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BVR color image made from images used in this study. North is up, and east is left. The field is roughly 9′ × 9′.
Source publication
Optical UBVRI photometric measurements using the Faulkes Telescope North were
taken in early 2011 and combined with 2MASS JHK$_s$ and WISE infrared
photometry as well as UCAC4 proper motion data in order to estimate the main
parameters of the galactic open cluster NGC 2215 of which large uncertainty
exists in the current literature. Fitting a King...
Context in source publication
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Citations
... While it is relatively rare, it is entirely possible that if the research is taken to its natural extent in an area of sufficient interest to the astronomical community then such authentic projects undertaken by students, teachers and pro-ams can be published in middle to top tier astronomical journals. Examples include (Beuermann et al. 2009(Beuermann et al. , 2011Backhaus et al. 2012;Frew et al. 2011;Fitzgerald et al. 2012Fitzgerald et al. , 2015Guieu et al. 2010;Howell et al. 2006Howell et al. , 2008Rebull et al. 2011). ...
In this article, the rationale behind the creation of a new journal, Astronomy Theory, Observations and Methods (ATOM) journal, currently hosted at rtsre.org is provided. It aims to fill a niche in the community for papers on any general topic in astronomy that may not find their place in top tier astronomical journals. The article outlines the thinking behind why there is a gap to be filled with regards to current scholarly metrics and the nature of other journals of similar scope and impact. The journal aims to be accessible to new and novice scientific authors, as well as those more established, through accessible developmental peer review and an explicit aim to avoid using publication metrics as a barrier to publication selection. The
scope, which accepts more broader articles than most, of the journal and considerations on behalf of a potential author are also outlined.
... Two useful databases are cross matched to extend the available spectral energy distribution, JHKs from 2MASS (Skrutskie et al., 2006), W1W2W3W4 from WISE (Wright et al., 2010) even though only W1 and W2 are really all that useful for stars. Currently for stellar proper motion, the pipeline cross matches with UCAC4 (Zacharias et al., 2013) but will be updated to GAIA data (Brown et al., 2016), such as that resulting in the recent Fitzgerald et al. (2015) paper. The resultant catalogue can be directly opened in Pysochrone to examine the data across a variety of Colour-Magnitude and Colour-Colour Diagrams. ...
In this paper, a pipeline designed to produce data products for education is described. The primary goal of the pipeline is to facilitate teacher usage of robotic telescopes in the classroom and to reduce administration time for project personnel. In so doing, it produces data products that are scientifically valid and robust using multiple different photometric measurement techniques to create catalogues of both instrumental measurements as well as calibrated measurements cross matched to popular astronomical catalogues where standard stars are available. The main blocking factors that the pipeline addresses are outlined, an overview of the pipeline is provided and it's future development is forecast.
... Precision photometry of Open Clusters is also a core research project within OSS. While there has only been one paper published about an open cluster in the project (Fitzgerald et al., 2015b), there are a variety of scientific papers on various Open Clusters waiting in the queue to be submitted. Open Clusters, as a topic, are a wonderful student research project because they are somewhat simple, yet each object is complex and unique and the topic captures much of the fundamentals of observational astronomy. ...
In this paper, a robotic telescope-centric high-school level astronomy education project, Our Solar Siblings (OSS) is outlined. The project, an LCO official education partner, was formed as an institution-independent non-profit collaboration of volunteers officially in 2014, although the first version of the curriculum materials and approach was initially first designed in 2010. We outline the five goals of the project and the three approaches (formal classroom, independent student research and providing support to similar endeavours) we implement to pursue these goals. The curriculum materials, a central part of the project, are outlined as are their connections to various curriculum. The independent research project aspect and recent activity is presented. The article concludes with a brief update on the OSS evaluation which drives the educational design and the project's future directions as of 2017.
... The final stage of open inquiry taken by some students is to choose a cluster that has not been investigated, or whose data were generated in the early days of photographs or photo-multiplier tubes, and to fully analyze it. Their results are checked and an invitation extended to cooperate to write it up for publication (e.g., Fitzgerald et al., 2015). ...
