Eli5 how telescope works? How can you look at other planets and solar system but not new york from alasca?

Question

Eli5 how telescope works? How can you look at other planets and solar system but not new york from alasca?

In: Physics

Answer 1

Air is only *mostly* transparent. If you look at the moon or a star, you’re looking up through about a mile or two of slightly dusty, slightly foggy, slightly hazy air. No problem!

If you looked through a hundred miles of air, the image will be hazy and shift around due to the slight bending of optical paths due to air temperature differences.

A thousand miles of air is just too much.