Light

Measure the Brightness of a Variable Star

Over the past few hundred years, astronomers have discovered thousands of stars whose brightness goes up and down over time. These are known as variable stars. But what causes this to happen?

Read more about Measure the Brightness of a Variable Star

Ibn al-Haytham

Occupation

Astronomer, Mathematician, Physicist

Year Born

around 965

Research Areas

Optics, Vision, Geometry, Planetary Motion, Scientific Method

A drawn illustration of bearded man wearing a headdress and robes. He is standing, and has one hand rested on the clothed table beside him. In front of this are enlarged depictions of a wooden set square and a compass.

This work by Muhammad Atiyya Al-Ibrashi is licensed under Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal

Observing Techniques

Optics

Optics is an area of physics which looks at how light behaves and how we can observe it.

This usually involves using mirrors and lenses to magnify, focus, and direct the path of light.

There is an illustration of a bulging lens on the left. A dashed line runs through the centre across the image. Two red parallel lines hit the lens towards the top and bottom and then become diagonal, crossing paths at a point labelled "F" some distance after the lens. This distance is noted with a black arrow labelled "f'". — Light (red lines) passing through a convex lens. The point at which the light meets (F') is called the focus. The distance from the lens to the focus (f') is called the focal length.

How Telescopes Work

Waves

We are all familiar with waves; from ripples on the surface of a pond to the swell of the ocean. A wave is just a regular vibration that travels through something, like air or water.

Ripples on the surface of still water, caused by an object or disturbance, spreading out in concentric circles

This work by Pixabay is licensed under Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal

Electromagnetic Spectrum

The light we can see is only a small part of the light made by stars.

We often call this small range of wavelengths optical or visible light.

A black arrow cuts diagonally downwards across the image towards the lower left, acting as an axis for a blue vertical wave labelled "electric field" and a red horizontal wave labelled "magnetic field". These waves are at right angle to each other. An arrow with heads at either end spans the length of the top of a vertical wave to the top of the next one.

This work by Piotr Fita is licensed under Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal

Wave-Particle Duality

Light is complicated as it can act as both a wave and a particle. Choosing how we want to talk about light - wave or particle - is only a matter of convenience.