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Education and Public Outreach
A spin-off from the
front-rank research programmes enabled through
RoboNet-1.0 is the opportunity to build on the extensive
educational programmes of both the Faulkes and Liverpool Telescope
projects. In the case of the FTs, educational programmes are already
based around collaborative research projects that utilise data gathered
by schools using the FT-N, on behalf of
professional astronomers. Most of these projects are focussed on
catalogue production and long term monitoring, leaving ample
opportunity for new projects focussing on time domain astrophysics.
With RoboNet-1.0, we have a unique opportunity to involve schools and
the public in "live" research, with a rapid turn-around in data and
often a rapid production of publishable results (e.g. in the form of
IAU Circulars).
![[IMAGE: NSO]](images/stafup_s.jpg)
It is
also
planned that selected data obtained via the network will
be made available to schools and the general public through the National Schools
Observatory (NSO) website,
supported by educational materials identifying links with the National
Curriculum, and thus allowing teachers to use them directly in the
classroom. Via NSO, users will be given the opportunity to become
involved with any new research that is reported. For example, the NSO
website will contain a "e;Exciting targets to observe tonight"e; area,
listing currently active transients and other
targets-of-opportunity, with sufficient information to allow users to
obtain useful supplementary data. Making telescopes available to schools in order to facilitate the teaching of astronomy is also an important aim of Las Cumbres Observatory, the new owner of the Faulkes Telescopes.