Visible-light astronomy encompasses a wide variety of
observations via
telescopes that are sensitive in the range of
visible light (
optical telescopes). It includes
imaging, where a picture of some sort is made of the object;
photometry, where the amount of light coming from an object is measured,
spectroscopy, where the distribution of that light with respect to its
wavelength is measured, and
polarimetry where the
polarisation state of that light is measured. An example of
spectroscopy is the study of
spectral lines to understand of what kind of
matter light is going through. Visible astronomy also includes looking up at night (). Visible-light astronomy is part of optical astronomy, and differs from astronomies based on invisible types of light in the
electromagnetic radiation spectrum, such as
radio waves,
infrared waves,
ultraviolet waves,
X-ray waves and
gamma-ray waves.