Students' impressions concerning optical telescopes and visible astronomical light

We conducted post-instructional interviews with seventeen undergraduates from a general science level astronomy class. Each interview lasted about fifteen-minutes, and students responded with a mix of verbal and graphical responses. The interview topics included roles of telescopes in astronomy, sources and properties of astronomical light, the relative importance of a telescope's magnification and light gathering ability, and light pollution. We concluded that students posses only a loose set of ideas regarding optical telescopes and visible astronomical light; however some potential common (mis)conceptualizations emerged.