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Mirrors are not just for seeing how you look. Caroline Herschel became an expert mirror maker, she spent hours grinding and polishing mirrors to make the best telescopes. With these telescopes she and her brother, William Herschel, made many discoveries including the planet Uranus, loads of comets and quite a few nebulae, which are huge beautiful clouds of dusty gas found between the stars in our Galaxy. There are lots of telescopes which work in different ways, some use lenses and some use mirrors. In a mirror telescope the light from stars shines onto a large curved mirror, this reflects the light and magnifies it so that the stars are easier to see. The more precise the mirror the clearer the star will be, try seeing yourself clearly in a dusty mirror! Today mirrors are still used in telescopes, but sometimes they are made of silvered glass, like a normal mirror and sometimes they are made out of highly polished metals.
Image Find out more about Caroline Herschel and all her discoveries. For all you need to know about how telescopes work have a look at these pages. Go Back to Curriculum Table |