In an astronomical telescope in normal adjustment a straight black line of length L is drawn on inside part of the objective lens. The eye-piece forms a real image of this line. The length of this image is l. The magnification of the telescope is:
In an astronomical telescope, the magnification is given by the ratio of the angle subtended by the image at the eye to the angle subtended by the object at the objective lens. This is equal to the ratio of the focal length of the objective lens to the focal length of the eyepiece. Therefore, the magnification is simply the ratio of the length of the object (L) to the length of the image (l).