News

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Students control large telescope in Australia for astronomy research

Front to back: Caylin Canales, Daniel Godinez, Ashley Almada, Jason Paras, and standing is Dos Pueblos student Rishika Singh

Four students in Kim Miller’s class in room 314 at Goleta Valley Junior High are among the first teenagers in the continental United States to use the Faulkes Telescope located in Australia. As part of an active partnership between Goleta Valley Junior High and the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT), professional astronomers coordinate small research projects with local students and share time on the research equipment.

Student researchers Daniel Godinez, Caylin Canales, Jason Paras, Ashley Almada, and Dos Pueblos High student, Rishika Singh, learned how to operate the 2-meter professional research grade telescope, controlled robotically over the internet via a classroom computer. Their target is a star cluster for which little data has been previously collected. Guided by Dr. Rachel Street, the online resources at the United Kingdom-based Faulkes Telescope Project, and their teacher Kim Miller, the students will create Hertzprung-Russell diagrams (aka HR diagrams) of the star cluster and may plot light curves of any variable stars they discover.

On Tuesday, January 5, 2010, student researchers successfully accessed the Faulkes Telescope and were able to capture an image of the Unicorn Constellation. Eighth-grader Daniel Godinez said, “We learned how to control a telescope and take the picture, it will help us with our science experiments.” He added, “I will take images and those that our astronomer will send to us will help me chart the light intensity of the stars and process the images in software program DS9, then I can make an HR diagram.” This morning, the student researchers prepared to connect to the Faulkes Telescope from 8:30-9:00am. Unfortunately, weather conditions in Australia prevented a successful computer link.

The research will be reflected in the students’ March science fair projects.

Note: The student researchers were interviewed this morning on KCOY/Fox News and the interview will air tonight on Channel 12 during the 5pm and 6pm news broadcasts and on Channel 11 during the 7pm broadcast.