... The (Fitzgerald, 2015) both in real science (Fitzgerald et al., 2015b;Fitzgerald et al., 2012;Frew et al., 2011) and in science education (Danaia et al., 2013;Danaia et al., 2012;Fitzgerald et al., 2017;Fitzgerald et al., 2016;Fitzgerald et al., 2015a;Fitzgerald et al., 2014). These are referenced in full at the end of this article to help readers locate, and read, the papers as well as to illustrate the imperative of communicating to others what one has done so that the same mistakes are not repeated. ...
... The MONET project produced a variety of papers with German Gymnasiums involving cataclysmic variables [142,143] and binary stars [144]. Students involved with the Space To Grow project [93] produced papers on a planetary nebula [145], RR Lyraes [146] (see Figure 16R) and on a neglected open cluster [147]. Through the NITARP project (see Figure 16L), students were involved with observations of the Witch Head Nebula [148], cataclysmic variables [149], accretion discs [150] and young stellar candidates [151]. ...
... For aperture photometry, the most robust freely available tool available is Aperture Photometry Tool. The interface can be daunting for first-time users, but it is heavily validated [172,173]) and has successfully been used in research that has been published in the mainstream and pro-am literature [151,174,175,176,147]. AstroImageJ [177] is a more recently developed promising free software, like SalsaJ is based on ImageJ, which is capable of multi-object differential aperture photometry for high precision light-curves over a series of images. ...
The power of robotic telescopes to transform science education has been voiced by multiple sources, since the 1980s. Since then, much technical progress has been made in robotic telescope provision to end users via a variety of different approaches. The educational transformation hoped for by the provision of this technology has, so far, yet to be achieved on a scale matching the technical advancements. In this paper, the history, definition, role and rationale of optical robotic telescopes with a focus on their use in education is provided. The current telescope access providers and educational projects and their broad uses in traditional schooling, undergraduate and outreach are then outlined. From this background, the current challenges to the field, which are numerous, are then presented. This review is concluded with a series of recommendations for current and future projects that are apparent and have emerged from the literature.
... The MONET project produced a variety of papers with German Gymnasiums involving cataclysmic variables [142,143] and binary stars [144]. Students involved with the Space To Grow project [93] produced papers on a planetary nebula [145], RR Lyraes [146] (see Figure 16R) and on a neglected open cluster [147]. Through the NITARP project (see Figure 16L), students were involved with observations of the Witch Head Nebula [148], cataclysmic variables [149], accretion discs [150] and young stellar candidates [151]. ...
... For aperture photometry, the most robust freely available tool available is Aperture Photometry Tool. The interface can be daunting for first-time users, but it is heavily validated [172,173]) and has successfully been used in research that has been published in the mainstream and pro-am literature [151,174,175,176,147]. AstroImageJ [177] is a more recently developed promising free software, like SalsaJ is based on ImageJ, which is capable of multi-object differential aperture photometry for high precision light-curves over a series of images. ...
The power of robotic telescopes to transform science education has been voiced by multiple sources, since the 1980s. Since then, much technical progress has been made in robotic telescope provision to end users via a variety of different approaches. The educational transformation hoped for by the provision of this technology has, so far, yet to be achieved on a scale matching the technical advancements. In this paper, the history, definition, role and rationale of optical robotic telescopes with a focus on their use in education is provided. The current telescope access providers and educational projects and their broad uses in traditional schooling, undergraduate and outreach are then outlined. From this background, the current challenges to the field, which are numerous, are then presented. This review is concluded with a series of recommendations for current and future projects that are apparent and have emerged from the literature.
... It is therefore important to review what is known about each. NGC 2215 NGC 2215 was studied recently by Fitzgerald et al. (2015), who provide a summary of previous investigations with emphasis on the large differences in its parameters obtained over the years. It is not necessary to repeat their discussion here, but it is worth noting that large discrepancies in the derived parameters for clusters are unfortunately quite common in the literature (Netopil et al. 2015). ...
... It is not necessary to repeat their discussion here, but it is worth noting that large discrepancies in the derived parameters for clusters are unfortunately quite common in the literature (Netopil et al. 2015). The photometry of Fitzgerald et al. (2015) covers a region measuring ∼ 9 arcmin on a side, suitable for sampling the cluster core, which appears to lie within a radius of ∼5 arcmin. Their derived parameters are: distance ∼800 pc from the Sun, reddening EB−V = 0.26, and age slightly less than one Gyr. ...
