Faulkes Telescope Project (http://faulkes-telescope.com/)
The Faulkes Telescope Project (FTP) is an education partner of Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGTN). FTP gives access to 1500 hours of observing time on two 2-metre class telescopes located in Hawaii (Faulkes Telescope North in Hawaii) and Australia (Faulkes Telescope south in Australia)
FTP’s philosophy gives learners the opportunity to engage in real science making them active participants in a range of astronomical research projects, ranging from observations of the solar system to distant galaxies. It operates a broad range of educational programmes, laying emphasis on teacher training.
Actually, a variety of research projects are being run on the FTs, with schools participating in the collection of data. The project also provides educational materials which can be accessed and downloaded free of charge. Astronomy video tutorials, online astronomy training and paper based documents amongst others are the resources available.
Before going online and booking time on the telescope, users must register for an account via FTP website. Then they can run their own 29 minute long real time observational session on one of the telescopes. These telescopes are the largest robotic telescopes in the world available for U.K schools to control in real time. The project also won the 2008 Sir Arthur Clarke Award in the category of Achievement in Education.
The Faulkes Telescope Projects in cooperation with Hands-On Universe runs many student observing projects such as supernovae observations, asteroid observations, the Lifecycle of Stars project and Hickson Compact Group of Galaxies project. Details of these, and many more projects can be found on the Faulkes educational website.
