Dwingeloo telescope and ASTRON on SchoolTV

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Clik here to view.© NTR 2015

As part of a small curriculum, SchoolTV has made an expert video on the electromagnetic spectrum where we used the Dwingeloo telescope, the NOVA optical bench and my research on pulsars to explain 'invisible light'.

The video (in Dutch) is aimed at lower high school students (HAVO - VWO, aged 11-14 yr) and will be used by their teachers to kick start the class on this topic.

In the video we first explain what pulsars are (in understandable terms) and continue to explain the electromagnetic spectrum using the NOVA optical bench. It becomes clear that radio has a longer wavelength than visible light. After that we tune in on pulsar B0329+54 whose signals have travelled for ~3000 years, only to be stopped from traveling further by us.

For me it was a really exciting day, not only because of the SchoolTV crew, but also because I got to control the Dwingeloo telescope, after a first set of instructions from Roy Smits and Harm Munk (CAMRAS/ASTRON). The NOVA optical crew (Eddy, Menno and Rik) had put up a beautiful spectrum we could use and the camera man couldn't stop playing around with the lamp and the prism.

The curriculum can be found here:

http://www.ruimtevaartindeklas.nl/lespakketten/onderzoek-naar-pulsars