never mind the optics

As I mentioned in my previous post, I took the telescope out last night for the first time.  I was specifically interested in finding out whether or not one of my Advanced Higher Physics pupils would be able to the the telescope for her proposed investigation on Jupiter’s 4 largest moons and Kepler’s Laws of planetary motion.

I found a good spot, well away from lights.  If you have Google Earth download this file for the exact location.  I was amazed at just how many stars were visible once I was out of the glare of the town lights.

My finder scope alignment was not as good as I had thought and some small adjustments were necessary to find Jupiter in the eyepiece of the main scope.  I could not believe how bright Jupiter appeared though the scope and was even more impressed when I realised that the four Galilean moons were also present in my field of view.

Adjusting the telescope to track Jupiter gave me some problems due to the vibrations at each adjustment.  The vibrations also gave issues when I tried to capture video using my mobile phone.  I’m going to take the telescope to the local moonwatch events (pdf) at the end of the month to get some advice on how to set up the telescope to minimise vibration.

I tweeted about the experience this morning and mentioned seeing a meteor.  Drew Thomson reminded me that the annual Orionid shower had started a couple of nights ago, with peak activity next Wednesday (21st October), so it’s possible I also caught an early Orionid while I was out.  The cool thing about the Orionids is that they are caused by the Earth passing through the debris left by Halley’s Comet, so you are actually watching little fragments of the comet each time you observe a meteor – much easier than waiting for another 52 years!

Although they are nothing like the photos posted earlier today by Catherine Baker, I thought I would share my attempt at capturing my telescope view of Jupiter with a mobile phone.  I’m afraid it only picked up the planet itself, no moons.

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We’ve had a cracking cohort of pupils work their way through Standard Grade and Higher over the past three years.  On Tuesday, we’ll have an unusually large number sitting the Higher Physics paper and fifteen of them have indicated that they would like to continue to study physics in S6.  While it’s brilliant to have so many motivated pupils signing up for the Advanced Higher course, it does present a bit of a problem for a department that typically runs with a class of only 5 pupils.  

I’m in the middle of putting together my requisition for next session and, while I was thinking more about ensuring we had what would be required to tackle the Curriculum for Excellence science outcomes, I’m now having to consider whether we have sufficient apparatus to offer up to 15 different, independent and appropriate AH investigations.

One of the things I spotted in the Rapid online catalogue was a spring made from a smart alloy.  I’d previously seen the alloy demonstrated as a wire in a model robotic arm developed by Gregor Steele of SSERC but had not known about the spring.  I had the idea of using the smart spring for an investigation based around magnetism and self-inductance.  I’m not sure whether this would work but, combined with a hall sensor, I think there might be adequate opportunity to produce graphs and determine uncertainties.  Given the need for a third experiment on the theme, I though about looking at mechanical properties, based around the hysteresis of the smart alloy.  The investigation would therefore explore aspects of units 1 & 2 of the AH course.

I made some notes on my board to bounce off a colleague tomorrow but I’d be interested in hearing what other physics teachers think.  Data sheet for the spring is here.