Pringles Planetarium

The Canadian Humble space telescope is the world's smallest space telescope measuring at about the diameter of a pie plate and is packed in the MOST microsatellite which has the size and mass of a carry-on suitcase.

As a fun Science project, you can make your own world's smallest space telescope!

You can create a planetarium projector and space telescope with interchangeable star chart slides for your room.

© Copyright 2010 Tomitheos Photography, All Rights Reserved.

What you need:

transparent paper for tracing
black construction paper
Maxwell house coffee can cylinder
Pringles chips cylinder can
a collection of Pringles lids
star constellation for Pringels lids: space wall star chart graphics
star chart template for Maxwell house lid: large lid star graphics
a pin
a nail and hammer
scissors
led flashlight
laser pointer


Step 1. How to make your own Pringles space chart telescope:

Click here: space wall star chart graphics to access the star constellation template and trace all the points on the transparent sheet of paper. Using a pin poke thru the transparent sheet of paper transferring the constellation design with holes on the black construction sheet of paper. Using the transparent Pringles lids that you have collected, cut out exact circular templates from the completed construction paper, cut slowly and precisely and insert to each Pringles lid, carefully trim the paper borders for a perfect inset fit to the lid. Using your nail and hammer, punch a hole big enough to look through on the adjacent metallic end side of the Pringles cylinder (be sure there are no sharp ends, to ensure this punch it from the outside inwards).

You can now look thru the interchangeable lids with star constellations to recognize and identify them in the real night sky to get more out of your star gazing or on your own planetarium projector - see Step 2 below.


Step 2. How to make your own Maxwell House cylinder can planetarium:

Click here: large lid star graphics to access the Maxwell House star constellation template for your lid and trace all the points on the transparent sheet of paper. Using a pin poke thru the transparent sheet of paper transferring the constellation design with holes on the black construction sheet of paper. Cut out an exact circular template from the completed construction paper with star constellation holes, cut slowly and precisely and insert to the large blue Maxwell House lid, carefully trim the paper borders for a perfect inset fit to the large plastic lid. This time, use the pin to poke the holes right through the large blue plastic Maxwell House lid transferring the same holes from the paper to the large plastic lid. Insert the led flashlight inside the empty can facing up by having a flashlight that can be made to stand upright (glue in place if necessary).


In a darkened room, turn on the flashlight, place it in the Maxwell House can, put the planetarium cylinder on the floor and place the plastic lid with holes on in order to project your constellations onto the ceiling.

By using your laser pointer, you can quiz your friends or family to see if they can identify the different constellations.

Use the Pringles telescope lid slides to match and find where the constellation are located on the projected ceiling star map to get more out of your planetarium game.

The Maxwell House planetarium projection cylinder can be stripped-off of its label and showcased as a hi-tech looking silver cylinder.

The Pringles' space telescope can be decorated with a space drawing or with a paper size print of Van Gogh's famous 'Starry Night' artwork, simply wrap it around the perimeter of the long cylinder and tape it.

Your space telescope with interchangeable star slide constellations and planetarium are now complete.

Our theories on our Universe may be full of holes..

Photo Credit / Graphics by Tomitheos©


Astronomers have claimed to have found an enormous hole in the Universe, nearly a billion light-years across, empty of both normal matter such as stars, galaxies, and gas, and the mysterious, unseen "dark matter." Which has become a questionable presence, while earlier studies have shown holes, or voids, in the large-scale structure of the Universe, this relatively new discovery dwarfs them all.

"Not only has no one ever found a void this big, but we never even expected to find one this size," said Lawrence Rudnick of the University of Minnesota. Rudnick, along with Shea Brown and Liliya R. Williams, also of the University of Minnesota, reported their findings in a paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.

Astronomers have known for years that, on large scales, the Universe has voids largely empty of matter. However, most of these voids are much smaller than the one found by Rudnick and his colleagues. In addition, the number of discovered voids decreases as the size increases.

"What we've found is not normal, based on either observational studies or on computer simulations of the large-scale evolution of the Universe," Williams said.

The astronomers drew their conclusion by studying data from the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS), a project that imaged the entire sky visible to the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope, part of the National Science Foundation's National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). Their careful study of the NVSS data showed a remarkable drop in the number of galaxies in a region of sky in the constellation Eridanus.

"We already knew there was something different about this spot in the sky," Rudnick said. The region had been dubbed the "WMAP Cold Spot," because it stood out in a map of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation made by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotopy Probe (WMAP) satellite, launched by NASA in 2001. The CMB, faint radio waves that are the remnant radiation from the Big Bang, is the earliest "baby picture" available of the Universe. Irregularities in the CMB show structures that existed only a few hundred thousand years after the Big Bang.

The WMAP satellite measured temperature differences in the CMB that are only millionths of a degree. The cold region in Eridanus was discovered in 2004.

Astronomers wondered if the cold spot was intrinsic to the CMB, and thus indicated some structure in the very early Universe, or whether it could be caused by something more nearby through which the CMB had to pass on its way to Earth. Finding the dearth of galaxies in that region by studying NVSS data resolved that question.

"Although our surprising results need independent confirmation, the slightly colder temperature of the CMB in this region appears to be caused by a huge hole devoid of nearly all matter roughly 6-10 billion light-years from Earth," Rudnick said.

How does a lack of matter cause a cooler temperature in the Big Bang's remnant radiation as seen from Earth?

Photons of the CMB gain a small amount of energy when they pass through a region of space populated by matter. This effect is caused by the enigmatic "dark energy" that is accelerating the expansion of the Universe. This gain in photon energy makes the CMB appear slightly warmer in that direction. When the photons pass through an empty void, they lose a small amount of energy from this effect, and so the CMB radiation passing through such a region appears cooler.

The acceleration of the Universe's expansion, and thus dark energy, were discovered less than a decade ago. The physical properties of dark energy are unknown, though it is by far the most abundant form of energy in the Universe today. Learning its nature is one of the most fundamental current problems in astrophysics.

Mathematician Claims Black Holes are the Result of Bad Math..

............... Image Credit: Max Camenzindand ....................

Mathematician Stephen J. Crothers seems to be spoiling all my astrophysics solutions! Crothers claims that the equations used to justify the existence of "black holes" are themselves either incorrect (with 3D versus 4D space inconsistencies and inapplicable radius curvatures) thus meaningless, in error and just plain 'wrong' ..


Crothers claims to have mathematically, meticulously and rigorously demonstrated that the math behind black holes has been incorrectly applied and in some cases incorrectly attributed (meaning that the wrong scientists have been given credit for particular valid or invalid mathematical contributions).

Referral: cyber-friend Michael Gmirkin (University of Oregon Graduate) - Plasma Cosmology and the Electric Universe -

Needless to say, Crothers' assertions are rubbing astronomers and astrophysicists the wrong way. However, if Crothers' assertions are accurate, then a vast portion of current astronomy may be predicated upon a patently false concept.

To briefly summarize some of Stephen J. Crothers' research regarding the history of black hole theory, you can review his papers below:


www.sjcrothers.plasmaresources.com

www.sjcrothers.plasmaresources.com/article-1-1.pdf

www.sjcrothers.plasmaresources.com/papers.html