1. Remote Telescopes in Education
VSA 2006
Remote Telescopes in Education
How Apollo Asteroid 2003 QA was discovered…

2. where?
what?
why?
RESULTS!
VSA 2006

3. Why to use them in school?
- stimulate interest in science
- hands-on experience
- etc. etc.
Problem: It is not dark during school hours!
Solution: Other side of the world = remote control
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4. Example… School in Europe  Telescopes on Hawaii and in Australia
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5. Morning in Europe school starts in Europe
night starts on Hawaii, not yet in Australia
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6. Noon in Europe
night on Hawaii and in Australia
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7. Evening in Europe
still night in Australia
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8. Remote? Automatic? Robotic?
Chapter 2: Definition: remote, automatic, robotic
Remote? Automatic? Robotic?
Hawaii
Internet
Croatia
manual
automatic
robotic
manual
automatic
robotic
Locally accessed
Remotely accessed
VSA 2006

9. Possible projects Comet and Asteroid studies: discovery of new objects
follow-up of newly discovered NEOs
lightcurve work
monitoring comets (Af[rho]…)
Hunting for Supernovae
Variable star work
Gamma Ray Bursts – optical afterglow hunting
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10. The Faulkes Telescope Project
two 2-m telescopes
Hawaii and Australia
largest telescopes in the world dedicated to education
10 Mio British Pounds
open to UK schools
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11. Faulkes Telescope North on Hawaii
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12. Faulkes Telescope South in Australia
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13. Visnjan School of Astronomy Robotic Telescope Group
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14. Visnjan Observatory Robotic Telescope
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15. VSA 2006

16. The NEO group at VSA 2003 Students: Petra Korlevic (Croatia)
Brigitta Sipocz (Hungary)
Zsolt Diveki (Yugoslavia)
41-cm f/4.3 reflector + 1k1k CCD
„Telescope operator“: Korado Korlevic
VSA 2006

17. Forest fires on Istria + burned mainboard
30-cm f/9 telescope + 1k1k CCD at OAM made available for VSA
remotely controlled over Internet from Visnjan
first mission in education
first time controlled by students
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18. C/2001 K5 (LINEAR) on
(2100) Ra-Shalom
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19. The field…
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20. The field… close-up
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21. Excitement after lunch – a second object!
no ID inside Astrometrica/MPCorb
all images measured
no ID inside MPChecker
looks like an unknown NEO
quick to MPC
added onto NEOCP
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22. MPC mainpage at 19:15 UT
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23. NEOCP at 19:15 UT
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24. NEOCP results at 19:15 UT
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25. NEOCP uncertainty map at 19:15 UT
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26. MPC mainpage at 21:20 UT
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27. NEOCP at 21:20 UT
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28. How to get it published before end of VSA the next day?
many solutions possible
we must constrain the range of possible geocentric distances
simultaneous observations from Visnjan and Mallorca!
slyone C R
slyone C R
slyone C R
slyone C R
slyone C R
slyone C R
Geocentric distance = 0.26 AU  NEO and km-sized
VSA 2006

29. Discovery MPEC after 24h of observations
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30. Discovery MPEC after 24h of observations
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31. The orbit of apollo type NEO 2003 QA
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32. Conclusions You need to invest a lot of work initially! But…
Remote Telescopes are useful
Remote Telescopes are effective
Prototype  Cloning!
VSA 2006

33. Cloning…
Thank you… questions?
VSA 2006