The Faulkes Telescope Project Dr. Paul Roche and Dr. Sarah Roberts Cardiff University, UK

Overview Robotic/remote-control telescopes Background - FT LCOGT – a global network Examples of educational projects

Robotic telescopes Obtain images from distant sites Live (real-time) or by request (offline) Real-time Offline

Faulkes Telescopes ~£10M Dill Faulkes Educational Trust ~£1M STFC ~£0.6M Government (Education)

FTN Haleakala, Maui

FTS Siding Spring, Australia

How do you use them? “Real Time” – remote control, 30 minutes ~4 hrs/day on each telescope

LCOGT Plans Funded FTP Sept. 05 – July 09 Additional core networks: Education - 6 clusters of 0.4m (x 4) Research - 6 clusters of 1.0m (x 3) ~$100 million programme Eventually – free access globally Wayne Rosing

1 x 2m + (2 x 0.4m)(4 x 0.4m) + (3 x 1m) (4 x 0.4m) + (3 x 1m) undecided site ? 1 x 2m + (4 x 0.4m) + (3 x 1m)

UK Education FT initiatives: Projects and Activities Twinning schools Themed Observing Days Teacher Training Online Training School-based Support Centres National Redshift Project Down to Earth Schools initiatives: After-school Astronomy clubs GCSE Astronomy support School workshops – e.g. Arts/Science week

International Education Poland Russia Portugal USA Australia France Holland Germany Italy Spain China India Slovakia

ESP occultation (TrES 3) Asteroid rotation Uranian moon occultations Research-Based Learning

“Themed Observing Days” Collaborative projects for a number of schools through the day or over a week or month. Projects include: “Lifecycle of Stars” poster Asteroid Rotation X-ray binaries in outburst

10 schools (UK, Poland) - specific objects to observe showing stars at different life stages Schools process images, create poster Lifecycle of Stars BirthLifeDeath

M13

Open Clusters Observing open clusters: Colour images Produce Hertzsprung-Russel (colour- magnitude) diagrams (BV images) Identify “unusual” stars (BVR Ha images) Search for variable stars (days-years) Link with Project CLEA software (age, distance, chemistry)

Case study: NGC 2004

New variables

Asteroids, comets and NEOs FT observing programmes – asteroids and comets in space “Down to Earth” project – impacts and meteorites

Asteroid Rotation Collaboration – UK, Poland, Hawaii Asteroid brightness measured (Astrometrica), light curves produced

Fastest Rotating Asteroid! FTS observations by British amateur astronomer Part of new collaborative project to survey properties of small NEAs

Superfast rotator s

IASC: UK-US collaboration International Asteroid Search Campaign Prof. Patrick Miller (Hardin-Simmons, TX) 6 UK schools twinned with 6 US schools (April - July 2010) – looking for new asteroids (follow-up with FTN/FTS) Next programme: Oct Dec. 3 WISE-Faulkes NEO Confirmation Campaign

Online Training and Resources Courses currently online: Introductory Courses Themed Observing Programmes Astronomical Imaging Science Learning Centre Courses Lifecycle of Stars Asteroids Variable Stars Galaxies

Research Programmes Asteroids, comets and NEOs – with IASC and amateurs Open clusters X-ray binaries Galaxy clusters (with Southern Georgia State Uni) Extra-solar planets – with LCOGT

WWW access to research grade telescope networks l International collaboration l Infrastructure + Research + Education l Larger network plans: FTNMarch 2004 FTSOctober m late 2010(?), then 2-3 sites/year 1m mid 2011(?), then 1-2 site/year “We will always keep you in the dark”