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Noun

optical astronomy ‎(uncountable)

1. (informal) Astronomy using observations using telescopes and recording media that capture visible light.
   • 1958 September 28, “Radio to Extend Astronomy's Ears”, in New York Times:

     Radio astronomy is an extension of optical astronomy in the that it allows the observer to "see radiations of wave lengths far greater than those of visible light

   • 1966 March 11, Time Magazine:

     Merely finding them in the first place — detecting their radio voices and photographing their odd and telltale light — was a cooperative triumph of radio and optical astronomy.

   • 2006, Peter Schneider, Extragalactic astronomy and cosmology, page 25:

     Since for the atmospheric windows in the NIR one normally uses the same telescopes as for optical astronomy, we will thus not distinguish between these

   • 2009 June 16, “Cosmic vision”, in Frontline:

     Because each kind of light reveals different natural phenomena, we see only a part of nature. The same is true of telescopes. Optical telescopes detect only visible light. ... Dust is the bane of optical astronomy.

2. (astronomy) Astronomy using infrared, visible, and/or ultraviolet wavelengths.

Synonyms

• (using visible light): visible-light astronomy (scientists' term)

See also

• Section on Optical astronomy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia