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Informal Science Education Network             
<[log in to unmask]> writes:
>
>The Herschel Experiment can be recreated pretty easily. The NASA/JPL 
>Cool Cosmos  site has a detailed write-up-- and lots of other neat stuff 
>about IR
>
>http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/
>
>Sue Ann Heatherly
>NRAO-Green Bank
>
>[log in to unmask]

A word of advice - test the Herschel experiment before you use it with
students.  Make sure your equipment shows an actual temperature change
that can be detected.  A suggestion is to use small digital thermometers. 
Sometimes it works perfectly.  Sometimes it doesn't.

One other possibility that is a little hard to explain over email - use
photopaper (the blue paper that reacts to ultraviolet light & turns white)
and shine a spectrum on it from light refracted through a prism.  The
visible light spectrum itself won't turn the paper white, but the UV light
that is bent by the prism will.  Play around with a setup that will allow
you to make a visible light spectrum but won't allow solar UV light to
fall on the paper directly (i.e. don't put it in direct sunlight).  We did
all of this by using a box with a hole cut in the side of it that was just
big enough to hold the prism.  The photopaper was on the inside of the box
but wasn't in direct sunlight.  The spectrum fell on the paper.  You want
the UV light to be from the light refracted by the prism.  Marking where
the visible spectrum is on the paper will show your participants that the
UV portion was just outside the blue part of the spectrum. 

Michelle

Michelle Nichols, Master Educator for Informal Programs
Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum
1300 S. Lake Shore Dr.
Chicago, IL  60605
312-322-0520 
312-322-9181 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
http://www.adlerplanetarium.org

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