Fraser Lewis: Linking Real Astronomy Research to the Classroom

Fraser Lewis Faulkes Telescope Project

Liverpool John Moores University The Open University

Linking Real Astronomy Research to the

Classroom

Robotic telescopes allow us to obtain images from distant good quality sites

There are ONLY 3 * 2-metre telescopes that do this for education (and only 1 person … !)

FT

LT

Tarantula

Nebula

M27

NGC 4038 and NGC 4039

The Antennae

FTN

Haleakala, Maui

10 Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope

10

2m

2m 2 x 1m

3 x 1m 3 x 1m

1m

“Whole Earth Telescope”

24/7 observations

Long-term monitoring

Rapid response

Time critical observations

Education

FT initiatives: • Twinning schools • Themed Observing Days • Teacher Training (online and F2F) • School-based Support Centres • Down2Earth

Schools initiatives:

• After-school Astronomy clubs • GCSE Astronomy support

“Themed Observing Days”

Pro-Am-Schools collaborative projects - day, weeks or months Projects include: • Colour Imaging • “Lifecycle of Stars” • Asteroid Rotation • Tracking NEOs • X-ray systems in outburst • Compact galaxy groups

Asteroids, comets & NEOs

• FT observing programmes – asteroids and comets in space

• “Down 2 Earth” project – impacts and meteorites

http://education.down2earth.eu

Asteroid Rotation

• Requires collaboration

• Asteroid brightness measured to produce light curves

Aug.

2011

Exoplanet transits

CoRot 2b: David Hardy & Thomas Ham (Cardiff schools), July 2012

Open Clusters

• Colour images

• Produce colour-magnitude

(cf. Hertzsprung-Russell) diagrams

• Identify “unusual” stars (BVR + H alpha)

• Variable star searches (hours to years)

New variables

Patrick Gildersleeve (St. Johns, Cardiff)

Supernovae Portal

Co-ordinated by Poland

>40 targets in archive

29 schools (6 UK, 2 US, 2

Portugal, 2 Italy, 1

Germany, 1 China, 15

Poland)

24 teachers

31 guests (amateurs)

ESA Gaia Transient

Follow-up (Rebecca)

Faulkes Telescope Monitoring of GX 339-4

Optical/infrared – X-ray correlations

A nearby and ‘easy-to measure’

black hole !

Coming soon via Rosa @ NUCLIO

28 May 2015 Fraser Lewis - Usk AS 27

Thanks for listening

http://faulkes-telescope.com

http://resources.faulkes-telescope.com

http://education.down2earth.eu

http://www.golabz.eu/

http://schoolsobservatory.org.uk/

http://lcogt.net

Please come find me or

e-mail me your ideas

fraser.lewis@faulkes-

telescope.com

Inquiry-Based Science Education

Students ask questions, we provide tools and data, they provide answers themselves

NGC 6888 Crescent Nebula

Rosetta

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Time/s

Lig

ht/%

FTS Siding Spring, Australia

Fastest Rotating Asteroid!

• FTS observations by British amateur astronomer

• Part of new collaborative project to survey properties

of small NEAs

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

International Education

• Belgium • Poland • Russia • Portugal • USA • Australia • France • Netherlands • Germany • Italy • Spain • India • Israel

• Image specific objects showing stars at different life stages

• Schools process images, create poster

Lifecycle of Stars

Birth Life Death

2-metre primary 2048 x 2048 CCD 21 filters (UV - near IR)

WWW access to research grade telescope networks

International collaboration

Infrastructure + Research + Education

Larger network plans:

0.4m mid 2014?, then 2-3 sites/year 1m early 2013, then 1-2 site/year

“We will always keep you in the dark”

LCOGT Plans

Funded FTP Sept. 05 – July 09

Additional core networks:

Education - 6 clusters of 0.4m (x 2-4)

Research - 6 clusters of 1.0m (x 2-3)

~$100 million programme

Eventually – free access globally

Wayne Rosing

Faulkes Telescopes

~£10M Dill Faulkes Educational Trust

~£1M STFC (UK research organisation)

~£0.6M Government (Education)

Overview (in ~ 10 minutes !)

• Robotic/remote-control telescopes

• Background to FT

• LCOGT – a global network

• Examples of FT projects

– Open clusters

– Asteroids, comets and NEOs

EU FP7

2011 - 2013 2012 - 2016