The Faulkes Telescopes: A Robotic Telescope Network for
School Science Students
Dr David FrewDepartment of Physics,
Faculty of Science, Macquarie University
Sydney
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• The $30M Faulkes Telescopes are the world's largest telescopes built primarily for science education.
• One is located in Hawaii, the other in Australia.
• Originally funded by Dill Faulkes, now owned by the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network.
• These robotic telescopes are controlled via the internet.
• Students can use archival data or take ownership of real research projects with help from their teachers and support staff.
Some background on the Telescopes…
Motivating students to study science and technology
4/6/09FT Kick-off meeting 7
Inherent fascination of astronomy and space
Excitement of real discoveries
Fabulous images
Cutting-edge multi-million dollar technology
Collaboration with real scientists
Genuine scientific investigations
Relevant to syllabus
Why use the FTs?
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Mechanics
Materials
Robotics
Electronics
Mathematics
Computing
Technology
Not just astronomy!Communications
And links with . . .
Art . . . . .
Technical English
Optics
Image processing
Mechanics
History
Geography
Geology
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Examples of Faulkes Projects
Variable stars
• Monitoring variation in brightness
• Estimating sizes of eclipsing binary stars
Star Clusters
• Observing stars in 3 wavebands to determine temperature and luminosity
• Estimate age of cluster
Planetary Nebulae
• Imaging, measuring & classifying
• Identification of central starsGalaxies
• Imaging, measuring & classifying
FT Projects are especially relevant to…
• Year 7 - 10 NSW Science Syllabus
• Year 11 Physics – The Cosmic Engine
• Year 12 Physics – Space (Core) and Astrophysics (Option)
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Syllabus Mapping…
Contents of the universe– Kepler’s Laws and Gravity
– Asteroids
– Masses of planets (Jupiter, Saturn)
– Star Clusters and Stellar Evolution– Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram
– Planetary Nebulae
– Galaxies
– The Big Bang (galaxy red-shifts, quasars)
Astronomical Methods
– Instrumentation– Photometry (light curves of asteroids, variable stars,
supernovae)
– Spectroscopy
NGC 3242 (Ghost of Jupiter)NGC 6543 (planetary
nebula)
Credit: http://lcogt.net/en/image/space/ngc-6543
Student comments from our ASISTM Pilot Project 2006-08
• “Everybody found this project awesome and I can’t wait to do more”
• “It was so interesting and not that hard to do”
• “I can’t believe I have contributed to real life science”
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Further Information
Our Homepage at Macquarie (Space To Grow Research Project):
www.astronomy.mq.edu.au/space2grow/
DEST-funded Pilot Study (Deep Space in the Classroom):www.astronomy.mq.edu.au/deepspace/
Faulkes Telescope Homepage:http://faulkes-telescope.com/
Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network:http://lcogt.net/
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