efficiency, a concave mirror is placed on one side, reflecting some of the light
which would otherwise be lost. The light passes through a condenser lens, whose purpose
is to form a uniform beam of light.
The light then passes through a slide, which acts as object. Rays coming from the
slide then pass through a projection lens (normally a combination of lenses), and then
onto the screen. Focussing the image is achieved by moving the lens forward or
backwards. The lamp gives off a lot of heat, and projectors are fitted with a fan to cool the
lamp/mirror assembly.

X-ray diffraction
Things that look a lot like diffraction gratings, orderly arrays of equally-spaced
objects, are found in nature; these are crystals. Many solid materials (salt, diamond,
graphite, metals, etc.) have a crystal structure, in which the atoms are arranged in a
repeating, orderly, 3-dimensional pattern. This is a lot like a diffraction grating, only a threedimensional grating. Atoms in a typical solid are separated by an angstrom or a few
angstroms;
. This is much smaller than the wavelength of visible light, but xrays have wavelengths of about this size. X-rays interact with crystals, then, in a way very
similar to the way light interacts with a grating.
X-ray diffraction is a very powerful tool used to study crystal structure. By examining
the x-ray diffraction pattern, the type of crystal structure (i.e., the pattern in which the
atoms are arranged) can be identified, and the spacing between atoms can be determined.
The two diagrams below can help to understand how x-ray diffraction works. Each
represents atoms arranged in a particular crystal structure.

You can think of the diffraction pattern like this. When x-rays come in at a particular
angle, they reflect off the different planes of atoms as if they were plane mirrors. However,
for a particular set of planes, the reflected waves interfere with each other. A reflected x-ray
signal is only observed if the conditions are right for constructive interference. If d is the
distance between planes, reflected x-rays are only observed under these conditions:

That's
known as Bragg's law. The important thing to notice
is that the angles at which you see reflected x-rays are related to the spacing between
planes of atoms. By measuring the angles at which you see reflected x-rays, you can deduce
the spacing between planes and determine the structure of the crystal.

Resolving power
The resolving power of an optical instrument, such as your eye, or a telescope, is its
ability to separate far-away objects that are close together into individual images, as
opposed to a single merged image. If you look at two stars in the sky, for example, you can
tell they are two stars if they're separated by a large enough angle. Some stars, however,
are so close together that they look like one star. You can only see that they are two stars by
looking at them through a telescope. So, why does the telescope resolve the stars into
separate objects while your eye can not? It's all because of diffraction.
If you look at a far-away object, the image of the object will form a diffraction pattern
on your retina. For two far-away objects separated by a small angle, the diffraction patterns
will overlap. You are able to resolve the two objects as long as the central peaks in the two
diffraction patterns don't overlap. The limit is when one central peak falls at the position of
the first dark fringe for the second diffraction pattern. This is known as the Rayleigh
criterion. Once the two central peaks start to overlap, in other words, the two objects look
like one.
The size of the central peak in the diffraction pattern depends on the size of the
aperture (the opening you look through). For your eye, this is your pupil. A telescope, or
even a camera, has a much larger aperture, and therefore more resolving power. The
minimum angular separation is given by:

The factor of 1.22 applies to circular apertures like your pupil, a telescope, or a
camera lens.
The closer you are to two objects, the greater the angular separation between them. Up
close, then, two objects are easily resolved. As you get further from the objects, however,
they will eventually merge to become one.

The Terrestrial Telescope

Since the astronomical telescope produces inverted and reversed images, it is
unsuitable for most terrestrial uses. The astronomical telescope can be modified to produce
an erect image by inserting a converging lens between

Fig. 39-12 Cut-away sections for comparison of the three types of terrestrial telescopes.
(Courtesy of Bausch & Lomb Optical Company.)

The focal plane of the objective and the eye lens, as shown in Figure 39-12. Usually,
terrestrial telescopes use an erecting system consisting of two con- 734 OPTICAL
INSTRUMENTS 39-6 verging lenses with a diaphragm or stop between them to correct for
spherical aberration. In the prism binocular the physical length of the telescope is shortened,
and the image is erected by use of a pair of Porro prisms. Another method for producing an
erect image is to make a Galilean telescope which uses a diverging lens for an eyepiece, as
shown in Figure 39-13. The distance between the objective and eyepiece is F - f, where F is
the focal length of the objective, and f is the focal length of the eye

piece. Parallel rays from the object are converged toward the focal plane of the objective
and are deviated by the negative eye lens so that they emerge as parallel rays, forming a
virtual image at infinity. Galilean telescopes are extensively used as opera glasses.
In a binocular used for daytime viewing, it is desirable that the brightness of the
image through the binocular be approximately the same as the brightness of the object, so
that there is no necessity for adaptation of the eye when viewing the image first through the
binocular and then without. its aid, as in following the flight of a bird. The average diameter
of the pupil of the eye is about 5 mm. A binocular having an angular magnification of 8 and
a front lens whose diameter is 40 mm (rated as an 8 x 40 binocular) gathers (40/5)2 as
much light as the eye but distributes this light over a retinal area 82 as great as the area
illuminated by the unaided eye. Thus we see that an 8 x 40 binocular provides the retina
with illumination comparable to the unaided eye. An 8 x 50 binocular yields an image of
greater brightness, while an 8 x 30 binocular provides an image of lesser brightness than the
unaided eye, provided that all the light entering the objective passes into the eye. Largediameter objective lenses are gener- 39-7 THE COMPOUND MICROSCOPE 735 ally used for
night glasses or for viewing shaded objects rather than for general-purpose daytime
observation.

The Prism Spectroscope

A prism spectroscope is used for determining the composition of the light incident
upon it from a source. The light enters a narrow slit S, placed at the principal focus of a
converging lens, and emerges as a parallel beam, as shown in Figure 39-16. The light is said
to be collimated by this lens. The slit and lens are mounted at the ends of a lighttight tube
called a

collimating tube. The purpose of the collimator is to avoid astigmatism in the final beam.
The collimated light is dispersed by a prism made of some suitable transparent material,
such as glass, quartz, or rock salt. Rays of any small wavelength interval are deviated
through nearly the same angle and emerge from the prism in a parallel beam. The telescope
T can be rotated so that its axis is parallel to anyone beam, and that beam is converged to
the principal focus of the telescope objective. Each converged beam is an image of the slit
formed by monochromatic light. Since the spectrum of a monochromatic source appears as
a line, we speak of discrete spectra as line spectra. In contrast, an incandescent body emits
a continuous spectrum. The images of the slit are viewed with the aid of the telescope
eyepiece. A scale in a side tube is sometimes brought into the field of view by reflecting it
from one face of the prism, for purposes of measurement or calibration. A prism
spectroscope can only be used for the measurement of wavelength when it has been
calibrated with known spectral lines. Wavelengths cannot be measured directly with the
spectroscope, for the spectroscope provides no direct means for comparing the wavelength
of light with a standard of length. Such primary measurements of wavelength are made by
means of interference and diffraction effects, to be discussed in the next chapter.

References:
http://www.physchem.co.za/OB11-wav/instruments.htm
http://physics.bu.edu/~duffy/PY106/Instruments.html
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=1174&context=physicskatz