Program Information - How It Works

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The basic premise behind the Telescopes In Education program is to allow students to remotely operate and control a telescope and CCD camera in order to further their application of theories learnt in school. The actual process of controlling a telescope and camera to take images is quite simple, requiring little prior experience with astronomy or photography. Here's how it works:

1. Students/teachers firstly schedule a training session with Roger Wilcox, the TIE Chile technician. Roger will be able to guide you through the process required in using the Browser version of the software used to control the telescopes both here in Australia and in Chile.
2. During this test session it is advisable to communicate with Roger via a real-time chat program such as ICQ or AIM. Roger can provide you with further details when he emails you with your username and password for that particular session (duration of which is usually one hour).
3. Once communications have been established, the remainder of the test session will be spent with the operator aiding you in the basic operation of the telescope and camera. Userguides on the operation of the system are included within the software help sections, or by contacting us.
4. Having successfully completed a test session, it is recommended that the students/teachers then spend some time planning their proposed viewing session, selecting what objects you wish to observe and in what order (this helps to optimise the viewing session). This planning can be done using the software in its planetarium mode.
5. A second request for a viewing session is then logged with our scheduler. You will again receive a username and password which will be required for authentication with the system (only one user can be logged on at any one time).
6. About one half hour before the commencement of your session, it is advisable to contact the operator to check on the local weather conditions. Inclement weather (high winds, rain, excessive cloud cover) will preclude the operation of the telescope (research is currently being carried out to integrate the whole system so that data from our weather station can be used to examine whether the conditions are within acceptable parameters - if not then a message will inform you of such).
7. Assuming that the session is approved and conditions are acceptable, you may then log in and commence your viewing.
8. Toward the end of your session time, you will receive messages to inform you that your time will soon expire and to finalise your image acquisition.
9. On completion of a session, we ask that you fill in a form to provide us with some feedback to your session. This enables us to troubleshoot any problems, and is also of benefit for our reporting to sponsors for funding.

It is planned that the observatory will soon have facilities to enable students to examine data from a solar power array, and also from a weather monitoring station. More details on how these facilities operate will be forthcoming.