Web Resources: Robot Telescopes
I’m a firm advocate of “hands-on, eyes-on” astronomy under the night sky. For me there is no substitute for being there – for experiencing the cosmos from your backyard or schoolyard. There is something nearly mystical about having photons – photons that have been journeying for millions of years – end their sojourn by diving into your eyes and pinging your brain. If you’re going to connect with the cosmos you need to be bent over the telescope, absorbing in awe the wonders of the universe, and then hear the coyote howl in the woods behind you.
But that sort of experience is hard to come by and difficult to bring to the classroom. So there’s a lot to be said for the sense of ownership, of adventure, and of pride that can develop when you use the internet to direct a robotic telescope on some far-off mountaintop to take pictures for you. You may have to wait a day or two for the results, but there’s at least one robot telescope that can deliver the results to you live, on your computer screen, as you and your students watch over several minutes as photon by photon the image builds to a professional-looking result.
What's Educational about Online Telescopes?: Evaluating 10 Years of MicroObservatory: This is an excellent, scholarly assessment of one such robot telescope used, as noted, by school students all over the country.
MicroObservatory: This is “a research and development project designed to improve middle- and high-school science education by providing teachers and their students with access to a network of powerful educational telescopes. Since observing time is limited, priority for access will be given to teachers and other educators.” You can go in and give it a try – very simple - but getting meaningful use means submitting an application and plan of how you will use it.
http://mo-www.harvard.edu/MicroObservatory/
Slooh ($$): As they explain, “Slooh is the only LIVE online observatory. It's for everyone and easy to use . . .” It also costs, but the fee is a modest $20 for a limited membership, $100 for unlimited use for a year. Right now there is one robotic observatory in the Canary Islands online, but it’s due to be joined this year by two others, one in Chile and one in Australia, opening up the possibility of exploring the Southern Hemisphere skies.
http://reference.aol.com/space/telescope
Bradford Robotic Telescope: Here’s how the BBC started a recent article on this telescope:
A unique feature of this learning programme is that children can instruct the Bradford Robotic Telescope in Tenerife to take pictures of the Moon, the planets, their own star-sign constellation or their favourite galaxy of stars via the Internet.
The package is completely free and internet-based so that everyone can use it, from an individual child at home or a teacher wanting extra resources to tackle Earth and Space. There is no requirement to purchase special software. Children can register and log-on at school and continue to use the system at home or anywhere with an internet connection.
And no, you don’t have to be in England to use it. I’m a member and am anxiously awaiting the results of my first observing request. It took me about 15 minutes to figure it out, join, and place a request.
http://www.telescope.org/index.php
TIE – Telescopes in Education: TIE describes itself this way:
The Telescopes in Education (TIE) program brings the opportunity to use a remotely controlled telescope and charge-coupled device (CCD) camera in a real-time, hands-on, interactive environment to students around the world. TIE enables students to increase their knowledge of astronomy, astrophysics, and mathematics; improve their computer literacy; and strengthen their critical thinking skills. . . .
The TIE program currently utilizes a science-grade 24-inch reflecting telescope located at the Mount Wilson Observatory, high above the Los Angeles basin in the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California. The telescope has been used by students in grades K-12 to observe galaxies, nebulae, variable stars, eclipsing binaries, and other ambitious projects and experiments. Hundreds of schools in the US and around the world (including Australia, Canada, England, and Japan) have successfully used the prototype telescope on Mount Wilson. Through TIE, students have rediscovered and cataloged a variable star and assisted the Pluto Express project at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to revise the ephemeris (orbital location) for the planet Pluto.
http://www.telescopesineducation.com/
It’s not clear to me from the Web site just who can become involved and how to go about it, but the starting point seems to be to contact this person:
Contact: Mary Cragg, Telescopes In Education,P.O. Box 60163
Pasadena, California 91116-6163