https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1GojX66PdM. Plenty of others available on YouTube. These videos do a great job of demonstrating the real effects of the atmosphere on image quality and give students a much-needed visual connection of their mental model to the final image they see.

Through role playing and problem solving, this lesson sets the stage for a friendly competition between groups to design and build a shielding device to protect humans traveling in space. The instructor asks students—how might we design radiation shielding for space travel?

Astronomy Notes - Description of the Effect of Atmospheric Distortion on Telescope Limits and Requirements (website and GIFs) - https://www.astronomynotes.com/telescop/s11.htm

The issues caused by atmospheric distortion are mainly a problem for astronomers whose science goals involve having crystal clear pictures of stars, galaxies, planets, and other astronomical phenomena. But other industries, such as engineers who design communication systems that use lasers traveling through the atmosphere, must also contend with these issues. A different but still related problem occurs in optical microscopy: when scientists and engineers look through a microscope at tissue of a human or animal, the material of the tissue can be of different densities and cause the light to be refracted in ways that reduce the quality of the microscope images. Getting the highest resolution images in both astronomy and the biological sciences requires coming up with creative solutions to the issues caused by atmospheric distortion.

Interplanet IRA, Astronomy: The Solar System - https://interplanetira.wordpress.com/2018/02/12/twinkle-twinkle-little-star/

Light waves coming from the stars travel at different speeds as they move through the Earth’s atmosphere. The waves can also get bent as they travel through mediums of different densities (called “refraction”). Due to these effects, the light waves will not or parallel or arriving at exactly the same time to our eyes (called a “perturbed wavefront”). The result is a blurry, wavy, or distorted image – a twinkling star.

As suggested in the Introduction/Motivation section, you may have students read the additional/optional “read-aloud” before they start the activity. It can be printed out and given to students and they can read it silently, they can read it in pairs, or it can be done as a “popcorn” reading activity with the whole class. The fourth paragraph, while important and informative, gives away the “answer” or solution to the problems that are brought to the students’ attention in this first activity, so it is at the teacher’s discretion whether to include or omit that paragraph from the read-aloud.

Optical fiber is made of thin strands of ultra-pure glass which can carry up to 32 TB/s of data.

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If the mineral oil is too difficult to see through, have students bring the cup of it much closer to the wall with the eye chart. That should make it easier for them to read it.

medium: A physical material such as air, water, or wood that a wave travels through. Not all materials can transmit waves of all types, and not all waves require a medium to travel through.

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scientific model: A physical, mathematical, and/or conceptual representation of a system of ideas, events or processes in science. Although a model may not be completely accurate to the reality of the particular science process, it usually helps scientists visualize, understand, explain, see patterns, and make predictions about the process.

Wikipedia. “Astronomical Seeing”. Updated July 16, 2021. Accessed July 28, 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_seeing

Throwback Thursday: Why Observatories Shoot Lasers at the Universe - https://medium.com/starts-with-a-bang/throwback-thursday-why-observatories-shoot-lasers-at-the-universe-53a045d765a5

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Even when professional astronomers look up at the night sky with a powerful telescope, they still encounter the same issue, called atmospheric distortion. When light travels from distant stars and down to Earth’s surface to hit our eyes and our telescopes, it must first pass through the Earth’s atmosphere, which extends for miles above our heads. The air in the atmosphere is transparent—you can see right through it, and the light from the stars can pass through it—but it is not uniform. Some “pockets” of air have slight differences in temperature and density, which causes the light from the stars to travel at very slightly different speeds in hot pockets vs. cold pockets, and this results in the light bending a bit on its way through the atmosphere, which is an example of refraction. The light rays, which were all initially parallel to each other, are now composed of rays which are “crooked”, no longer traveling in parallel paths. When the light has finished its journey at your eyeball or a telescope’s camera, the light rays create an image that is blurred, smeared, or distorted from a “perfect” image.

non-uniform: A fluid, such as air or water, that has “pockets” or “granules” or areas within it that are of different temperatures and/or densities.

Robert T. Sparks, Stephen M. Pompea, Constance E. Walker, Erin F. C. Dokter, “Teaching adaptive optics concepts in the high school classroom using an active engagement, experimental approach,” Proc. SPIE 7783, Optics Education and Outreach, 77830C (30 August 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.862633. Accessed July 16, 2021. https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/9289/928906/What-can-we-teach-using-adaptive-optics/10.1117/12.2070278.full?SSO=1

If the laser stops working, have some backup batteries ready. It also helps to make sure the laser is warm when you are using it, so keeping it in your pocket or rubbing your hands together before using it might help.

