J. D. Cline, M. W. CastelazPisgah Astronomical Research Institute

PARI Education and Research Programs

Session 2.02 Monday, May 30, 2005. AAS 206th Meeting

Not-for-profit public

foundationwww.pari.edu

Future Plans• Pisgah Astronomical Research and Science Education Center (PARSEC): Administered

by UNC-Asheville for the benefit of each university within the 16-campus University of North Carolina system to promote and coordinates usage of the facilities at PARI.

• Small Telescope for Astronomical Research and Teaching (START): Consortium of 6 universites and 2 community colleges to promote research and education using a 0.40m robotic telescope at PARI.

• Space Science Lab: Native American, Hispanic, African American, and underrepresented high school students in rural Western North Carolina will have the opportunity to conduct space science research through visible and radio observations of the Sun.

Education Programs Research Programs

Pulsars. Dr. David Moffett, Furman University

• 327 MHz receiver installed on 26 East radio telescope.

• Timings of a dozen pulsars.

Introduction. Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute is a not-for-profit public foundation located on 200 acres in Western North Carolina in the Pisgah National Forest. This poster presents premier programs. Frequent seminars for high school and undergraduate students, and periodic astronomical research collaborations complete programs at PARI. See http://www.pari.edu/ for more information for access to PARI Observatories.

Extreme Scattering Events (ESEs) and Intra-Day Variables (IDVs). PI: Brian Dennison, UNC-Asheville

• Long-term monitoring of interstellar turbulence via its effect on scattering of radio waves over a large sample of compact sources.

• Two element interferometer to reduce noise confusion and measure point sources.

• Two frequencies, 2.4 GHz and 8.4 GHz.

Infrastructure

Grades K-8: StarLab• Presentations to more than 32,000

students in Western North Carolina• Six Learning Technologies, Inc

Programs offered

High School• Duke TIP Summer Field Study in

Astronomy• Senior Projects

Undergraduate Students• NSF IPSE Interns in multimedia and

physics developing a radio sky StarLab program

• UNC-Asheville Computer Science class developing remote radio telescope control and data analysis software

• Summer research students with funding from grants & donations as scholarships

Graduate Students• PARI Observatories available for test-

bed applications, monitoring and survey research

Portable 8.2m diameter planetarium travels to grades K-8 schools

Duke Talent Identification Program. Summer Field Study in Astronomy

NSF Funded Internships In Public Science Education

Graduate Students

Optical Observatories

N

0.10m Polaris & Transient

0.35m

0.30m

26m West

0.12m Solar

0.40m START*

*Planned Consortium

0.25m

26m East

Optical Observations of Binaries in Old Open Clusters. Dr. Mel Blake, PARI

• Measure period changes in pulsating stars to study their evolution

• Measure period changes in close binaries to measure effects of magnetic winds.

• Use the PARI 0.35m telescope and CCD

Radio Observatories

26m East Radio Telescope

StarLab

Radio Optical Lab and Offices

All labs, offices, telescopes linked via fiber optics and OC-48 network

Power backup across campus

The 26m radio telescopes have new control systems and pointing models

Each feedbox has AC power, coax, 12 fibers and appropriate cabling as required by receiver configuration

The optical telescopes are equipped with CCDs and BVRI filters, and are under robotic control

Seeing average is 2 arcsec

Differential photometry average 3 nights/week