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Lenses and optical telescopes

Lenses

In this section we will be looking at a type of lens known as a converging lens. Converging lenses
have the following shape:

Light travelling through a lens of this shape is concentrated or focussed at a point. If the light coming
in to the lens is from a far distance (such as a planet or a star) then the rays of light will be parallel to
each other.

In the diagram you can see that the parallel light rays are brought to a focus a certain distance after
they leave the lens. This distance is known as the focal length of the lens and the point at which the
light converges is known as the principal focus. You can estimate the focal length of a lens (pair of
glasses for example, if they are + prescriptions) by holding the lens in front of a wall and moving it
back until you get a sharp image of a window on the opposite wall. The distance from the lens to the
image is approximately the focal length.

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Formation of images by a converging lens

If we have light coming from a source closer to the lens, then we can draw a ray diagram of how the
light radiating from that source behaves when it passes through a converging lens.

In finding the image we have drawn three rays. The top one, parallel to the principal axis (the dotted
line through the middle of the lens) passes through the principal focus on the other side of the lens.
The next ray down, that passes through the middle of the lens, is undeviated.

The last ray, that passes through a point one focal length from the front of the lens, turns into a
parallel ray on leaving the lens. You can see that all three rays meet up to form an upside-down
image on the far side of the lens. The following diagram gives an indication of what is happening to
all the rays of light emanating from a point on the object.

Lens equation

Look at the following diagram:

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The equation relating the object position, image position and focal length is:

Example

An object is placed 6cm from a converging lens of focal length 3cm. Calculate the image distance.

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Notice that when the object is placed at twice the focal length, the image also appears at twice the
focal length.

Notice that as the object moves further from the lens the image gets closer to the principal focus.
(Compare this problem to the example, and try some others yourself.) If we move the object until it is
very far away then the image will appear at the focus. If you remember we saw this at the start when
rays of light from very far away were brought to focus at the principal focus.

Virtual images

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So far, we have been looking at real images. These are images that can be viewed on a screen or a
wall. However, when the object is at a distance equal to or less than the focal length we no longer
get a real image.

The image that is formed is a virtual image. It is on the same side of the lens as the object and in
order to see it we must look through the lens. It’s the sort of image you get when you use a
magnifying glass.

Astronomical telescope consisting of two converging lenses

Two converging lenses can be used together to produce an astronomical telescope. Note that an
astronomical telescope actually produces an upside-down image. A terrestrial telescope for looking
at objects such as ships or other objects has extra lenses to create an image the right way up.

The two lenses are called:

• Objective lens – this is the lens nearest to the object

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• Eyepiece – this is the lens you put your eye near to look into the telescope

Each of these lenses has its own focal length (fe and fo). When we make sure that the distance
between the lenses is exactly the sum of the two focal lengths (fe + fo), then we say that the
telescope is normal adjustment. When the telescope is in normal adjustment then the ray diagram
for the telescope looks like:

The objective lens produces an image at the junction between the two focal lengths. This is the
principal focus of the objective lens as stars and other objects are very far away. Notice that the
image is also at the principal focus of the eyepiece. This image now becomes an object for the
eyepiece.

The image formed by the eyepiece is a virtual image. In order to see the image, we need to look
through the lens rather than having an image projected on a screen. The image formed by the
eyepiece is much larger than the original object. If you look at the diagram you will notice that the
rays from the original object arrive at an angle α to the principal axis. However, the image formed by
the eyepiece has its rays at a larger angle β. This means that the image appears larger. The effect of
changing the eyepiece for one with a shorter focal length can be seen in this diagram:

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Learning activity 15
Explain with reference to lenses how astronomical telescopes work.

 
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