Intro: Over spring break I went camping with some people from Astronomy club. I didn't write a proposal for this camping trip. But I learned so much that I thought I would add it to my blog. I learned a lot more about astrophotography from Andrew and also Brian told us about gravity glue and how science and physics can be applied to it. I will explain all of my scientific take aways from this amazing trip.
Take Aways
Astrophotography:
Gravity Glue:
Primary Online Research:
https://www.ioptron.com/index.cfm?select=productdetails&phid=6b0da2fb-2294-4805-bdcb-e534af12c1e2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_brightest_stars
http://www.zmescience.com/other/feature-post/balancing-rocks-art-science-28012015/
http://physics.weber.edu/amiri/physics1010online/WSUonline12w/OnLineCourseMovies/CircularMotion&Gravity/reviewofgravity/ReviewofGravity.html
Reflection: I love doing this kind of work. It is very meaningful learning for me, these are things that I really want to learn about. I came back from this camping trip with deeper learning that I don't think I could have learned inside of a classroom. I am extremely glad I went.
Take Aways
Astrophotography:
- During this trip I learned a great deal more about astrophotography from Andrew. He first helped Maia and I get a tripod set up and told me about star trails and how if you did not you a device called iOptron Star Tracker, you would capture the star trails or your photos would appear blurry. The reason for this is because the sky is never in a fixed position it is constantly moving over us, and because you must use a long exposure when you are taking pictures of the sky you are capturing the movement of the stars or the 'star trails'. Sometimes star trail pictures can look incredible but it is hard to do correctly with out the photo looking blurry. To try and make the pictures more clear we added the iOptron. To set it up you take the add on unit and attach it to the tripod. Then you slide you camera with the attachment on the bottom into the slot next to the iOptron. To focus the iOptron you look through the lens at the star Polaris the northern star, you twist the focusing knob until the star is a clear and pin pointed as possible. To finish setting up the iOptron you must turn on the motor and the device will slowly rotate at the exact speed of the earth. Which allows you to take clear beautiful pictures of the night sky.
- Before you start taking the photos you also have to make sure that you'r camera lens is focused too. To do this chose a bright 'star' like venus or mars to focus your camera too. First you switch your camera lens to manual, you use the outer part of your lens to focus, slowly move it in and out until the star looks as clear and pin pointed as possible. Then decide weather you would like a wide angle shot or a more close up shot of the sky and then adjust the inner part of you lens standardly from 18-55 zoom. Then attach to the tripod like I mentioned above.
- After adjusting the settings, ISO, Aperture, F stop, and exposure. Like how I explained in my Laguna camping trip blog. After all that we know could start taking pictures. Maia and I originally wanted to start with taking a picture of ORion's nebula because Andrew told us you could capture it glowing red but sadly it went behind the mountain before we got everything set up. We also wanted to take a picture of the milky way but we had a really hard time finding it. So we decided to take some pictures of the sky with a a Joshua tree on the side to capture the aesthetic of the Joshua Tree at night. We also tried to get some pictures of venus. It was hard to keep the iOptron in place it kept on not locking correctly so we would always have to re adjust it. But we did get some really cool shots like our me and Maia's nick name written in the sand with a laser pointer using a long exposure shot. Some of the pictures were not as focused as I had hoped. I think it was because it is hard not to accidentally bump one iOptron or move the focus on the camera. But we did get some cool pictures of the Joshua Trees and the campfire all with the stars in the back round. There will be a slide show of some of the best pictures we took down bellow.
Gravity Glue:
- Another learning point I had during this trip was gravity glue. Brian started stacking rocks and he told us about something called gravity glue. Maia and I made one big gravity glue stack it was really fun and you could tell there is a specific to setting them to create a stable structure. Or you could try and set up the rocks in a way that it, almost looks like its defying the laws of gravity. Morgan, Gracie and Tashi built thirteen small gravity glue sculptures they were really cool looking. It was cool to leave our little mark on the campground.
- When I got home I decided to further my learning and research the science behind gravity glue, this is what I found. Every rock weather you could see it or not has a variety tiny to large indentations that can act as a natural 'tripod' for the rock to stand upright or in almost as many variations you could think of with other rocks. You can almost hear small clicks and vibrations as the notches and the indentations of the rocks move over each other. It is not only spiritually connecting with the rocks but scientifically concocting too.
- To be really good at gravity glue stacking you need to understand the basic laws of gravity. Gravity is the force that pulls all objects with mass to the core of the earth. The size of the pull depends on the masses of the objects. You exert a gravitational force on the people or rocks around you, but that force isn't very strong. So mass and weight are relevant to the amount of mass in the earth. The equation that Newton came up for this is (G * m1 * m2) / (d^2)
Primary Online Research:
https://www.ioptron.com/index.cfm?select=productdetails&phid=6b0da2fb-2294-4805-bdcb-e534af12c1e2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_brightest_stars
http://www.zmescience.com/other/feature-post/balancing-rocks-art-science-28012015/
http://physics.weber.edu/amiri/physics1010online/WSUonline12w/OnLineCourseMovies/CircularMotion&Gravity/reviewofgravity/ReviewofGravity.html
Reflection: I love doing this kind of work. It is very meaningful learning for me, these are things that I really want to learn about. I came back from this camping trip with deeper learning that I don't think I could have learned inside of a classroom. I am extremely glad I went.