| Astronomical Research Institute Hardin-Simmons University Hands-On Universe |
Asteroid Discoveries: |
Home page for International Astronomical
Search Collaboration (IASC): The International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC pronounced "Isaac") is an educational outreach program provided at no cost to participating high schools and colleges. Using images taken the night before with the 24" and 32" telescopes at the Astronomical Research Institute (ARI) Observatory, students make original discoveries of Main Belt asteroids and important observations that contribute to the NASA Near-Earth Object (NEO) Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, CA). If you do not have the software Astrometrica downloaded and installed on your school's computers, it is available at the IASC web site. It has the Astrometrica software, configuration files, installation guide, instructions for finding asteroids, and practice image sets. Teachers who prepare ahead of time, download and install the software, and learn how to successfully use it to produce reports that ultimately goes to the Minor Planet Center (Harvard) with students' discoveries and NEO measurements, have students who succeed in IASC. Their students discover new asteroids and make important NEO observations. The key to students' success in an IASC asteroid search campaign -- and it's not hard to do -- is to: 1. Be able to use Astrometrica to conduct an automated
and manual search for asteroids.
2009 Oct 30. From: Patrick
Miller. Greetings from the International Astronomical
Search Collaboration. The All-Texas Asteroid Search
Campaign and NEO Confirmation Campaign are currently
on hold. The weather has been overcast and raining
for the past five nights at the ARI Observatory.
The Full Moon occurs on Monday night so the likelihood
remains slim that image sets will be available in
the coming days. Should this change, you will be
notified immediately. 2009 Oct 20. From:
Patrick Miller. Greetings from the International
Astronomical Search Collaboration.
2009 Oct 13. From: Patrick Miller. IASC congratulations
are in order for observations and discoveries: 2008 Dec 16. A total of 50 NEO observations
made by students participating in the All-China Asteroid
Search Campaign have been been reported to the Minor
Planet Center (Harvard). For a complete list of the
50 NEO observations go to "Discoveries & Observations" at
the IASC home page. 2008 Nov. Current list of IASC discoveries and observations is at http://iasc.hsutx.edu/Discoveries. The number of new asteroid discoveries remains at 23 but the list of NEO observations is long and includes many of IASC students. The current campaign continues until December 5, 2008, and we expect still more original discoveries and important contributions to the measurements of the impact threatening near-Earth objects. 2008 Jun 13 Update From:
Patrick Miller: We have a list
of schools participating in the 2007-2008 asteroid
campaigns (plus one pilot supernova campaign). We've
changed the name of IASC from International Asteroid
Search Campaign to International Astronomical Search
Collaborative (still calling it "Isaac").
The plan is to completely develop the supernova search
campaign and including search campaigns for Kuiper
Belt objects and comets. March 2007 Here's what happens when parents get excited
about their kids finding asteroids--article in their
local paper (Sacramento, CA). Long quotes from Patrick
Miller, as well as Glenn Reagan and his students --
way to go! --Alan Click on image below to magnify. IASC is a collaboration of Hardin-Simmons University (Abilene, TX), Lawrence Hall of Science (Hands-On Universe, University of California at Berkeley), Astronomical Research Institute (Charleston, IL), Global Hands-On Universe Association (Portugal), and Astrometrica (H. Raab, Austria). During times of Moon-less skies, the ARI takes images along the ecliptic using its 0.81-m telescope. The following day these images are prepared and made available to the participating schools. The schools go to HSU Blackboard where they download the images and use the software package Astrometrica to produce a plate solution and identify all of the moving objects. Astrometrica checks to see which of the objects are found within the MPC database. Those objects not found are identified as new discoveries. In order to complete the discovery, the ARI must take a follow-up image within seven days. When this is completed, the MPC officially recognizes the discovery and credits the students having conducted the analysis. Search
campaigns are run for 30 days at a time. The
first was conducted October-November 2006 with five
participating schools. The
next campaign was February-March 2007 with 15 participating
schools. A third campaign was held April-May
2007, again with 15 participating schools. A key goal of these campaigns is to establish ongoing astronomy research programs at high schools and colleges. These schools will be able to directly access the images from the Astronomical Research Institute on an ongoing basis, and integrate these searches into their science curriculums. Teachers interested in having their students participate in future asteroid search campaigns can contact J. Patrick Miller (e-mail, or 325-670-1393). J. Patrick Miller *More recently the Sierra Nevada Observatory (Spain) provided images from a 1.5 m telescope of Pluto-sized KBOs. HSU students analyzed these images building light curves for 2005 FY9, the third largest of these objects found 50 AU from the Sun. |
Lawrence Hall of Science | © Tuesday, 09-Feb-2010 03:48:00 PST | Updated Friday, 30-Oct-2009 11:37:21 PDT
