Images are provided to IASC by the Astronomical Research Institute (Westfield, IL), Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii (Haleakala), and the National Astronomical Observatories of China (Beijing). Follow-up support is provided by Tarleton State University (Stephenville, TX), Western Kentucky University (Bowling Green, KY), Sierra Stars Observatory Network (Markleeville, CA), Faulkes Telescope Project (Wales), and Shiaparelli Observatory (Italy).
Astronomers Without Borders and IASC are sponsoring a special asteroid search campaign as part of Global Astronomy Month (GAM2012) in April. Fifteen schools from around the world were selected to participate in this campaign, which takes place from 23 March to 27 April, 2012.
Weather permitting, each school receives 3-5 unique sets of images each week of the campaign. Students download each image set and search them for asteroids just hours after they have been taken along the celestial ecliptic by the Astronomical Research Institute (ARI). Students use Astrometrica software, with IASC teachers who have participated in asteroid search campaigns available through the web site to answer questions by email and help with learning the software.
Schools were selected to participate based primarily on a one-paragraph description of the reasons the teacher and students would like to participate. To allow for geographic diversity in this special GAM2012 global project, no more than one school was selected from any country.
Note: Even if your school wasn’t selected to participate in this special GAM2012 project, it may still be able to participate in any of the 20 or more other asteroid search campaigns IASC organizes throughout the year.
