Definition: Telescope

From New World Encyclopedia
(Redirected from Telescope)

Etymology

From Latin tēlescopium, from Ancient Greek τηλεσκόπος or tēleskópos (far-seeing), from τῆλε or têle (afar) + σκοπέω or skopéŠ(I look at). Coined in 1611 by the Greek mathematician Giovanni Demisiani for one of Galileo Galilei's instruments presented at a banquet at the Accademia dei Lincei.

Noun

telescope (plural telescopes)

  1. A monocular optical instrument that magnifies distant objects, especially in astronomy.
  2. Any instrument used in astronomy for observing distant objects (such as a radio telescope).
  3. (television) A retractable tubular support for lights.

Derived terms

  • Cassegrain telescope
  • Keplerian telescope
  • dialytic telescope
  • Dobsonian telescope
  • Galilean telescope
  • liquid mirror telescope
  • Maksutov telescope
  • Nasmyth telescope
  • Newtonian telescope
  • optical telescope
  • radio telescope
  • reflecting telescope
  • refracting telescope
  • Schmidt telescope
  • solar telescope
  • telescopic
  • telescopically
  • telescoping
  • telescopy
  • terrestrial telescope
  • transit telescope
  • water telescope
  • X-ray telescope
  • zenith telescope

Verb

telescope (third-person singular simple present telescopes, present participle telescoping, simple past and past participle telescoped)

  1. (transitive, intransitive) To extend or contract in the manner of a telescope.
  2. (transitive, intransitive)To slide or pass one within another, after the manner of the sections of a small telescope or spyglass.
  3. (intransitive)To come into collision, as railway cars, in such a manner that one runs into another.
  4. (transitive, intransitive, mathematics, of a series) To collapse, via cancellation.

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