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Teachers Guide to Resolution and
Doppler Activities
(Click HERE For an Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the Teachers Guide to Resolution and Doppler
Acitivities.)
Objective:
The main goal of these activities
is to expose students to the basics of electromagnetic spectrum, and to apply
this knowledge in the field of astronomy. These activities touch on many points of the curriculum framework for
grade 9 and 10 physics, and on skills of inquiry also outlined in the
curriculum. Students will use math
skills to analyze and support findings and model conclusions, which is one of
the skills of inquiry. On points of curriculum
for physics, these activities will cover the electromagnetic spectrum, the
nature of waves, and their properties (more specifically, Doppler effect, and
constructive and destructive interference.). The activities will also explain the usefulness of the various
wavelengths in the field of astronomy. These activities would be ideal in any discussion on the electromagnetic
spectrum.
Preparation:
In beginning the activities, I started with the
resolution and radio wave primer, and followed it up with the worksheet, to get
them comfortable working with the equations, and so they would be able to
concentrate on the activity without any math anxiety.
The activities will require a small bit of
legwork. Images for the matching game
were obtained from the web sites listed below. Any images using different wavelengths can be used. I used Cas A, Cen A, The Crab Nebulae,
Jupiter and the Sun. For the telescope
in the resolution activity, the ARIES telescope (manufactured by Learning
Things, Inc. 68 A Broadway, Arlington,
MA 02474 Tel. (781) 646-0093) was used. For the shapes in the resolution experiment, I used the paint program on
windows to make the following shapes in red and blue: circle, top of a screw,
paint spot, circle with a line on top, and the letter R (size was 20 X 20
pixels). When putting the shapes up, I
placed the R upside down and backwards, so the students wouldn’t suspect the
working of the telescope, until they got close enough to observe with their own
eyes.
Before doing the observation of the
crab nebulae, have students do a little research on it. How far away is it, how and when did it
form, what is it? You can also find the
VLA picture of the crab nebulae from either of the observation sites given
below. The MIT Haystack telescope can
be run from computers at your school, or by a visit up to Westford. Both methods would require you to contact
Dr. Preethi Pratap at ppratap_at_haystack.mit.edu - change the _at_ to an @ sign) to schedule a viewing or setting up your computers to run the
37-meter telescope.
Information and Resources
In addition to the activities, I
have also written a small primer on some basics of the electromagnetic
spectrum, resolution, and radio astronomy, which you will find on the MIT
Haystack web site. Also, please find
below a list of some of the sites that I have found invaluable in researching
this topic, and where I found images for the matching game activity.
Web sites:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/radioastronomy/index.htm - JPL radio astronomy tutorial
Haystack’s radio astronomy tutorial
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/category.html - Chandra pictures. A great site for
getting pictures in all spectra
http://www.gb.nrao.edu/~sheather/imagegallery.shtml - NRAO site. Another very good site for
images
More to come…
Books:
The Invisible Universe Revealed, Gerrit L. Vershuur. Springer-Verlag 1987
Articles
Zorpette. Radio
Astronomy: New Windows on the Universe. IEEE Spectrum, February 1997
Dahlem, M. and Brinks, E. The World of Radio Astronomy Parts I-IV. Mercury, March-April 1996
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