P7 Observing the Universe
Observatories and telescopes
- http://www.naic.edu/public/the_telescope.htm
This is the website of the Arecibo observatory in Puerto Rico. It has a radio telescope with a dish diameter of 305 m. Find out about the telescope and the discoveries made using it. - http://www.r-clarke.org.uk/astrolinks_radio.htm
This is a useful list of links to other radio telescopes if you want to find out about some more. - http://www.keckobservatory.org/
The Keck observatory in Hawaii has telescopes the use the visible and infrared wavelength ranges. Find out about them at this website. - http://www.eso.org/
The ESO (European Southern Observatory) website. The observatories are in Chile and the headquarters are in Munich. You can find out about the instruments and the projects astronomers are working on. - http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/
The Cool Cosmos. Here you will find lots of information and images taken using different wavelength ranges. - http://outreach.atnf.csiro.au/education/senior/astrophysics/atmosphere.html
This Australian website explains some of the difficulties of seeing through the atmosphere and tells you about important factors in deciding where to site a telescope. - http://www.atoptics.co.uk/
This site has photos of lots of different atmospheric effects. - http://www.sec.noaa.gov/today.html
Find out what the ‘space weather’ is like today. Are there any solar flares? - http://www.spaceweather.com/
This is another site that will tell you about ‘space weather’. - http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/
SOHO is the NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory. It is a project for observing the Sun. You will find lots of images of the Sun at different wavelength ranges and there is information about the Sun too on this site.
Mapping the heavens
- http://www.heavens-above.com
By entering your location on this site, for example the city where you live, or the nearest city, you will be able to get a map of the night sky at any time you want to look at it. This is a great help in working out what you can see and also in telling you when and where to look for planets, for example, or the International Space Station. - http://jove.geol.niu.edu/faculty/stoddard/JAVA/moonphase.html
Use this simulation of the Earth and the Moon to see how the movement of the Moon and the Earth results in our view of the Moon and the night sky. - http://www.cecm.sfu.ca/~scharein/astro/SolSysEx/retro/Retrograde.html
This is a very useful simulation of the retrograde motion of Mars (motion where the planet appears to move backwards, as seen from Earth). You can watch how the planet appears to move when seen from Earth at the same time as seeing how the Earth and Mars move around the Sun. You can slow the speed of the movement so that you have plenty of time to see what is happening. - http://www.mreclipse.com/
This site has loads of information and photographs about eclipses. - http://astronexus.com/node/29
On this page is an animation of how the stars would appear to move during 6 months if the diameter of the Earth’s orbit were 1.5 light years. - http://webphysics.davidson.edu/Applets/BlackBody/BlackBody.html
In this simulation try changing the temperature of the object – the black body – and see what happens to the wavelengths of the radiation emitted.
Inside stars
- http://ds9.ssl.berkeley.edu/viewer/flash/index.html
This NASA Sun–Earth viewer shows you current images of the Sun, taken in different wavelength ranges. - http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/sun/atmosphere/sun_rotate_anim_jan2005.html
Here you can see a video of the rotating Sun, with sunspots. - http://www.bookrags.com/sciences/sciencehistory/helium-wsd.html
On this site you will find out about the discovery of helium. - http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/quantumzone/bohr.html
On this Physics 2000 site you will find a good explanation of Niels Bohr’s model of the atom and an animation of orbital electrons. You can make them change levels as they emit and absorb photons. - http://astro.u-strasbg.fr/~koppen/discharge/
Take a look at the spectrum of sunlight, including absorption spectral lines, and the emission spectra of different elements - http://www.astronomynotes.com/starsun/s3.htm
This is a page of Nick Strobel’s astronomy notes discussing the Sun’s power source. It has some animations of nuclear fusion. - http://science.howstuffworks.com/nuclear-bomb.htm
