Telescope Buying Guide

anonymous asked:


I was looking at space images today, some were of stars and galaxies billions of light years away. My understanding of the subject is limited, but I know that space time is different and the stars we see now are images from the past … so the telescopes are now sending images of things supposedly from a billion years after the big bang…. so, would it be theoretically possible for us to see the beginning of time if we had a telescope powerful enough? Wow, what a weird concept, like the past is still alive today. But if it works on some degree, how far back can we go?

Connor R asked:


If we sent a space ship with a telescope on it a few thousand light years away from earth and looked back on earth would we see earth a few thousand years ago?

Connor R asked:


If we sent a space ship with a telescope on it a few thousand light years away from earth and looked back on earth would we see earth a few thousand years ago?

jman328 asked:


Is it because that light has reached us in 10.5 billion years, and we are actually only seeing right in front of us, as apposed to actually seeing a far distance? If so is it not a telescope at all?

Its hard to comprehend wether we are focusing the light created in front of our eye or are we actually looking at something across space?

someone asked:


I want to figure out the difference in light years between a star viewed with the naked eye and it’s ‘virtual’ distance when viewed with a telescope.

Christopher L asked:


If you could build a telescope that can see light from 13-14 billion light years away, then you could see light from the early universe, no? Is it correct that you could point that telescope in any direction and pick up radiation from the early expansion of the universe?