ASISTM and the Faulkes Telescope Project:

Bringing Deep Space into the Classroom

Dill Faulkes made $ with a science education and wanted students to have access to quality instruments and programs.

Donated AUD$20 million for the construction of two research-quality telescopes for education and research.

An Introduction

The Faulkes Telescopes

Fully remote controlled

2m professional telescopes

25 tonnes each

8m

2m

Hawaii

FT (North)

Australia

FT (South)

Sites of the Faulkes Telescopes

Site of Faulkes Telescope South

Siding Springs Northern NSW

Siding Springs Northern NSW

Site of Faulkes Telescope South

Future Telescope NetworkLas Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network

Telescopes scheduled for 2007

ultimate aim: educational network of > 50 telescopes sizes ranging from 0.4 - 1.0m

The Project in the UK

• Teachers must undergo observing training either via PD or through the online training portal

• Schools register to use the telescope, book a 1/2 hour timeslot and take whatever data they wish. Students directly control the telescope via remote control and observe in real time

• Schools download their data to a local disk for use in class

• All specialist software is freeware/shareware and available from the UK Faulkes Telescope website

The Pilot Project in Australia

• Students do not directly control the telescope• Schools submit a “telescope application form”• Applications are reviewed by a panel of

astronomers• Successful applications sent to the operations

centre in the UK• Data is taken and returned to Macquarie Uni• Schools download their data to a local disk for

use in class• All specialist software is freeware/shareware

and provided to the school on a CD-ROM

Student Skills

• planning investigations• conducting investigations• communicating information and

understanding• developing scientific thinking and problem-

solving techniques• working individually and in teams.• identifying strengths and weaknesses in a

scientific experiment• Identifying potential sources of errors

Student Benefits

• develop critical analysis skills• improve ICT literacy• develop / improve a scientific method• chance for "real" discoveries• develop / improve collaborative skills• "ownership" of the project• appreciation of astronomy• practical experience

The Experience in Victorian Schools

AsteroidsScotch College

Location and accurate positions for NEOs 2007 EL88, 2007 EY and 2007FLI

• Aim: to contribute to the effort of monitoring asteroid motion

• Use Astrometrica software to locate and obtain an accurate position for the asteroid

• Use Iris software to generate colour images and show the movement of the asteroid

• 25 year 7 boys

• 6 periods allocated

• contributing to real life science

Near Earth Objects

• Near-Earth objects (NEO) are asteroids, comets and large meteoroids whose orbit intersects Earth's orbit and which may therefore pose a collision danger.

• Astronomers need to keep track of these asteroids

Choosing an Asteroid

• There are several organisations that monitor asteroids

• We referred to Spaceguard: (www.spaceguard.rm.

aasf.cnr.it/servlet/PriorityListServlet)• We chose 3 asteroids that were classed as

URGENT for monitoring

The Data

• 3 images of each asteroid were taken• Taken through red, green and blue filters• Low moon light• Exposure time between 120-240 seconds

NEO 2007 EY

Colour picture by

Phongpol Punyadupta

Tracking NEO 2007 FL1 by Eddie Goldsmith

NEO 2007 FL1

Student Comments

• “Everybody found this project awesome and I can’t wait to do more”

• “It was so interesting and not that hard to do”

• “I can’t believe I have contributed to real life science”

Colliding GalaxiesUniversity High School

• Project aims

• Implementing the project

• The images

• Results

• Conclusion

Overview

• engage in real life science

• grasp the scale of our universe

• observe the movement and interactions of galaxies

• use images from Faulkes

Project Aims

Students will be able to:

Implementing the projectThe application process

Choosing a topic Student interest Year level Time available

Getting the images Locating coordinates Visibility Exposure time Phase of moon

Implementing the projectThe Logistics

Completed in 5x50 minute sessions

2 accelerated year 9 classes

Implementing the projectClass activities

Completed an introductory Webquest

Created coloured images

Looked for star formation and tidal interactions

Calculated the size of the galaxies

Our Images

Galaxy NGC 3769 – found in Saucepan constellation

Galaxy NGC 2881 – found in Hydra constellation

Galaxy NGC 5395 – found in Canes Venatici constellation

ResultsStudent comments

“I liked it because it was interesting and we learnt about the space and other stuff…”

“I loved that we got to look at real galaxies.”

“I liked the astronomy project but it was difficult because we hadn’t done astronomy in class. T’was still fun though. Hurrah for interacting galaxies!”

ResultsSubmitted Work

Observations on galaxy interactions Open ended questions Showed understanding of the effects of

gravity, gasses, heat and star formation

Calculating Size of Galaxy Required estimate so results varied Most numbers were within acceptable

range

ConclusionOur Reflections

Constraints Time Curriculum

Student engagement Involve in decision making processes Very hands-on and something different

Images One of a kind Evoke a deeper understanding

ConclusionColliding galaxies in your classroom

Minimum time 10 hours

Needs a thorough introduction

You set the level of difficulty

Suitable for Year 7 – 11

Images bound to impress

The Hertzsprung Russell DiagramCarey Baptist Grammar

The HR Diagram

http://www.wncc.net/courses/aveh/lecture/lecmeas.htm

Terminology

Software - Stellarium

Choosing the Cluster

Cluster RA DecV

magDiameter Notes

M29 20 23 56 +38 31 24 7.1 7’

M44 08 40 24 +19 41 00 3.7 95’

M103 01 33 12 +60 42 00 7.4 6’

NGC 3293 10 35 51 -58 13 48 4.7 10’

NGC 2169 06 08 24 +13 57 54 5.9 7’

M67 08 51 18 +11 48 00 6.1 15’

Proposal

Name of School – Carey Baptist Grammar School Victoria, Australia

Title of Project – Colour and Intensity Analysis of M67

Project Summary In this project, we will image the open cluster, M67, to construct a

Hertzsprung-Russell diagram to investigate the properties and evolution of stars.  We will take images through the B, V and R filters in order to obtain colour information for each of the stars and also to create a colour image of the cluster.  Since the cluster is larger than what we can see in a single shot with the Faulkes Telescope, we request several images to be taken to form a mosaic of the cluster.

Raw Data Received

Software - IRIS

Group Cooperation

How to deal with slide overlap?• Group communication, naming or form

mosaic early on and name

How to stop measuring the same star twice? • Number the stars

How to organise groups to measure information? • Measure all B and V for one slide. Same

group measure B and V for consistency

How to check measurements are correct?

Measured

GraphedCombined Hertzsprung Russell

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3

B-V

B

HR Diagram

http://www.warren-wilson.edu/~dcollins/ACA_ASTER_workshop/ASTERannouncement.html

Benefits• Collecting real data in astronomy• Graphing data and why we do it• Using terminology in a context and in a

way that develops their understanding• Their pictures• Better understanding of the theory: HR

diagram, star clusters, coloured filters, predictable nature of the spinning of the Earth and the apparent spinning of the stars

• Exploring differences between theory and practise

Benefits to me

• Interesting

• Professional astronomy websites

• Useful software programs - Stellarium

The Future

• Collaborative projects with schools in the UK david.bowdley@faulkes-telescope.com

The Immediate Future

• Students drive the telescopes during class• Collaborative projects with schools

around the world• Partnerships with research astronomers• Partnerships with local amateur

astronomical societies

The Not Too Distant Future

Questions?