(New Workshop)
Course ASTRO 897C:
Telescopes: The Tools of Astronomical Inquiry

July 27- August 1, 2008

Astronomy is different than most sciences. Astronomers rarely get to design their own experiments, instead, we rely on the universe to set them up for us, and we use telescopes to observe the results. In this course, we will build simple telescopes, investigate how to use more sophisticated telescopes, and learn the technology behind the latest billion dollar class instruments used for modern research.

We will investigate the properties of telescopes (magnification, field of view, light gathering power, and angular resolution), take digital images, and learn how to make measurements from astronomical images. Participants will work as a group to demonstrate how multiple mirror telescopes like Penn State's Hobby-Eberly telescope are different than monolithic mirror telescopes.

Teachers will learn how astronomers plan out a night of observing at a research observatory, and will create their own plans for using Penn State's rooftop observatory during the workshop. Astronomy experts will present their work with the largest ground-based observatories in the world and will present results from various space telescopes.

Educators who have school telescopes are welcome to bring these to the workshop, and they can be included in the session on how to set up and observe with a small telescope.

Tentative Schedule

Sunday: Orientation

Monday: Telescope optics and the determination of telescope capability

Tuesday: Astronomical image processing and data analysis

Wednesday: The changing night sky and making an observing plan

Thursday: Modern large ground-based telescopes and space telescopes

Friday: Night sky observing (weather dependent)

Facilitator: Dr. Christoper Palma

Lead Instructors

Dr. Christopher Palma has substantial experience in education and public outreach in astronomy, and in 2003 he was hired as a full-time astronomy outreach faculty member at Penn State. Since 1995 he has been involved in numerous formal and informal science education programs. As a graduate student, Chris provided summer enrichment labs for a local school, created an "Astronomy Question & Answer" website staffed by graduate students, and was the guest astronomy expert on a local AM radio talk show. At Penn State, Chris has continued to participate in outreach by giving presentations and running demos at the community outreach event run by Penn State called AstroFest, presenting the Fall 2003 Penn State Friedman Lecture in Astronomy to an audience of 500, giving planetarium shows to visiting K-12 classes, and designing and implementing three summer camps for K - 8th graders with astronomy, space exploration, and astrobiology themes. Since 2001, Chris has served as Director and a Lead Instructor for the Penn State In-Service Workshops in Astronomy. His teaching responsibilities have included courses for both undergraduate astronomy majors and introductory astronomy for non-science majors. He has authored and taught several on-line astronomy courses to both distance education and Penn State resident student audiences.