Controlling robotic telescopes - from school

A scientific and educational foundation formed by computer legend Wayne Rosing is piloting a €100-million astronomy project in…

A scientific and educational foundation formed by computer legend Wayne Rosing is piloting a €100-million astronomy project in Ireland that will allow Irish students to control powerful robotic telescopes on the other side of the earth.

The new initiative builds on student access already available here to the two-metre Faulkes robotic telescopes. It allows students to connect to three more very large telescopes developed under a system known as RoboNet.

NUI Galway astronomer Prof Mike Redfern welcomed the scheme. He coordinates schools outreach programmes in astronomy.

"I concentrate on developing role models, linking young science researchers with school students," he says. "Anyone can look through a telescope or kick a football. Enjoyment is a major part of it, but becoming a top professional in any field requires experience, discipline and training. Linking with young researchers enables students to see how one can get their kicks from science."

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A former vice-president at internet company Google, Rosing has a long-standing interest in astronomy. He established the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO), a US scientific and educational foundation, in 1992. LCO has now purchased both the Faulkes telescope programme, developed by philanthropist Martin Dill Faulkes, and RoboNet, developed at Liverpool's John Moores University (JMU). The brainchild of Professor Mike Bode at JMU, RoboNet developed the world's largest, most sophisticated ground-based robotic telescope system.

The two-metre robotic Faulkes telescopes are based in Maui, Hawaii (known as Faulkes North), and in Siding Springs, Australia (Faulkes South, which will soon be ready for use). The RoboNet system at JMU includes a large telescope in La Palma in the Canary Islands (operating since 2003), the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA), at Pune, India, and the Yunnan Telescope, Gao Meigu, southwest China.

Schools can now gain access to this remarkable range of professional quality instruments free of charge. Ireland has only about 50 clear nights a year. Light pollution and the weather makes viewing here difficult, and we are not in a position to make observations in the southern hemisphere. The LCO initiative now affords any-time quality observations right around the globe.

These huge telescopes are also being used by professionals to make important discoveries. In January, RoboNet collaboration helped to locate the smallest exoplanet yet found. The results were published in the journal Nature, no mean feat for a telescope dedicated to schools.

Faulkes North took the first European pictures of last July's collision of the Nasa Deep Impact probe with Comet Temple 1 and also discovered asteroid WB 10 last year. Currently visible again, the plan is to officially name the asteroid this year. Schools and colleges that submit observations are requested to suggest names. Imagine the excitement for students to be able to actually name a celestial body.

The programme is open to schools throughout the island of Ireland, but the North is ahead in terms of linking the curriculum to the observations that can be made with these five telescopes.

Robert Hill of Armagh Planetarium is co-ordinating the Northern schools programme. The Northern projects already fit with the curriculum.

In the South, researchers are involved in disparate teacher training and transition year group projects in different universities, but telescope astronomy does not feature in our curriculum.

Astrophysics is covered in our new "physical science" syllabus, which is due to replace "physics with chemistry", but sadly, it has no material on solar system astronomy. Teachers are keen, but without something on a curriculum only the most committed are attracted to the Faulkes/RoboNet scheme.

Bart Connolly