A scintillator telescope has been constructed to allow cosmic rays to be demonstrated to high-school and undergraduate students. The original design report (October 2002 - used as part of a funding request) can be found here. For more details, please contact Mark Pearce (Visst - det gå bra med svenska!). If you're interested in cosmic ray projects, you may also want to look at the air shower project we are developing.
 
 

	A schematic overview of the cosmic ray telescope. Cosmic ray muons are detected by a pair of plastic scintillators connected to compact photomultiplier tubes. The signals from the photomultipliers are sent to a counter-timer card*. A muon passing through the pair of scintillators will produce simultaneous signals in both (a 'coincidence') and when this is observed the counter display is incremented. It is also possible to automatically count the number of coincidences in a one minute interval. Every coincidence can be marked by an audible 'beep', if required. The photomultipliers require 800 V. This is provided safely from an encapsulated power supply driven from a 12 V battery. The telescope is completely portable.    *The counter-timer card was kindly provided by the Berkeley Cosmic Ray Telescope Project.
	An overview of the telescope showing the front panel display.
	A rear veiw showing the scintillator detectors more clearly.
	The scintillators can be moved apart to demonstrate the coincidence principle.
	The distance between the scintillators can also be changed. The change in counting rate can be studied or absorbers inserted.
	Since the telescope runs on batteries it is easy to demonstrate the angular dependence of the cosmic ray flux or make measurements around town (down in the subway or atop tall buildings, for example).