This introduction to how nuclear bombs work includes an animation of the nuclear fusion of two deuterium nuclei and of a deuterium and tritium nucleus. The pages explain both fission and fusion bombs. - http://www.lbl.gov/abc/Basic.html#Fusion
The Nuclear Science Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National laboratory in California has produced this site called the ‘ABC’s of nuclear science’. This link will take you to the section on fusion. - http://fusion.org.uk/index.html
The website of the UKAEA (United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority) at Culham. You can find out about research on nuclear fusion, which may one day lead to nuclear power stations that use energy from fusion reactions. - http://www.fusion.org.uk/info/reaction.htm
Another animation of the fusion reaction between a deuterium and a tritium nucleus. - http://ec.europa.eu/research/energy/fu/fu_int/article_1247_en.htm
This is a brief history of fusion research, on the website of the European Commission. It explains European Union policies on energy research. - http://www.physics.org/evolution/evolution.asp
A history of science site – click on the icons on the map and find out what was happening in different parts of the world at different times. - http://www.dlt.ncssm.edu/core/c7-2.htm
This list of video demonstrations includes one called ‘Charles’ law balloon’. It shows what happens when a balloon of air is put in a flask of liquid nitrogen. - http://www.physics.mun.ca/~myke/cryodemos.html
Here are some more videos of liquid-nitrogen experiments. ‘Condensation of air in a balloon’ shows the effect of putting a balloon of air in liquid nitrogen.
The life of stars
- http://www.pparc.ac.uk/Ps/tss/tss_sanats_ss.asp
On this PPARC website you will find information about the structure of the Sun. - http://hubblesite.org/
The Hubble telescope website. Here you will find lots of information and images of stars, and information about the telescope. In the ‘gallery’ the ‘movie theatre’ contains a video called ‘A star’s life’. - http://www.seed.slb.com/en/scictr/lab/byo_star/index.htm
Here is a virtual experiment in which you can build your own star.
For teachers
- http://www.phys.hawaii.edu/%7Eteb/optics/java/slitdiffr/
This is a useful simulation of diffraction of light through a single slit. Students can see the effect of changing the colour of the light and the size of the slit. It is suggested for lesson 6. - http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~mpeterso/classes/phys301/geomopti/twolenses.html
This applet shows the effect of combining lenses to make a telescope. Clicking on the link ‘astronomical telescope’ will display the lenses and rays. The lenses can be altered to show the effect on the rays. It is suggested for lesson 7. - http://www.walter-fendt.de/ph11e/refractor.htm
This applet allows you to change focal lengths of the eyepiece and objective lenses for a refracting telescope, and see the effect on the rays and the image. It is suggested as an extension for lesson 7. - http://jove.geol.niu.edu/faculty/stoddard/JAVA/moonphase.html
This simulation of the Earth and the Moon is suggested for lesson 10. - http://www.cecm.sfu.ca/~scharein/astro/SolSysEx/retro/Retrograde.html
This is a very useful simulation of the retrograde motion of Mars and is suggested for lesson 11. - http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/personal_accounts.html
http://www.mreclipse.com/Totality/TotalityCh01.html
These two pages have personal eyewitness accounts of eclipses and are suggested for lesson 12. - http://www.aae.org.uk/toppage2.htm
Resources for teaching GCSE astronomy. The Hertzsprung–Russell labelling worksheet is suggested for lesson 26. There some star cycle and stellar evolution activities, which are suggested for lesson 29. - http://hubblesite.org/
The Hubble telescope website. In the ‘gallery’ the ‘movie theatre’ contains a video called ‘A star’s life’ which is suggested for lesson 29. The image tour of the Orion nebula is suggested for lesson 28. - http://www.schoolsobservatory.org.uk/staff/
The National Schools' Observatory (NSO) is a major educational website, established by Liverpool John Moores University, to provide schools with access to professional robotic telescopes designed for scientific research. -
http://www.jodrellbank.manchester.ac.uk/
http://www.jodcast.net/
The European Space Agency undertakes a wide range of activities: remote sensing of the Earth’s surface, space science and engineering, and manned and robotic missions. Its website offers images, flash animations, video talks by scientists, information, and activities especially designed for secondary students.