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| Paper: |
Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network: Keeping Education in the Dark |
| Volume: |
443, Earth and Space Science: Making Connections in Education and Public Outreach |
| Page: |
309 |
| Authors: |
Ross, R. J. |
| Abstract: |
Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT) is creating a network of telescopes to be placed around the world providing 24/7 sky coverage of both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. These telescopes will range in size from 0.4 m to 2.0 m and will be available for scientific and educational uses in both real-time and in a queue-scheduler.
The educational uses of LCOGT will be primarily online through our
website (http://www.lcogt.net) where there will be how-to guides, ideas for activities, opportunities for participating in research projects with our astronomers, full access to the public archive, as well as an online community built through forums and groups. Content will be visible to all, although registered users will have the ability to add resources, post on blogs and forums, comment and rate existing pages and resources, collaborate in world-wide projects, and much more.
The current network includes the two 2.0 m Faulkes Telescopes on Haleakala,
Maui and at Siding Spring, Australia. A 0.8 m telescope located at Sedgwick
Reserve in the Santa Ynez Valley is nearly commissioned and will be used both for local outreach events as well as on the LCOGT network. The first pair of
0.4 m telescopes has been deployed to Maui and are enclosed inside the clamshell dome with Faulkes Telescope North (FTN), but still have some time to go before they are fully commissioned. The site in Chile is currently being prepped for three 1.0 m and two pairs of 0.4 m telescopes with the site in South Africa to follow shortly. Other sites include the Canary Islands, a site in North America, one in Asia, and another site in Australia. The 0.4 m telescopes will be deployed by pair and the 1.0 m telescopes will be deployed in groups of two or three, all with research-grade instrumentation. |
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