 "Photo: The Penn/ Dave Biblis")
 "Photo: The Penn/ Dave Biblis")
A small crowd of students attended a presentation that dealt with the different kinds of light.
The presentation, “New Eyes: Gamma Ray and X-ray Astronomy” was presented Wednesday at Weyandt Hall’s planetarium. Geoscience professor Ken Coles ran the show.
This presentation is the third in a four-part series sponsored by the IUP geoscience department and the IUP College of Natural Science and Mathematics.
The first show, “Variable Stars: Science You Can Do,” took place on family weekend, the morning of Oct. 31.
The second, “Astronomy Short Stories,” was on Dec. 9. Unlike the others in the series, this show showcased student work.
Students in the stellar astronomy class used the planetarium equipment to create their own demonstrations.
Fewer than 15 people attended the presentation.
Coles was not bothered by the small crowd.
“I don’t care,” Coles said. “I’d run this machine for an empty room.”
The machine was ordered in 1966 and installed in 1967.
It was not expected to have a 40-year lifespan.
Coles outlined the history and recent developments in the study of gamma ray and X-ray astronomy.
He covered the light spectrum in order of increasing wavelength, which are radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet light, X-rays, and gamma rays.
Gamma rays and X-rays are emitted by very hot or energetic objects and can only be studied from outside the earth’s atmosphere, according to Coles.
Early researchers in the field launched balloons with recording equipment from the North Pole. More recently, satellites and space stations take more measurements with greater accuracy.
Coles has been teaching at IUP since 2004.
He hopes to make the planetarium more visible and more open to the public, and to raise campus awareness of it, declaring, “the facility has a future.”
“You’ve got to like what you do,” he said.
“Four-hundred Years of the Telescope,” which will explore the legacy of Galileo and the first telescope, will take place April 22.
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