LCO provides resources to education groups around the world. This article is the second in a series that will feature the published work of students doing astronomical research with data obtained from the LCO global network.
Las Cumbres Observatory provides telescope observing time to student groups doing research through the Global Sky Partners program.
The Institute for Student Astronomical Research (InStAR) has been active since 2008 under the leadership of Rachel Freed at Sonoma State University and has been an LCO Global Sky Partner since the program’s inauguration in 2017. The InStAR program offers and conducts Research Seminars at high schools and two- and four-year colleges and universities in double star astrometry, exoplanet photometry, and solar astronomy. With the support of the National Science Foundation and other astronomical organizations, InStAR has published results from students' work, trained teachers and professors so they can adopt the InStAR approach at their home institutions, trained citizen scientists to conduct and publish astronomical research in select fields, and assisted in training the next generation of scientists and researchers.
InStAR students have had eight abstracts accepted to the December meeting of the American Geophysical Union, and six of those use data from the LCO network.
These six abstracts are:
- Photometric Study of RR Lyrae V0893 Her by a Student Research Team
Tyce Olaveson1, Amber Mistry2, Stephen McNeil1, & Rachel Freed3
- Brigham Young University, Idaho, Rexburg, Idaho
- Oxbridge Academy, West Palm Beach, Florida
- Institute for Student Astronomical Research, Sonoma, California
- Astrometric measurements for double-stars not found in the WDS
Roberta Bonnell, Tyce Olaveson, Jakob Bergstedt, Dallin Fisher, Stephen R. McNeil
Brigham Young University, Rexburg, Idaho
- Results From a Remote Undergraduate Research Experience Using Robotic Telescopes to Study RR Lyrae Stars
Rachel Freed1 and Michael Fitzgerald2
- Institute for Student Astronomical Research, Sonoma, California
- Edith Cowan University, Australia
- Astronometric Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (A CURE)
Corin Slown1, Rachel Freed2, Robert Brazzle3
- California State University, Monterey Bay, California
- Institute for Student Astronomical Research, Sonoma, California
- Jefferson College, Hillsboro, Missouri
- Experiences in Astronomy Research for Undergraduates with InStAR and Our Solar Siblings
Stephen McNeil
Brigham Young University, Rexburg, Idaho
- New Measurement of Binary Star System WDS 18166+8027
Kiki Panigrahi
Stanford Online High School (OHS; grade 9), Palo Alto, California
These papers will be presented virtually at the AGU meeting in December. Las Cumbres Observatory provides opportunities for students, like those in the InStAR program, throughout the world through the Global Sky Partners. LCO programs spark an interest in science in students and inspire the next generation of astronomers.
The Global Sky Partners program is supported by the Simons Foundation.
