Build a CD spectroscope
Split light into its colours with a cardboard tube and an old CD, and discover how astronomers know what stars are made of.
●○○1 evening~£0Late Oct
A community lab notebook
Learn astrophysics and quantum physics by doing.
Recreate famous physics experiments at home, keep your data in a private notebook, log your nights under the stars, and share what you find.
18 EXPERIMENTS · 10 BOOKS · 7 TOOLS · £0 TO JOIN
Period
7.15 d
Orbit
1.07e9 m
Mass
1.90e27 kg
01
Pick an experiment
Each guide has the kit, the method and the maths. Most cost under £15.
02
Track it
Your private notebook keeps a journal entry for every session — new moon to full moon.
03
Share it
Publish a write-up to the community, swap tips, and suggest new experiments.
The road map
Full road map →- LATE OCTGet oriented1 experiments
- NOVLight and quantum basics2 experiments
- LATE NOV – MID DECYour first fundamental constant1 experiments
- MID DEC – JANInto space2 experiments
- FEB – MARLevel up2 experiments
Experiments
Whole library →Measure the speed of light with chocolate
Use a microwave oven, a bar of chocolate and a ruler to measure one of the fastest things in the universe.
●○○30 minutes~£2 (one chocolate bar)Nov
The double-slit experiment at home
See light behave like a wave using a laser pointer, a hair and some kitchen foil — the gateway to quantum weirdness.
●●○1–2 evenings~£5 (laser pointer)Nov
Find Planck's constant with LEDs
Different coloured LEDs switch on at different voltages. A multimeter and a little maths reveal the number at the heart of quantum physics.
●●○2 evenings~£15 (multimeter + LED kit)Late Nov – mid Dec
Weigh Jupiter
Track Jupiter's moons through binoculars over a few weeks, then use Kepler's third law to work out the mass of the largest planet.
●●●Several clear nights over 2–4 weeks£0 with binoculars you ownMid Dec – Jan
Track sunspots to time the Sun's spin
Project the Sun safely onto card, sketch its spots over a couple of weeks, and work out how fast our star rotates.
●●○10 minutes on each clear day, over ~2 weeks£0 with binoculars you ownMid Dec – Jan
From the community
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