News and Views March April 2004 home.
The Robotic Telscope. Robotic Telscope Opens Heavens to Children
School pupils across the UK will be able to gaze at the heavens from a telescope on the island of Tenerife without ever leaving their desks thanks to a University project.
The Bradford Robotic Telescope is 8,000 feet up on the edge of an extinct volcano on Tenerife and is situated on one of the best observatory sites available in Europe.
After a £200,000 upgrade, including a new telescope, computer system and several webcams, the Bradford Robotic Telescope is in the final stages of testing.
Project co-ordinator and head of the University's Department of Cybernetics, Internet and Virtual Systems Dr John Baruch said: "This will give every schoolchild in Britain access to the latest astronomical kit - for free."
Image from the webcam. Because the entire system is robotic, pupils can access the telescope, ask it to make an observation of any part of the sky and the telescope will send the resulting image back to them.
A dedicated web page for the telescope also provides schools with teaching materials and projects written by teachers at Rhodesway school in Bradford.
A webcam on the roof of the Bradford Robotic Telescope captures the Orion Constellation setting over Mount Teide on Tenerife.
Although in theory the telescope could complete 1,000 different observations in one night, Dr Baruch explained that, in reality, the vast majority of requests were from a list of just 30.
The system includes webcams that give around-the-clock views of the site and real-time images of the stars setting over Mount Teide.
The project is funded by the Nuffield Research Foundation and the Royal Society to promote the teaching of astronomy in schools.
Currently being tested among young members of the Nuffield 21st-Century Science Group, it is hoped that the Bradford Robotic Telescope will be fully up and running soon.
For more information, go to (External) www.telescope.org
28 September 2004
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