Related papers: Discovering New Variable Stars at Key Stage 3
The European Virtual Observatory (VO) initiative organises regular VO schools since 2008. The goals are twofold: i) to expose early-career European astronomers to the variety of currently available VO tools and services so that they can use…
Scientific research is a continuous process, and the speed of future progress can be estimated by the pace of finding explanations for previous research questions. In this observers based view of stellar pulsation and asteroseismology, we…
Since the early 1990s with the arrival of a variety of new technologies, the capacity for authentic astronomical research at the high school level has skyrocketed. This potential, however, has not realized the bright-eyed hopes and dreams…
Over the next decade we will witness the development of a new infrastructure in support of data-intensive scientific research, which includes Astronomy. This new networked environment will offer both challenges and opportunities to our…
The study of the Universe and all its contents, the physical phenomena and the evolution of the sky objects has always attracted the Humanity. The Astronomy begins to try to explain these things, others sciences too. Therefore, we think a…
We report on our ongoing efforts to develop, implement, and test VR activities for the introductory astronomy course and laboratory. Specifically, we developed immersive activities for two challenging "3D" concepts: Moon phases, and stellar…
The paper presents a teaching module about liquid crystals. Since liquid crystals are linked to everyday student experiences and are also a topic of a current scientific research, they are an excellent candidate of a modern topic to be…
Stellar variability studies are now reaching a completely new level thanks to ESA's Gaia mission, which enables us to locate many variable stars in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram and determine the various instability strips/bands.…
One of the most regular activities of amateur clubs is scientific outreach, a paramount channel to disseminate scientific results. It is typically performed through talks given by both experts (professional astronomers) and non-experts to a…
Because undergraduate participation in research is a longstanding and increasingly important aspect of the career path for future scientists, students can benefit from additional resources to introduce them to the culture and process of…
This paper introduces a novel variability report generator developed for the Large Array Survey Telescope (LAST), a cost-effective multi-purpose telescope array conducting a wide survey of the variable sky in the visible-light spectrum.…
The Variable Star One-shot Project (VSOP) aimed at providing to the world-wide stellar community the necessary one-shot spectrum of unstudied variable stars, too often classified as such by an analysis of photometric data only. The VSOP has…
The proper choice of a measurement technique that minimizes systematic and random uncertainty is an essential part of experimental physics. These issues are difficult to teach in the introductory laboratory, though: because most experiments…
We describe the VSNG Project, a collaboration between researchers of Bologna, Padova, Napoli and Merate Observatories, to study variable stars in a number of galaxies in the Local Group. We briefly review results obtained for the galaxies…
There is an opportunity to advance both solar system and extrasolar planetary studies that does not require the construction of new telescopes or new missions but better use and access to inter-disciplinary data sets. This approach…
Astronomical researchers often think of analysis and visualization as separate tasks. In the case of high-dimensional data sets, though, interactive exploratory data visualization can give far more insight than an approach where data…
Variability in the sky has been known for centuries, even millennia, but our knowledge of it is very incomplete even at the bright end. Current technology makes it possible to built small, robotic optical instruments, to record images and…
The modern engineering landscape increasingly requires a range of skills to successfully integrate complex systems. Project-based learning is used to help students build professional skills. However, it is typically applied to small teams…
We present more than 80 new variable stars discovered during the first observing season of the APACHE survey. APACHE is a project aimed at detecting extrasolar planets transiting nearby, bright M dwarfs by using an array of small-aperture…
The authors present the results of a simple usability test performed on line_explorer, an innovative tool aimed at letting students explore programming. The system offers an interactive environment where students can learn, review, and…