This past week the students of Greenhalge Elementary School explored what humans to need in order to live on another planet. Students started out by thinking about what humans need here on Earth and brainstorming different ideas of how that would apply on another planet.

After students thought of everything they could, we came together as a group to make a master list and talk about how those could be replicated somewhere else in Space.

From there, we examined the temperatures of the different planets to see which planet might be the best to live on besides Earth. Students saw just how cold most of the planets are and were shocked to see those temperatures in comparison to the temperatures of ice cubes, hot soup, and candle flames. After seeing how a runaway greenhouse effect on Venus made it so hot (demonstrated with a bottle of water and baking soda), students agreed that the most viable planet to live on in the Solar System beyond Earth would probably be Mars.

Next time we will explore gravity!

Today was the start of the Active Astronomy Roadshow’s after school series with the Greenhalge Elementary school in Lowell. Throughout the course of the semester, we will be working with the students on learning about the attributes of the planets, making telescopes, spectroscopes, landers, and rockets, and reading about famous scientists and important technology needed for Space exploration.

The students know a lot about astronomy already and were excited to learn about the planets this afternoon! Students got the opportunity to hear a little about some of the different things that we will be covering over the course of the program and were free to ask any questions. They asked about black holes, the formation of the Moon, astronauts, and all about different planets. After a question session, students made a live model of the Solar System and had the opportunity to see why a model is needed in Astronomy. Finally, students got the opportunity to rank planets, stars, and every day objects based on speed and size. Next week we will be talking about conditions on other planets and what it would take to survive on them!

On Dec. 8, the 9th grade class of Weston High School came to the Kennedy College of Science at UML to learn about the college and get the opportunity to experience some of the different areas of study that professors research. The Active Astronomy Roadshow, led by Dr. Silas Laycock, and supported by Dr. Chandrika Narayan,Tom Heywosz, and Nate Woodward, with technical help from David Riccio, explored light and what it could tell astronomers.

Students started off looking through diffraction gratings at heated tubes of glowing gas to try and distinguish what  was in the tube using the emission spectra of the gas. Students looked at Neon (a crowd favorite due to the bright red color), Helium, Hydrogen, and the most difficult gas, Air. After looking at the different gases, we talked with students about how this technology was used in Astronomy, on a much greater scale, to determine the composition of Celestial Objects.  

After talking about emission spectra, we looked at Schlieren Imaging, which is the process of showing the flow of gases of varying densities. Students got the chance to see gas flowing on a screen connected to a camera and mirror set up. While students had fun playing with a heat gun and compressed air, and Dr. Laycock had fun using the blow torch, the point was to illustrate how much our eyes miss. We need to use all kinds of wavelengths and techniques to see the world in its entirety.

On Monday, August 21, member of LoCSST traveled across the country to view the solar eclipse in an effort to research the phenomenon and get great images to use for the outreach program.

Dr. Silas Laycock traveled to Sun Valley, Idaho with a Coronado solar telescope with an H-alpha filter to get images of the eclipse during totality and to test out the new telescope and mount that will be used for the outreach activities.

Back in Lowell, I led a viewing party for faculty, staff, and students of uml with 50 pairs of eclipse glasses and an iOptron telescope with an aluminum filter. We had a huge turnout of over 50 people (I had to keep running around for glasses) and it was interesting to hear about why everyone thought it was interesting and why they wanted to view the event. Even though we only had 63% coverage in Lowell, it was still an extraordinary sight to see.

Here is one of the pictures taken through the telescope. Hopefully more pictures to come.

-Tom

In preparation for a Star Party on February 2, Dr. Silas Laycock, Dr. Viktor Podolskiy, and I traveled to Robinson Middle School on Thursday, January 26, armed with two telescopes and two large mirrors. The purpose of the visit was to allow students to practice with astronomical technology that they would encounter at an observatory. We worked with Ms. Syzmanoski”s, Ms. Sanborn’s, and Ms. Howell’s 8th grade science classes going over the different celestial objects that students would be able to see in the Winter sky. After talking about Venus, the Pleiades, and Betelgeuse, we went around and showed students how a reflecting telescope, lens telescope, and light in general, through the use of mirrors, work.

