This is one of those things that I know doesn’t work, but I don’t know the exact reason WHY it doesn’t work. I remember asking a friend in 7th grade biology why I can’t just put a telescope up to a microscope to see even more detail, but he just laughed and no one I’ve ever asked has given me an answer
In: Physics
TLDR: You can. And astronomers do. Sometimes.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airy_disk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airy_disk) If you point a (circular) telescope at a star – basically a point source of light. The pattern at the back end of the telescope would be an airy disk. If you look at some part of this pattern with a microscope it wouldn’t really help know anything new. And if you want a smaller airy disk you build a telescope with a bigger aperture (circular opening).
But not everything is a point source. So some people do put a *microscope* at the backend. Maybe you want to use a small telescope to look at Jupiter for instance. The magnification of the telescope is set by its focal length. You can build telescopes with different focal lengths. But if you want a little bit more when you have an existing telescope you could add a Barlow lens to your eyepiece or in front of your camera (2x, 3x, 4x, etc.). [https://lovethenightsky.com/what-is-a-barlow-lens/](https://lovethenightsky.com/what-is-a-barlow-lens/) It’s perhaps not technically a microscope by the standard definition but it is optics and is exactly what you are thinking of.
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