Allan Treiman of the Lunar and Planetary Institute designed this devise to provide schools an affordable way to explore reflectance spectroscopy. "The spectrometer uses light in visible colors (blue through red in seven wavelengths) and in four invisible "colors" of infrared light. The results are good models of spectra from NASA probes like Mars Pathfinder and environmental satellites like LANDSAT. The spectrometer can be used in any class that deals with light, color, or spectroscopy. .. The ALTA® Reflectance Spectrometer is ideal for open-ended student research." Quote from the Lunar and Planetary Institute website: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/products/spectrometer/A class set of ALTA Spectrometers can be borrowed from the Lunar and Planetary Institute at the following website: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/products/spectrometer/loan.shtml.
The Alta is used as a standalone unit and does not require an interface or computer to attach to. Using this instrument, students will discover that different materials absorb and reflect different wavelengths of light. Reflectivity is a property that is important in many situations from deciding what color the outside of a satellite should be to hypothesizing about the color of plant life that might exist in another solar system.
In this ASC lesson, teachers select a green leaf to analyze. The leaf was large enough that the sensor array under the ALTA fit on the leaf. The teachers recorded their data on to the chart in the lesson guide and made a graph of the result. See the results int he next ASC Blog posting.
Photos taken during a teacher workshop at Dyer Observatory July 21, 2008.
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