DEW4.1. Aerial Photography

{ Digital Earth Watch Contents } { All GSS Books } Much of the material in this investigation is provided by Don McCasland of Blue Hill Observatory. The great benefit of kites, balloons, blimps and poles for aerial photography is that they allow relatively close up imagery of the subject. It is fun and educational […]

DEW Sources of Equipment

{ Digital Earth Watch Contents } { All GSS Books } The following sources are not endorsements of any particular product or supplier, but since one of the goals of this project is to develop and integrate low-cost equipment to support scientific exploration and learning, we did need to post our sources. Aerial Photography: Purpose–valuable way to collect useful […]

DEW1.2. LEDs As Light Sensors

{ Digital Earth Watch Contents } { All GSS Books } It is now possible with inexpensive technology to measure the intensity of specific wavelengths of light. Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) were invented in the 1960s. An LED is a device in which electrical energy is converted into light in a very narrow range of […]

DEW1.4. Creating Colors

{ Digital Earth Watch Contents } { All GSS Books } Materials: Software: ColorBasics* Charts: Tri-color Creation Chart Tri-color Prediction Chart Tri-color Reference Chart *The author of ColorBasics software, John Pickle, has a website where you can find new web-based apps on his website’s Color Vision page: Detect Change in Color Detect Differences Between Colors […]

DEW2. Measuring With Digital Images

Chapter 2 { Digital Earth Watch Contents } I. The Power of Digital Images With the inventions of the computer and the Internet, many of us use digital cameras or cameras in smart phones as tools to record memories by capturing images of objects. But digital images are now more than just a way to […]

DEW1. Digital Image Basics

Chapter 1 { Digital Earth Watch Contents } Of our five senses, sight provides near-instantaneous information over a large range of distances and space. So it is no coincidence that people use a plethora of images to convey a rich variety of data: photographs, maps, drawings, paintings, movies, text documents, signs, etc. With the inventions […]

Digital Earth Watch

The Digital Earth Watch (DEW) project grew from a NASA grant project titled Measuring Vegetation Health. Its goal was to teach about how monitoring the health of vegetation can be done at various scales: from individual plants to large scale ecosystems. See Overview. Contents Chapters Investigations Challenges 1. Digital Image Basics 1.1 How Is Light […]

AC2.1. Using Star Maps

Paper maps Three free paper (PDF) star maps that are good, produced for the current night sky, with new ones available each month are: What’s Out Tonight, Skymaps.com, Beckstrom Observatory. Planispheres A planisphere is a version of star map that is adjustable for any day and any time. Standing here on Earth which is rotating, […]