what is optical astronomy
Differences between Optical and Radio Astronomy. There are many differences between optical and radio astronomy. The three main differences are the design of the instruments, the resulting data that is found, and the different sources that are seen. Both optical and radio astronomy use telescopes; however, there is a big difference in the design between an optical telescope and a radio telescope. Optical astronomy is the study of the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum, that is wavelengths of approximately 400 nm (purple) to 700 nm (red). Radio wavelengths are much longer; the radio spectrum ranges from approximately one millimeter to hundreds of meters.