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  1. Jul 2022
    1. Newton’s discovery of the differing refrangibility of colors indicated to him how telescope lenseswould always produce ill-focused images because of chromatic aberration. In order to avoid the use oflarge lenses, he devised the reflecting telescope

      Because light of different colors refracts at different angles, attempting to focus light using curved lenses will cause the focus point of each to be slightly different and thus not focus in total.

      This chromatic aberration means that one cannot build large functional refracting telescopes.

      As a result of this discovery about chromatic aberration in optics, Isaac Newton built reflecting telescopes instead. A large mirror collects the light and reflects it through a very thin lens, which doesn't accentuate refraction the way very large and thick lenses would have in a refracting telescope.