cases the object is viewed in the usual or direct way, the image being erect in Gregory’s and inverted in Cassegrain’s.  In the third the observer looks through the side of the telescope, seeing an inverted image of the object.  In the last the observer sees the object inverted, but not altered as respects right and left.  The last-mentioned method of viewing objects is the only one in which the observer’s back is turned towards the object, yet this method is called the front view—­apparently quasi lucus a non lucendo.

[Illustration:  Fig. 3.]

It appears, then, that in all astronomical Telescopes, reflecting or refracting, a real image of an object is submitted to microscopical examination.

Of this fact the possessor of a telescope may easily assure himself; for if the eye-glass be removed, and a small screen be placed at the focus of the object-glass, there will appear upon the screen a small picture of any object towards which the tube is turned.  But the image may be viewed in another way which requires to be noticed.  If the eye, placed at a distance of five or six inches from the image, be directed down the tube, the image will be seen as before; in fact, just as a single convex lens of short focus is the simplest microscope, so a simple convex lens of long focus is the simplest telescope.[1] But a singular circumstance will immediately attract the observer’s notice.  A real picture, or the image formed on the screen as in the former case, can be viewed at varying distances; but when we view the image directly, it will be found that for distinct vision the eye must be placed almost exactly at a fixed distance from the image.  This peculiarity is more important than it might be thought at first sight.  In fact, it is essential that the observer who would rightly apply the powers of his telescope, or fairly test its performance, should understand in what respect an image formed by an object-glass or object-mirror differs from a real object.

The peculiarities to be noted are the curvature, indistinctness, and false colouring of the image.

The curvature of the image is the least important of the three defects named—­a fortunate circumstance, since this defect admits neither of remedy nor modification.  The image of a distant object, instead of lying in a plane, that is, forming what is technically called a flat field, forms part of a spherical surface whose centre is at the centre of the object-glass.  Hence the centre of the field of view is somewhat nearer to the eye than are the outer parts of the field.  The amount of curvature clearly depends on the extent of the field of view, and therefore is not great in powerful telescopes.  Thus, if we suppose that the angular extent of the field is about half a degree (a large or low-power field), the centre is nearer than the boundary of the field by about 1-320th part only of the field’s diameter.