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A model helps us to understand complicated or large-scale systems such as how light get distorted while traveling from the stars to our eyes. Scientists use models to help explain phenomena, and engineers may use models from which to create designs based on the science.

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Follow-up activities about the parts of adaptive optics systems, including pivotable plane mirrors, deformable mirrors, and wavefront sensors, will give students a more complete understanding of the issues caused by atmospheric distortion and how scientists and engineers have designed solutions to these problems.

The issues caused by atmospheric distortion are mainly a problem for astronomers whose science goals involve having crystal clear pictures of stars, galaxies, planets, and other astronomical phenomena.

Each TeachEngineering lesson or activity is correlated to one or more K-12 science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) educational standards.

An image of Jupiter shows details close to the theoretical maximum resolution based on the telescope, although individual frames were copyrightCopyright © 2017 Stub Mandrel, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54662092

Nikon Microscope Objective CF Plan Apo 150x ; Est. delivery. Sat, Nov 16 - Wed, Nov 20. From Sanford, North Carolina, United States ; Returns. Seller does not ...

NoIR designs and manufactures internationally certified laser safety eyewear, laser windows, sunglasses, and low vision eyewear.

Atmospheric distortion is a real-world problem that scientists and engineers in a variety of fields must either accept as a source of systematic error or can try to overcome and correct for using adaptive optics (AO) systems. The turbulence in the atmosphere causes issues mainly for people who design astronomical telescopes and laser communication systems.

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Brainstorming: Discuss these questions as a class: What do we know (as a class) about how light travels? What types of things can interfere with the motion of light? What types of careers/jobs rely on clear, undisturbed paths of light to be successful?

Exit Ticket: Have students complete a short half-sheet of paper (or 1-3 question Google Form) that follows up on content they learned in today’s activity. The questions can be direct checks of their achievement of the learning objectives from today, and they can be either open response (longer but more detailed) or multiple choice (simple, easy to grade, but might show less insight into student learning). Example questions to use are:

Worksheet: Have students complete the Atmospheric Distortion Worksheet with their group, discussing any questions they have trouble with. At the end of the class, have students read out their answers to a few of the questions if they are comfortable, for the sake of comparing what different students got out of the activity.

With Easy-Laser® XT770 Shaft+GEO you can perform shaft alignment of horizontal and vertically/flange mounted machines, and align machine trains with an ...

Remember the song you may have learned as a child, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star? Although you may not have paid much attention to the lyrics when you were younger, there is a profound scientific observation right in the title. Stars do twinkle, and you can observe this phenomenon easily on a clear night—just look up at the sky and focus on any star for a few seconds. You’ll likely notice that it has subtle changes in color and might even have a “wavy” or “fuzzy” aspect to it. What’s going on?

Introduction and Motivation.” Updated September 2014. Accessed July 28, 2021.  https://www.thorlabs.com/images/TabImages/AO_101_White_Paper.pdf

Fluorescence imaging is a powerful, highly sensitive and non-invasive technique used in life sciences to visualize and monitor biological processes in live or ...

Students learn about the science and math that explain light behavior, which engineers have exploited to create sunglasses. They examine tinted and polarized lenses, learn about light polarization, transmission, reflection, intensity, attenuation, and how different mediums reduce the intensities of ...

As suggested in the final step of the procedure, you can use a tea light or candle to show how a pocket of hot air dramatically distorts the light traveling through it.

In the ASN, standards are hierarchically structured: first by source; e.g., by state; within source by type; e.g., science or mathematics; within type by subtype, then by grade, etc.

***To deal with the effects of atmospheric distortion, engineers who design and build telescopes to do have come up with optical systems (that is, special mirrors) that “fix” the non-parallel light rays that would normally hit the telescope camera, so that they get a clear image instead of a blurry one. The system that does this is called adaptive optics, and it is complex. It involves a deformable mirror and a wavefront sensor, as well as a fast computer.A series of optic lenses set us as a biotechnologist might use them.copyrightCopyright © 2022 Victoria Bartow, Boston University RET

This curriculum was based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under RET grant no. EEC 1407165—at the Research Experience for Teachers in Integrated Nanomanufacturing at the Photonics Center at Boston University. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

All 100,000+ K-12 STEM standards covered in TeachEngineering are collected, maintained and packaged by the Achievement Standards Network (ASN), a project of D2L (www.achievementstandards.org).

