![]() ![]() Bill Evans sells a kit on his website that is good quality and is a reasonable price for what it is but still costs a few hundred bucks. It wasn’t very sensitive but it picked some stuff up. My first setup was the mic from a pair of earbuds on a plate with plastic wrap over it inside a plastic flower pot, routed to my computer. A microphone, a weatherproof housing, something surrounding the mic to add directionality (reducing background noise), and something to record sounds, like a computer or other recorder. The basic idea around a NFC setup is very simple. I live in a forested area but have recorded rails, bitterns, night-herons, Common Terns, Common Goldeneye, and other neat stuff. I used to record nocturnal flight calls of birds migrating over my house at night. I believe most regular consumer UV lights are the safer longwave lights - but it’s worth observing the wavelength and recommended safety precautions if you you buy one. Note: shortwave UV light is pretty dangerous to look at and can burn skin, but different stuff reacts more to shortwave length lights. (I lent my lights to a friend who said she almost fainted when she saw all the stains low on the wall where her cats sprayed). I used black lights to see where my pets had accidents. ![]() ![]() Urine glows under a black light pest control sometimes use black lights to discover mouse or rat trails. I was surprised to discover dermatologists use a specific wavelength of UV light to diagnose ringworm (picked up volunteering for a pet rescue). US$ have a UV strip to foil counterfeiters (not single dollars, I think only higher denominations.) In a dark closet, the green liquid (chlorophyll) glowed blood red in UV light. We blended greens (usually tender weeds I had kids gather or spinach if I had a time crunch) with alcohol and then filtered the liquid through a coffee filter into little jars (or test tubes, if we were being fancy). I had an experiment where they discovered the chlorophyll in plants. (This showed kids that UV occurs in real sunlight, not just a lamp). Erik’s Deli pickles glowed, as do some spices.Ī jar of tonic water glows in strong sunlight (UV), but it’s not too noticeable unless you place it next to a jar of plain water against a black background. Shed snakeskins and fingernails glow, not brightly but enough. We also had some glowing minerals in the collections. We had scorpions in the nature center, so that was a hit. It was fascinating to see all the things we could do with black lights. Back in the day, I had a UV light class I developed for our after school science and summer science camp curriculum. ![]()
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