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Students got the chance to look through the telescopes, try focusing telescopes, and asking any questions they had about the technology.

We hope that the students are excited to look at the stars and we know we are excited to continue our partnership with Robinson Middle School!

Tom

The Active Astronomy Roadshow traveled to Cumnock Hall on North Campus to run a table at the Kennedy College of Sciences 2nd Annual Block Party! With a telescope and astronomy cards in hand, Silas, Andy, Sarah, and Tom set up activities for university students to play that would be used in our classroom activities. Students, faculty, and staff got to try their hand at ranking the planets, along with a few other everyday objects, by temperature, mass, gravity, and diameter with a glow in the dark star as a prize for players. Players used all kinds of methods to reason through the ordering of the objects and I personally learned a few new ways of thinking about how planets could be thought about. Participants also were able to point and focus our reflecting telescope at points around the hall to get a feel for the wonders of stargazing.The Block party was a great hit and we were able to spread the word about our local astronomy activities, the Schueller Observatory, LoCSST, and the HDSC all while having some fun. In the end, 11 individuals were interested in hearing more from us in the future and learning about how they can help out and 1 student even offered to help out with the previously stalled weather balloon project. Further, an astronomy club is now in the works and we hope that it is successful in its endeavors.

I hope to have some information about the outreach activities at local schools soon!

Tom

Hello Everyone,

Today, Prof. Laycock, Andy, and myself ventured back to Bresnahan Elementary School in Newburyport to lead outreach activities in the classes of Mrs. Westgate and Mrs. Hoiseth. In addition to the three of us, recent UML grad Kate Oram took time out of her busy schedule to join us for our activities and to talk to the students of both classes about all the fascinating work she is doing in optical engineering. For the activities, in Mrs. Westgate’s class, we had the students create a scale model of the solar system. They had to pick out which balls represented which planet, order themselves based on which planet they were holding, and then space themselves out. Throughout we got the opportunity to discuss why it is important to make models in science and how the scientific method is present even in something like a scale activity. From there, we had students use a giant thermometer to figure out the temperature of the planets and how they compare to every day objects like ice and soup. With Mrs. Hoiseth’s class, we talked about magnetism. Students saw a demo with iron filings and magnets that showed the effects of magnetism on the filings. From there, students made compasses their own. The compasses were made out of cork and a pin that the students magnetized themselves. The cork was then floated in water to show how it could be used as a compass. To wrap up our activity on magnetism, students got the opportunity to look through a solar telescope to see the effects that a magnetic field can have. We would like to thank Mrs. Westgate and Mrs. Hoiseth for allowing us to lead our activities with their classes and Kate for coming with us to share her knowledge and expertise with the students. Pictures to come soon!

Until next time,

Tom

Hello Everyone,

On March 10, Andy and I had the pleasure of assisting Mr. Johnny Gelsomini’s Astronomy Class with a telescope making activity. The activity had the students measure the focal length of each lens needed for the telescope, the objective lens and the eyepiece. From there the students were tasked with an engineering challenge where they worked in groups to make a telescope using two cardboard tubes of different sizes, a sheet of foam-like material, the two lenses, extra cardboard, caps for the cardboard tubes, scissors, and tape. While each group had the same basic shape for the telescope, they all had slightly different methods of securing the lenses in place. Some used extra cardboard and tape while others used the caps for the cardboard tubes and everything in between. Once students got the chance to look around with their telescopes, we talked about why the images seen were upside-down and how magnified the objects being seen were. We were so impressed with the problem-solving skills that the students were displaying while constructing their telescopes and the knowledge that they already had about telescopes and light. We would like to thank Mr. Gelsomini for allowing us to come in and his students for being amazing. We look are looking forward to helping out again soon!

Tom