HS-PS4-5. Communicate technical information about how some technological devices use the principles of wave behavior and wave interactions with matter to transmit and capture information and energy. (Grades 9 - 12)

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It’s important to remember that other mediums (or media) that light can travel through, such as water or oil, are also subject to turbulence and can cause the light rays to become bent as well, causing a blurry image. By working through a couple different activities, you will construct multiple models of the process of atmospheric distortion and turbulence, and then compare them to see how they are each valuable in understanding and visualizing the process by which images become fuzzy. We’ll look at a human-scale version of how light rays become bent, and we’ll look at a smaller scale example of what an image looks like when light becomes distorted.

Astronomers can make use of an artificial star by shining a powerful laser to correct for the blurring caused by the atmosphere.copyrightCopyright © 2015 ESO/B. Tafreshi, Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0), Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Mix_of_Colours_and_Wonder.jpg

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by W Kim · 2019 · Cited by 11 — Wire-grid polarizers (WGPs), which consist of a periodic array of subwavelength metallic wires on a transparent substrate, have emerged as an ...

Strobel, Nick. Telescopes, Astronomy Notes. Updated June 5, 2019. Accessed July 28, 2021. https://www.astronomynotes.com/telescop/s11.htm

When linking arms and walking at different speeds, students should end up walking in odd directions, not quite parallel to how they started. If nothing frustrating is happening for the students’ walking paths, they probably aren’t doing it right. Have them significantly change their walking speed on the posters if it doesn’t work the first time.

Have students explore the movement of light through the PhET Bending Light simulation: https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/bending-light

*This following is an additional/optional “read-aloud” for students to do before they start the activity. It can be printed out and given to students and they can read it silently, or they can read it in pairs, or it can be done as a reading activity with the whole class. The fourth paragraph, while important and informative, gives away the “answer” or solution to the problems that are brought to the students’ attention in this first activity, so it is at the teacher’s discretion whether to include or omit that paragraph from the read-aloud.

Quality bulk neodymium magnets 10mm with free worldwide shipping. Super strong and durable the bulk neodymium magnet is made from zinc alloy material.

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Binoculars or field glasses are two refracting telescopes mounted side-by-side and aligned to point in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use both ...

Using Models to Teach Science - https://www.nsta.org/science-teacher/science-teacher-novemberdecember-2019/using-models-teach-science

refraction: The phenomenon of light, sound, or other types of waves being bent when passing between one medium and another OR through a medium of varying density. This results in a change in direction of propagation of the wave as a result of its traveling at different speeds at different points along the wave front.

When light travels normally (i.e., through a vacuum or through air of constant temperature/density), it moves at the speed of light (c = 3 x 108 m/s = 186,000 miles per second) in straight lines. Light from a distant source, like the Sun, can be assumed to be traveling in parallel lines, or rays, when it reaches us. However, the Earth’s atmosphere is turbulent. Air in the dozens of miles of atmosphere above our heads is not of uniform temperature or density, and so the light rays do not all travel at precisely the same speed during their journeys; some will be faster or slower depending on which pockets of air (hot or cold) they traveled through to get to our eyes or cameras. Because of the difference in speed, and because the light also gets bent when it goes from a medium of one density to a medium of a different density (called “refraction”), the light rays will not be parallel or arriving at exactly the same time to our eyes. The optics term for this is called a “perturbed wavefront”, and the result is that our images look blurry, smeared, and if you are taking a video or series of images, the picture might move around a bit or look distorted. This is the same effect that gives stars their “twinkle”.

The effect of our Earth´s atmosphere on astronomical images, which in this case is a lunar crater on the Moon.copyrightCopyright © 2002 Philipp Salzgeber, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=483783

Manufacturer: DAZOR · Lightweight for on-the-go use · Provides a blend of abundant light and powerful magnification · Crown-optical grade glass lens for clear ...

The lightweight Flatfoot Laser Blocking Screens are designed as a semi-permanent passive guard to enclose an area where Class 3B or Class 4 Lasers are in use, ...