We are piloting a new program for school-based astronomy clubs, called Global Sky Clubs. Astronomy clubs in school are often a place where young people have their first experience of astronomy. We are offering access to LCO’s global network of robotic telescopes and our world class, award winning educational resources.
This scheme is targeted at clubs who have some experience making astronomical observations and would like to start an investigation or research project.
If you do not have experience of making observations, Global Sky Clubs is probably not for you. However please get in touch, we can partner you with one of our Global Sky Partners. They offer programs which will get you started.
What we provide
You will get 10 hours on our 0.4m robotic telescope network. With this amount of time you will be able to investigate deep sky objects like star forming nebulae, variable stars and even exoplanets. LCO is suited to taking time-series observations, for astronomical events that change, and because of our efficient autonomous scheduler you can achieve a lot with just a few hours of telescope time.
To get you started, we will provide training on the LCO observation portal, our open access data archive, and using LCO data with a variety of analysis tools.
Your astronomy club will be part of a network of other school astronomy clubs around the world. We host monthly discussion meetings for you to talk through challenges and share your results.
Dates
The program starts 1 August 2022 and runs for 6 months. At the end of the 6 months you can apply to continue to be a part of the program. You can apply to join at any point, but we may not have space until the next session.
Eligibility
Any school astronomy or science club can apply. The club can be organized by a teacher, lab tech, or an external mentor (e.g. amateur astronomer). As long as the club is organized for school students in an educational setting.
Spaces are limited by the amount of observing time we have available for this scheme. Where possible we will give priority to schools in underserved and underrepresented regions.
How to apply
Fill out the form below, telling us a little about your club and what you would do with the time we can offer you.
