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Title:
Using Virtual Astronomical Observatory Tools for Astronomy 101
Authors:
Mighell, Kenneth J.; Garmany, K.; Larson, K.; Eastwood, K. D.
Affiliation:
AA(National Optical Astronomy Observatory), AB(National Optical Astronomy Observatory), AC(Western Washington University), AD(Northern Arizona University)
Publication:
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #462.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.406
Publication Date:
01/2009
Origin:
AAS
Bibliographic Code:
2009AAS...21346203M

Abstract

The Virtual Observatory provides several tools that are useful for educators. With these tools, instructors can easily provide real data to students in an environment that engages student curiosity and builds student understanding. In this poster we demonstrate how the tools Aladin and TOPCAT can be used to enhance astronomy education. The Aladin Sky Atlas is a Virtual Observatory portal from the CDS that displays images, superimposes catalogs, and provides interactive access to data. For illustration, we show an exercise for non-science majors in a college-level astronomy course that introduces students to the HR diagram of star clusters. After launching the pre-loaded Aladin applet, students select their own stars, connecting visual cues of brightness and color to the conceptual meaning behind a quantitative HR diagram. TOPCAT can be linked with Aladin on the desktop to let students analyze their data, perform calculations, and create professional-quality graphs. The basic exercise can be easily expanded to address other learning objectives and provides a launching point for students to access, visualize, and explore multi-wavelength data as they continue in astronomy. As a second example, we show an exercise that uses TOPCAT to do three-dimensional plotting of the positions of open and globular cluster to illustrate galactic structure. Detailed information is available at the following website: http://www.noao.edu/staff/mighell/nvoss2008/ . This research was done at the 2008 U.S. National Virtual Observatory Summer School which was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico on September 3 - 11, 2008 and was sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
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