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What might you discover today?The Faulkes Telescopes (FT) have been built for school children to discover the excitement of looking at stars and galaxies far out in space. With one in Hawaii (FTN) and one in Australia (FTS), where it is night during daytime in Europe, classes can take control of a fully equipped 2-metre telescope and choose their own objects to explore. Pupils can also obtain images offline for more extended research projects. Together with the Faulkes Telescope Project, the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium are developing pupil-researcher partnerships to encourage young people of today to become the scientists of tomorrow. Schools can get involved directly by booking time on the telescopes. Students can pursue individual projects, either through their schools or during the summer at the Armagh Observatory. This poster illustrates just some of the projects that might be pursued. Further details can obtained from the contact addresses below.
Contacts
The Faulkes Telescope Project: www.faulkes-telescope.com
Schools co-ordinator for Ireland: Robert Hill, Armagh Planetarium, 028 3751 2931, [email protected]
Pupil-researcher partnerships: Simon Jeffery, Armagh Observatory, 028 3751 2958, [email protected]
Nuffield Science Bursaries: Sentinus, [email protected]
Photo Credits
Astronomical images obtained with Faulkes Telescopes by Anne O’Leary, Ciara Quinn, Sharon McClure and Louise Jeffery: 2000 PH5, NGC6826, NGC6543, NN Ser, M9
The Faulkes Project Team: Faulkes Telescope North, Jupiter, Crab Nebula, Sunflower Galaxy
Three projects were funded under the Nuffield Science Bursary scheme administered by Sentinus
Background: False colour image of M9.
Solar system
Take a closer look at our neighbours in the universe. Are there any asteroids on collision course with Earth? The sequence below shows the motion of the near-earth asteroid 2000 PH5 across the sky. The picture to the right shows Jupiter with one of its moons.
Binary stars
Disappearing stars! What happens when two stars orbit each other? The sequence below shows the eclipse of NN Ser, a binary star. The graph shows data of its magnitude (brightness) against phase of orbit.
Star clusters
Find out about the colours of stars and stellar evolution. This is a false colour image of the globular cluster M9 and a graph of brightness against colour for a selection of the stars it contains.
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Experiment with different filters and combine the images to give false colour pictures. The image on the left is NGC 6826 or the ‘blinking planetary’ and the nebula on the right is NGC 6543, also known as the ‘cat’s eye’ nebula.
Other possibilitiesOther topics for study might include
pulsating stars, stellar evolution, galaxies, cosmology. It’s your choice!
Below are images of the Crab Nebula and the Sunflower galaxy.
Second level students making observations with FTN at Armagh Observatory.
Cosmic explosions
Nova Sco 2004/2 appeared in the constellation of Scorpio on 6 August 2004. It is an explosion on the surface of a white dwarf star. As you can see from the pictures, what had been a very faint star, invisible on the left hand image quickly became the brightest object in this area of the sky. A close up of the nova is shown above right.
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Poster Design © 2004: Louise Jeffery, Armagh Observatory
