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Science Project: Doing Science with a Camera | 
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| Web Id: P14 | |
| Purpose: A camera is a wonderful tool for doing science. Here we explore various kinds of science you can do with a camera. We also look at a comprehensive list of digital camera tips. | |
| Age Range: 11 to adult | |
| Time Required: If you have ever used a film or a digital camera, then you are well on your way to doing science with a camera. You can learn to use a disposable film camera in only seconds. Simply look through the viewfinder, compose the shot and press the button. Making a photograph with a basic point-and-shoot digital camera is just as easy. But learning about the many features of such cameras and how to download the photos requires more time. Time spent reading the instruction manual and a few hours of experimenting with the camera will prove very helpful. | |
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Background: Cameras have been used to do science since they were first invented in the nineteenth century. The first aerial photographs were made from balloons and kites before the Civil War. Well over a century ago scientists learned to use cameras to record how people and animals walk, to document plants, animals, glaciers and mountains and to photograph the sun, planets and stars. Today's digital cameras provide entirely new ways to do science. A digital camera the size of a deck of playing cards can make sharply focused, high-resolution photos in vivid color and at high speed. Commonly available software allows photographs of the sky, trees, mountains and rocks to be cropped or enlarged. Their contrast and colors can be quickly adjusted. They can be analyzed with specialized software. People who do not have a digital camera can process film photos by digitizing them using a digital scanner. | |
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Significance: Photographs provide a record of scientific information. Photographs can record the presence of clouds, contrails, plants, insects, birds, reptiles and other animals. Photographs of specific scenes can be compared with photographs made months or even years earlier or later to look for changes, such as the growth of trees, changes in land use and development of cities and suburbs. Photographs of unusual events and phenomena can provide important information to scientists. | |
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Real Time Data Source: | |
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MY NASA DATA Source: In the Live Access Server: Datasets: Atmosphere: Clouds: Cloud Coverage. Historical data on Monthly Cloud Coverage for a variety of cloud types is available from ISCCP. | |
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Project Ideas: The projects that follow might make excellent science fair projects: 1. Make a Sky or Landscape Photo Album. A digital camera is ideal for making a minute-by-minute, hourly, daily or weekly record of an ant hill, the landscape, a garden, the color of the sky, clouds and countless other natural features. A series of such photographs can have real scientific value if it covers a long period of time. The array of horizon photos at the top of this page is from a series begun in 1998. You can find out more about how to make photos like these at our project What Color is Your Sky? (scroll down to Make a Sky Photo Calendar) These photos can be rotated and inserted into a calendar to provide an organized record of the sky over the horizon. The photographs provide important insight into cloud coverage, sky color, haze, air pollution and the seasonal growth of grass, plants and trees. Here is one way to make an album of a sequence of photographs of the horizon.  Click on image for larger version. Image courtesy of Forrest M. Mims III. 2. Use a Picture Post. One way to make a a sequence showing seasonal change or the sky is to use a Picture Post. See our project on the Picture Post. Also, see Introduction to Picture Posts . See the Picture Post project to see sample photos. 3. Analyze Photographs Using ImageJ. Thanks to ImageJ, anyone with a computer can download a program for analyzing digital photos. A basic introduction on how to use ImageJ is provided in How to 'Analyze Digital Images' by Forrest M. Mims III (The Citizen Scientist, 21 October 2005). ImageJ is a powerful image analysis package written by Wayne Rasband at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). ImageJ is an open source program available to anyone. The program is written in JAVA and can be run on Microsoft, Linux and Macintosh operating systems that have a virtual JAVA engine. ImageJ can be downloaded from the ImageJ homepage. Before downloading the program, be sure to review How to Analyze Digital Images and then read the various ImageJ pages and links to become acquainted with the program and to make sure it will run on your computer. This step will also impress you with some of the program's applications. 4. Capture Photos of Unusual Things and Events. Have you ever seen a halo around the sun or moon? An unusual insect or flower? A tree that has been struck by lightning? A tall column of smoke? Making and saving photographs of unusual sightings and events can be both an enjoyable hobby and a contribution to science. Be sure to save comments about each photo. 5. Do a Nature Census with a Camera. Do you live in the country? Do you have a yard? Do you live near a park? If you live near the natural world, you can use a camera to conduct a census of the plants and animals. The biggest challenge of your census will be finding the proper Latin names for all the soils, rocks and living things that you photograph. If you can't find the name of a specific mineral, plant or animal, just use a temporary name, like Green beetle. A photographic nature census can prove invaluable to future scientists who study changes in plant and animal communities over time. | |
| Analysis Ideas: You can do science with an inexpensive disposable camera, a digital point-and-shoot camera or an expensive single-lens reflex (SLR) digital camera. When you begin a science project that uses a camera, it's best to decide on a specific camera that fits your budget and your purpose rather than changing cameras as you go along. The best time to change cameras is when you expand your project or begin a new one. Disposable film cameras are simple to use and often produce nice photos. You can use a digital scanner to digitize prints made from these cameras. For best results, use a digital camera for science applications. | |
| Related Projects: The GLOBE Program has some interesting ideas for cameras. Find them by entering 'camera' in the search box on the GLOBE home page. Introduction to Picture Posts provides great information on how to photograph the sky and the landscape from the same position every day. Find out more about the Picture Post project and see sample photos. Sun and Sky includes a variety of unusual sky color photographs. | |
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Questions: 1. Can you do science with a disposable film camera? 2. List some advantages of using digital cameras to do science. 3. List several kinds of science you can do with a digital camera. 4. What is a Picture Post? | |
| Going Further: If you can collect a good series of nature photographs, one of the best ways to organize them is to display them on a web site. Many web sites allow you to do this without charge--but be sure to read the fine print first if you want to keep the copyright to your photos. It's important to include an organized description of each photo, including the date and location. | |
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Project ideas contributed by Forrest M. Mims III, Geronimo Creek Observatory, Texas | |
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