... Two additional points render the cluster particularly interesting . First, the metallicity found by Fitzgerald et al. (2015) is very low for the age and Galactic location of the cluster (Magrini et al. 2009). Second, the authors refer to possible contamination from Perseus arm stars lying background to the cluster, a feature that could not be tested properly given their small field of view. ...
Multicolour photometry of the stellar populations in five fields in the third Galactic quadrant centred on the clusters NGC
2215, NGC 2354, Haffner 22, Ruprecht 11, and ESO489 SC01 is interpreted in terms of a warped and flared Galactic disc, without
resort to an external entity such as the popular Monoceros or Canis Major overdensities. Except for NGC 2215, the clusters
are poorly or unstudied previously. The data generate basic parameters for each cluster, including the distribution of stars
along the line of sight. We use star counts and photometric analysis, without recourse to Galactic-model-based predictions
or interpretations, and confirms earlier results for NGC 2215 and NGC 2354. ESO489 SC01 is not a real cluster, while Haffner
22 is an overlooked cluster aged ∼2.5 Gyr. Conclusions for Ruprecht 11 are preliminary, evidence for a cluster being marginal.
Fields surrounding the clusters show signatures of young and intermediate-age stellar populations. The young population background
to NGC 2354 and Ruprecht 11 lies ∼8–9 kpc from the Sun and ∼1 kpc below the formal Galactic plane, tracing a portion of the
Norma-Cygnus arm, challenging Galactic models that adopt a sharp cut-off of the disc 12–14 kpc from the Galactic Centre. The
old population is metal-poor with an age of ∼2–3 Gyr, resembling star clusters like Tombaugh 2 or NGC 2158. It has a large
colour spread and is difficult to locate precisely. Young and old populations follow a pattern that depends critically on
the vertical location of the thin and/or thick disc, and whether or not a particular line of sight intersects one, both, or
none.
... For some students, their inquiry arising from the project has ended up published in the scientific literature (e.g. Fitzgerald et al. 2012, Fitzgerald et al. 2015b). However, it is clear that the project has not shifted students' appreciation of school science or science in general. ...
In this paper, we present the results from a study of the impact on students involved in a large-scale inquiry-based astronomical high school education intervention in Australia. Students in this intervention were led through an educational design allowing them to undertake an investigative approach to understanding the lifecycle of stars more aligned with the ‘ideal’ picture of school science. Through the use of two instruments, one focused on content knowledge gains and the other on student views of school science, we explore the impact of this design. Overall, students made moderate content knowledge gains although these gains were heavily dependent on the individual teacher, the number of times a teacher implemented and the depth to which an individual teacher went with the provided materials. In terms of students’ views, there were significant global changes in their views of their experience of the science classroom. However, there were some areas where no change or slightly negative changes of which some were expected and some were not. From these results, we comment on the necessity of sustained long-period implementations rather than single interventions, the requirement for similarly sustained professional development and the importance of monitoring the impact of inquiry-based implementations. This is especially important as inquiry-based approaches to science are required by many new curriculum reforms, most notably in this context, the new Australian curriculum currently being rolled out.
... In addition, they found a new variable star. The second example is that of a neglected open cluster, NGC2215, (Fitzgerald et al. 2014a), where one grade 11 student from Australia collaborated with two grade 12 students from Canada to significantly refine the major parameters of distance, age, reddening and metallicity of a cluster whose published data had a quite large variance in all previous estimates of these parameters. An image of this cluster and its CMD is shown in Fig. 6. ...
In this paper, we outline the theory behind the educational design used to implement a large-scale high school astronomy education project. This design was created in response to the realization of ineffective educational design in the initial early stages of the project. The new design follows an iterative improvement model where the materials and general approach can evolve in response to solicited feedback. The improvement cycle concentrates on avoiding overly positive self-evaluation while addressing relevant external school and community factors while concentrating on backward mapping from clearly set goals. Limiting factors, including time, resources, support and the potential for failure in the classroom, are dealt with as much as possible in the large-scale design allowing teachers the best chance of successful implementation in their real-world classroom. The actual approach adopted following the principles of this design is also outlined, which has seen success in bringing real astronomical data and access to telescopes into the high school classroom.
