Telescopes From the Ground P--An Exercise in Storytelling

I love to listen Garrison Keillor. He is an amazing storyteller that can make things that are ordinary come to life. Above, try listening to the first minute of his story about ice fishing.

Your job today is to research three stories from all sorts of telescope data and reinterpret them through a story. There are lots of stories in this website, but you need to be able to work with me to interpret three of them so they are interesting to a non-scientist. This may be through a children's story, a flip video narrative, or a musical story.

http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations/groundup/


Era stories:


Story 1
Galileo's Refractor: Galileo's telescope revealed the first hint of the depths of space. His dedication and approach to explaining what he saw revolutionized astronomy. (Includes one telescope story, one biography.)


Early Refractors: Telescopes with flatter lenses brought wider and clearer views of the sky but required longer tubes. Some refractors were so long that they became difficult to maneuver. (Includes two telescope stories.)


Great Refractors: New technology allowed astronomers to create larger lenses that produced bright, clear images. For a while, refracting telescopes became more popular than reflecting telescopes. (Includes three telescope stories, one biography.)

Story 2
Newton's Telescope: Sir Isaac Newton replaced the main lens of a telescope with a mirror, creating the reflecting telescope. (Includes one telescope story.)


Early Reflectors: Early reflecting telescopes used metal mirrors to look deep into space, but the new design presented new challenges. (Includes four telescope stories, one biography.)


Hugh Reflectors: Astronomers crafted telescope mirrors from glass instead of metal, making reflecting telescopes more powerful and easier to use. They began relying on photography and instruments to record observations. (Includes three telescope stories, two biographies.)


Story 3
Solar Telescopes: Solar telescopes are reflecting telescopes that use special instruments to observe the Sun. (Includes one telescope story, one biography.)


Radio Telescopes: The discovery of radio waves from space launched a new branch of study: radio astronomy. This spurred astronomers to develop new techniques to accommodate the large size of radio waves. (Includes two telescope stories.)


Multi-mirror Telescopes: Multi-mirror telescopes used computer technology to overcome the size limits of huge reflecting telescopes. (Includes two telescope stories, one biography.)


Space Telescopes: By placing telescopes in orbit above Earth, astronomers were finally free to view the universe in all wavelengths of light. (Includes five telescope stories, two biographies.)

Send me a text at 5636081900 at the end of the hour so you can share your progress.

Parallax, and Telescopes above the Atmosphere

Parallax


HubbleSite

Chandra

The PhotoElectric Effect and the Legacy of Einstein

Pictures of CCD   (interactive on buildiing a CCD)

CCD Lab

Using the CCD Lab, answer the following.

1.  You want to put together a space telescope.  To start with, you decide you need to check out the metal surface of your CCD.   What surface(s) could you use to detect the following  types of light at 100% intensity (make a table as shown below)?

Surface Metal      x-rays      purple        blue     green   yellow     orange      red
sodium
zinc
platinum
copper
calcium

2.  Now, decide which metal you will use for the primary CCD telescope.   Now, check the wavelength range at various intensities  (10%, 20%, 40%, 80%, 100%) using the table below?    How effective will this telescope be for bright objects?   Dim objects?

Intensity                     10%                20%                  40%                  80%                100%

Wavelength range


3.  Take a look at the values of current for a 75% intensity light on a platinum surfaceand write the current into the table below..

Wavelength vs. Current

100nm       200nm       300nm       400nm        500nm         600nm           700nm



What does the data in #3 tell you about the effectiveness of a CCD for ALL wavelengths of lights?   How would an alloy try to deal with this value?



4.  If you were to construct a space telescope, would you have more than one telescope available on a platform?   Explain your reasoning.


Turn in this sheet INDIVIDUALLY at the end of the hour.

What's your Passion

Contrast your passion with that of Davis and Bahcall as they searched for solar neutrinos.  In particular, consider:

a) defining your passion
b) what you are willing to do to achieve it?
c) what obstacles are you willing to climb over?
d) what help will you expect?
e) how long are you willing for it to take?

Your t-chart is separate from the final assignment, which is a one page reflection on your and your own future goals.

GHOST PARTICLE web site

Alternative Stellar Endpoings

 Black Holes


http://apod.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn_bht.html

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l2/black_holes.html

http://www.spacetimetravel.org/isl/isl.html

http://hubblesite.org/explore_astronomy/black_holes/home.html

Neutron Stars

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/pulsars.html

Supernovas

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/supernovae.html

Lab 4: Spectra

Complete the following activities at SDSS by clicking HERE

• Spectra of Stars: a Brief Review
• Activity 1: Exploring Spectra
• Absorption at the Atomic Level
• Activity 2: Classifying by Line Strength
• Activity 3: Classifying by Temperature

This will take you through 8 questions and 5 explorations.

This is due on February 19.

Life Cycles of Stars

Not all stars meet the same fate.   Some dwindle quietly into the night.  Others blow up in a blaze of glory.

Today, we're going to take a look at the life cycle from two different places.  The first thinks of the life of our star as a journey from birth to death.   It is found here. Another is found here and focuses on stars beyond our own.

Concepts to consider:

a) what is a HR diagram?
b) what are the phases of our sun from life to death?
c) who is Annie Cannon, and why is she significant?
d) what is the fate of 50x or more massive than the sun?
e) what are some different stellar endpoints?
f) why is electromagnetic light the probe we use to understand the universe.

Retrograde Motion

The Animation

The Pictures

Lab 3: The Moons of Jupiter

Log on using the Tech acct if you are doing this at school.

Download the file found here

Create a chart using 30 days of data for all of Jupiter's moons.

This is due by Tuesday, 2/9