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

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

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

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

7. FTN Haleakala, Maui

9. FTS Siding Spring, Australia

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

11. 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

12. 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)

13. 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

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

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

16. “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

17. 10 schools (UK, Poland) - specific objects to observe showing stars at different life stages Schools process images, create poster Lifecycle of Stars BirthLifeDeath

20. M13

22. 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)

24. Case study: NGC 2004

26. New variables

27. Asteroids, comets and NEOs FT observing programmes – asteroids and comets in space “Down to Earth” project – impacts and meteorites http://down2earth.eu

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

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

31. Superfast rotator - 42.67s

33. 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. 18 - Dec. 3 WISE-Faulkes NEO Confirmation Campaign

34. 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

35. Research Programmes 2010-2011 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

36. WWW access to research grade telescope networks l International collaboration l Infrastructure + Research + Education l Larger network plans: FTNMarch 2004 FTSOctober 2007 0.4m late 2010(?), then 2-3 sites/year 1m mid 2011(?), then 1-2 site/year “We will always keep you in the dark”

37. http://faulkes-telescope.com http://lcogt.net http://down2earth.eu2earth.eu