Clues to the Cosmos Activity [Activity - Big Astronomy] (English and Spanish)

Clues to the Cosmos Activity [Activity - Big Astronomy] (English and Spanish)

  • Daytime Event
  • Inside Venue
  • Target Audience
  • Child, Teen, Adult
Discover the secrets of light and filters with this interactive, visitor-led inquiry into the use of filters by astronomers, artists, and code-breakers. Astronomers use filters to help them focus on one type of light at a time. This activity explores how filters work and how astronomers use representational color to show light that our eyes cannot see. 

Learning Goals
1. Understand that there are more colors of light than our eyes can see and that different telescopes detect different types of light.
2. Understand that filters block all but one color or type of light and that artists, astronomers, and decoders use filters to help to focus on just one type of light at a time.
3. Understand that white light is made of many colors of light and that different types of light give us different information. 

This resource is part of the Big Astronomy Toolkit.

This page last updated March 25, 2021



 

Video

Clues to the Cosmos

Understand how filters work. See ways to run this demonstration both in person and virtually.

Activity Key

Daytime Event
Daytime Event
Nighttime Event
Nighttime Event
Inside Venue
Inside Venue
Outside Venue
Outside Venue
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Target Audience