Page:The wonders of optics (1869).djvu/170

162 fig. 46 will show that the path of the rays is much more simple than in the instrument we have just noticed.



The rays of light are first reflected from the concave mirror  on to the surface of the small plane mirror m, which is placed at an angle of 45°, and reflects them as far as the point, where they form the image to be magnified by the eye-glass. It is therefore at the side of the instrument, and not at the end, as hitherto, that the observer is placed, and at right angles to the path of the rays. Observers looking at an object through a Newtonian telescope for the first time are generally sufficiently astonished to find that there is really no difficulty after all in seeing round a corner. We shall presently return to the subject of Newtonian telescopes, which were abandoned by astronomers for many years, until they were brought into use again by M. Foucault, a distinguished French philosopher.

Towards the end of the last century Sir William Herschel invented and constructed the reflecting telescope which bears his name. His great object was to avoid the loss of light consequent on the double reflection which took place in all instruments constructed up