Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Nov 1997
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997pasp..109.1264m&link_type=abstract
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, v.109, p.1264-1268
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
12
Instrumentation: Cameras
Scientific paper
We describe the use of an autonomous astronomical camera, called ``Stardial,'' for undergraduate instruction. Stardial delivers images of the night sky nearly in real-time to the world wide web (www.astro.uiuc.edu/~stardial/). The world wide web (WWW) interface is robust, inexpensive, and accommodates many students asynchronously with respect to the instructor(s). The guiding philosophy is to provide students with authentic astronomical data so that they may learn about science by doing it themselves. Students respond favorably to the opportunity to learn from their own experiences with authentic data, complete with its irregularities and its surprises. Stardial has been operational for one academic year (1996-97) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In this paper we describe Stardial's instrumentation, some of the curriculum based upon Stardial's unique data, and the experiences of students who have used Stardial. We conclude with possible research topics using Stardial data and with a brief look to the future of remote laboratories. (SECTION: Astronomical Instrumentation)
The name ``Stardial'' derives from the fact that like a sundial, Stardial is a stationary device placed outside 24 hours a day, and that both depend on and make evident the rotation of the Earth. A sundial operates with sunlight, while Stardial operates with starlight. There the similarity ends.
McCullough Peter
Thakkar Umesh
No associations
LandOfFree
Stardial: an Autonomous Astronomical Camera on the World Wide Web does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Stardial: an Autonomous Astronomical Camera on the World Wide Web, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Stardial: an Autonomous Astronomical Camera on the World Wide Web will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-925745