Notes

Slide Show

Outline

1	SOFIA Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy http://sofia.arc.nasa.gov/ Active Astronomy Activities http://sofia.arc.nasa.gov/Edu/materials/activeAstronomy/activeAstronomy.pdf
2	Active Astronomy Materials Kit
3	Color and Gels Compartment
4	Detector Circuit Compartment
5	Transmitter Circuit Compartment
6	Exploring Colors of Light Tape the holographic film over the mirror at the top of an overhead projector to make a spectrum. Make a filter card by punching shapes into file cards and taping red, green, and blue gels between the cards. View the spectrum through different colors. Predict, observe, and explain what you see. With crayons draw on red, white or black construction paper. View with your filter card. Make a chart to predict and record your observations.
7	Build a System to Detect Light You need a solar cell, an audio cable and a speaker-amplifier. Plug the audio cable into the input socket of the speaker-amplifier. Connect the audio cable to the solar cell. Try moving a flashlight back and forth over the solar cell, or use your fingers or a fan to ‘chop’ the light source.
8	Detecting the Spectrum!
9	Quantify the signal from the colors of the spectrum with a multimeter. A multi-meter is included in this kit so you can quantify and record the signal from the light detector. Replace the speaker-amplifier with the multimeter in the detector circuit. Record the voltage in each color of the spectrum, and beyond the red part of the spectrum. Graph your results.
10	Infrared (IR) Emitters Does IR act like visible light?
11	Build a transmitter circuit containing a sound signal and an IR emitter.
12	Specifics of Transmitter Circuit
13	Detector and Transmitter Circuits
14	Use your detector circuit to sense the signal from the IR emitter in the transmitter circuit.