NITARP tutorials

Held roughly monthly. You need to register so that I can mail you the relevant phone numbers and join.me links just prior to the tutorial. Archived here and on YouTube if you can't attend live.

Done ones

• First NITARP Tutorial: WISE and the WISE Archive (Nov 2012): Done by Luisa Rebull (SSC/IPAC). Part 1: WISE overview - what is the mission, the big picture (20 min); Part 2: the WISE archive - how to access the archive (20 min); Part 3: questions - questions from those online and on the phone (8 min)

• Second NITARP Tutorial: ds9 (Jan 2013): Done by Luisa Rebull (SSC/IPAC). Part 1: ds9 overview - what is ds9, etc (10.5 min); Part 2: the first half of the ds9 demo - getting it started, basics of usage (19 min); Part 3: the second half of the ds9 demo - more advanced tips and tricks (25 min) (feedback form if you are still interested in giving feedback, even if you didn't attend live.)
  • Download ds9 from here: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/RD/ds9/site/Download.html
  • Having problems making ds9 start up on a Mac? Make sure you have X windows (also called X11) installed - it is free, though if you get it from the App Store, it will make you give them an address. Also try this site.
  • More help on installing ds9 from Chandra (may be dated).
  • NB: for Mac OS 10.8 (snow leopard) users: No formal X11 support is provided for this OS version, but it appears that DS9 version 6.1 will still work even with 10.8. Mac users of 10.8 ONLY should install 6.1.

• Third NITARP Tutorial: Skynet, and Skynet Junior Scholars (Feb 2013) - Vivian Hoette (Yerkes Observatory) - http://skynet.unc.edu/ - One big YouTube file - 53 min.

Skynet is a distributed network of robotic telescopes operated by students, faculty, and staff at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Vivian told us about Skynet in general, how you can use it, and more about her program called Skynet Junior Scholars. Web page Vivian constructed prior to the telecon. NITARPers who missed the Tutorial can email Luisa or Vivian for the password information and access to Skynet. The Skynet-developed online tutorials mentioned during our tutorial are here. We had LOTS of technical glitches with this one. Sorry about that. If there is demand, we will redo this tutorial.

• Fourth NITARP Tutorial: IASC (March 2013) - Patrick Miller (Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, TX) and Denise Rothrock (Madisonville HS, NITARP Class of 2012) - http://iasc.hsutx.edu/

IASC, the International Astronomical Search Collaboration, is an educational outreach program in astronomy designed for high schools and colleges. IASC ("Isaac") provides images taken the night before at ground-based observatories from around the country. Students download these images the next morning and search for asteroids, primarily Main Belt asteroids between Mars and Jupiter. Occasionally, they will discover near-Earth objects and Trojan asteroids in Jupiter's orbit. Your students can participate in this program along with 500 schools from 60 countries. They can make original discoveries that, in time, can be officially named. Patrick Miller (Hardin-Simmons University, Abilene, TX) and Denise Rothrock (Madisonville HS, NITARP Class of 2012) will share with us information about IASC and how you, too, can be involved. The program is provided at no cost to you or your students...IASC is free. Whole honkin' thing (56 min) OR Just the part on Asteroids and Why You Should Care (23 min), Just the part on IASC and what it is (19 min), and Just the part with the live demo of the IASC software (15 min)

• BONUS April Tutorial: SOFIA Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors program. Application available now, due May 3! Coral Clark (SOFIA) and Chelen Johnson (NITARP and AAA alum) told us about SOFIA and the AAA program on April 9. Whole thing (39 min) -- do stick around for the questions at the end because we talk about some issues specifically relevant to NITARP alumni applying for SOFIA.

Planned ones with dates

• Fifth NITARP Tutorial: Chandra ds9 labs http://chandra-ed.harvard.edu/ - Terry Matilsky (Rutgers) - Tuesday April 16, 4pm EASTERN=1pm PACIFIC .. note that this is earlier than the other tutorials have been

Terry Matilsky (Rutgers) will teach us all about the really nice Chandra data analysis activities available here. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS TUTORIAL REQUIRES SOME ADVANCE WORK FROM YOU, because it will assume some knowledge as a prerequisite. You need to:

1. Obtain and install ds9 and verify that it works on your computer.
2. Have some operational familiarity with ds9, at the very least having watched the January ds9 tutorial above, or equivalent.
3. Read the core pages from the Chandra 101 pages here.
4. Pre-register here.

• Sixth NITARP Tutorial: Media Relations for Teachers: Getting your NITARP (etc) story into your local media - Tim Spuck and Ardis Herrold - Tuesday May 14th, 4pm pacific time = 5pm mountain = 6pm central = 7pm eastern

Hoped-for ones

(in no particular order, in various stages of planning)

• Spitzer, the SHA, the enhanced products - Luisa(*)
• Planck, and its archive - release in March?- Peregrine?
• NASA Exoplanet Archive (and by extension, Kepler and maybe even CoRoT??) -- Solange(*) "after May"
• WISE asteroids and comets.
• APT, from 'what is photometry' through latest bells and whistles. may be 2-parter. (Varoujan and Russ)(*) "after April"
• finding data at other wavelengths - Skyview from goddard. finderchart. 2mass. other archives?
• Spatial resolution??
• LCOGT http://lcogt.net/ -- JD Armstrong(*)
• Guidance on getting research into the classroom?? Guidance on curriculum development??
• Edubites overview?? - Carolyn
• Excel?? many tutorials already online at YouTube - get a NITARP alum teacher to do one on "things you should know about Excel but were afraid to ask?"
• Getting started in programming - ?? - Python in the classroom - someone at Yerkes?
• HOU http://www.handsonuniverse.org/ and http://astro.uchicago.edu/yerkes/outreach/activities/Explorations/ http://www.globalsystemsscience.org/software/download - Alan Gould, Carl Penneypacker?? - particularly interested in HOU legacy of extensively tested labs; newer opportunities such as IASC and Skynet are also represented in the list here, but separately from HOU.
• SED tool - Sally Seebode
• SDSS labs http://cas.sdss.org/dr5/en/proj/teachers/ - ??
• how to come up with project ideas
• Micro Observatory http://mo-www.harvard.edu/MicroObservatory/ - Susan Sunbury et al.(*)
• MAST?
• NRAO teacher opportunities - Sue Ann Heatherly (*)
• WWT http://www.worldwidetelescope.org - Pat Udomprasaert??
• NOAO RBSE lessons http://www.noao.edu/education/arbse/arpd
• Zooniverse projects and lesson plans