Ken, I think telescopes can make us look intelligent.
Come to think of it, i do feel rather important behind one
Astronomy is so incredibly diverse isn't it?! For example, when visually looking at say Alpha Centauri. You can't help but need to know how far away it is. Then bingo- what's that? Oiy I see a double star system. Next the thoughts go to what causes double star systems, then upon further investigation it is actually a triple system, will they eventually separate, is it a true triple star system (apparently not we now find out), what are stars made of, how long do stars take to get made, how long will it take to travel to this next system, when the giant stars die then at what stage is gold formed in s.nova explosions and bang where into astrophysics and cosmology. Before then asking the obvious, how was the universe created, now getting into quantum mechanics. Oiy, I've had to get books covering all different aspects and their coming out of my ...!
I cannot look at something without needing to know its history, and then I go "w-o-w-". For example, it's a doozy just knowing that if the Tarrantula nebula was as close as the Orion nebula isto Earth, it would cast shadows over the earth (it's that bright). I like to "scare" innocent non astronomers with this stuff, it brings me delight.
Especially little kids- they're loads of fun to scare.
And then I take the poor tykes down even further with my stories of Gamma Rays and Magnetars wiping out life as we know it.
Actually, speaking of which, I was watching a doco the other day and it said it appears the early Earth was hit with a Gamma Ray burst. Now this goes into Astro biology because of the evidence surrounding the extinct little critters. Oiy. Very diverse area of science this is, indeed!