Our senses can only detect a fraction of the phenomena happening in the Universe. That's why scientists and engineers develop detectors, to let us see radiation and particles that we could never detect with our eyes and ears. This week we'll go through them all, so you can understand how we see what we can't see.

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Ok a bit of a silly question – If we had evolved with compound eyes (like an insect, or perhaps a trilobite) would a conventional refraction or reflection telescope work for those eyes? if not, what would a telescope have to look like?

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“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away”

We could have an eyepiece each for a red-filtered, green-filtered, blue-filtered, intrared, ultraviolet, gamma ray, and X-ray telescope and look through them AT THE SAME TIME. Radio waves would be too big.

But, of course, real astronomers don't look through telescopes, they take pictures. CCD's are so much more sensitive.

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I admit it. I AM obsessed with the RHIC. Hey, what u gonna do while you are waiting for the LHC?

Nice to see that you mentioned your interview with Naked Science. I heard the previous week Astronomy Cast when you mentioned that Pamela had traveled the ocean blue, so I was surprised only somewhat when I heard her name and voice on the NS podcast last week.

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Keeper of the Jabberwock