The Faulkes Telescope Project Deep Impact & Bioastronomy Institute for Astronomy University of Hawaii K. Meech

Faulkes Telescope Project Educational Partnership: –Educational Trust of Great Britain (UK) –Institute for Astronomy (HI) Purpose: Astronomy Outreach Location: –Haleakala, Maui Hawaii –Australia Operations –Remote control from the UK & Hawaii –Observe from classrooms –Queue Scheduled –30% of evenings for Hawaii

The Faulkes Telescope Professional Telescope –2-m f/10 primary – alt/azimuth –12 arc min FOV –Guider to 17 th mag Optical Detector –EEV CCD42-20 CCD: 2048x2048 pixels (0.135”) –4.6 x 4.6’ FOV –Filters: Sloan u', g', r', i', z', B, V, ND Future instruments: –Near IR imager –Spectrograph

Project Status MOU 6/26/99 Site blessing 11/02/01 Phase 1 construction – 3/2002 Enclosure – Scotland Ship: 7/02 Install 11/22/02 Telescope ship 8/02 Telescope Install 1/23/03 Electronics 7/03 First light 8/03 Operations Oct 04

Faulkes Education Program TOPS Education Outreach Program – S’03 (NSF/NASA) –Take “master teachers” –Train for remote observing –Simulate the Faulkes Experience 3 days learning to plan observations 1 day planning, learn web interface Receive data, learn image processing 1 weekend to analyze data and formulate a report Astrobiology & Deep Impact

What can students do? Young Variables: star form Kuiper Belt Studies –Colors & physical study –Recovery  orbits Comet Studies –Rotation –Space mission support –NEO Characterization

What can students do? Extrasolar Planet Transits Synoptic Studies of Jupiter –Rotation Synoptic Studies of Mars –Dust storms Courtesy of D. Charbonneau, Caltech

Project Goals Develop a teacher mentor network of teachers Astronomer-teacher liasons Provide software Develop an image data archive Increase astronomy content in classrooms –Curriculum materials –Science fair participation