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For Life
2004.06.04

These are the basic tools of the astronomer, and there is no more exciting gift that you can give a curious child!

Today's LessonCATEGORY: Commonly Confused Words
TELESCOPE vs. BINOCULARS   望遠鏡 vs. 双眼鏡

Explanation

  • A telescope  is a device that gathers light and makes objects appear larger and brighter when seen through it. It's made with a tube and one or more curved mirrors and/or pieces of clear glass. You look through a telescope  with only one eye.

    Binoculars  also make objects appear larger and brighter, but they are like two small telescopes attached to each other. You look through binoculars  with both eyes at the same time.

    Be careful:
    Binoculars  is always plural. We do NOT say "a binocular"; however, when it's important to make clear that we are talking about ONE such device, we can say "a pair of binoculars".
  • telescope  は、光を集めて、対象物が大きくはっきり見えるようにする道具です。筒状の胴体に、カーブした鏡やガラス製のレンズがついています。つまり、望遠鏡のことです。telescope  は、片目だけで覗きます。

    binoculars  も、対象物を大きくはっきり見るための道具で、小さな望遠鏡を2つ並べてくっつけたような形をしています。つまり、双眼鏡のことです。binoculars  は、両目で同時に覗きます。

    注意:
    binoculars  は、いつも複数形にします。A binocular とは言いません。双眼鏡が1つであることをはっきりさせたければ、a pair of binoculars  と言うことができます。

examples

  1. Joanne says she's never even looked through a telescope  before!
  2. Even with a small telescope, you can see the rings of Saturn and four of Jupiter's moons.  
  3. The Hubble Telescope  has taken some of the most spectacular photographs of space that we have.
  4. There are some objects in the night sky that can be seen better with binoculars  than with a telescope.
  5. I bought a new pair of binoculars  for bird watching.
  6. My binoculars  were stolen from my backpack at the train station..

We wish you clear (night) skies this weekend!