Welcome to the Pan-STARRS Asteroid Search Campaign

The Pan-STARRS Asteroid Search Campaign starts March 15th and continues through April 19th.  There are 40 schools participating from 9 countries including Brazil, Bulgaria, England, Germany, India, Poland, Portugal, Taiwan, and United States.  From the U.S. the schools come from six states:  California, Connecticut, Hawaii, New York, Texas, and Wisconsin.



Each school is partnered with another school as a research team.  At the bottom of this email, you will find a complete list of the participating schools including your school’s partner…teacher, and email address.  As the campaign proceeds you and your students are encouraged to communicate with your partner school to share your analysis of the image sets.



Pan-STARRS Program (University of Hawaii)



Pan-STARRS = Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System.  The program is centered at the Institute for Astronomy located at the University of Hawaii.  For more information about Pan-STARRS you can refer to its Internet site http://pan-starrs.ifa.hawaii.edu/public/.



There is an international consortium supporting Pan-STARRS and this education and public outreach program to the schools.  You can refer to http://idw-online.de/de/news403081 where you will find information about the previous Asteroid Search Campaigns.



Pan-STARRS has a 1.8-m telescope located on Haleakala in Hawaii.  It has the world’s largest scientific digital camera that produces images over a 7o field of view and containing 1.4 billion pixels.  Once a week just one of these massive images is partitioned into 144 sub-images that are distributed to the schools participating in the Asteroid Search Campaign.



Need to Get Ready



For the Pan-STARRS Campaign each school will be paired as team with another school.  That team will have its own folder located at the IASC home site http://iasc.hustx.edu<http://iasc.hustx.edu/>. During a week when the skies are clear and dark, 4-5 image sets will be placed into your team folder for your students to download and analyze.  They should complete their analysis within 72 hours of the time that the sets are made available.



Your students will use the software Astrometrica to analyze the image sets.  If you do not already have the software, to obtain a copy go to http://iasc.hsutx.edu/index_files/Page389.htm and download the first three items:



§  Astrometrica File

§  Quick Start Guide

§  Practice Image Sets (6)



Go into the Quick Start Guide.  That is the starting point to install and use Astrometrica.  The following information provides free, unlimited use of the program:



§  License             IASC

§  Password         ****



The instructions are self-explanatory but should you have questions do not hesitate to contact Ginger Anderson ginger.anderson@netxv.net<mailto:ginger.anderson@netxv.net> or profgingie@gmail.com<mailto:profgingie@gmail.com>.  You can also contact Denise Rothrock at drothrock@madisonvillecisd.org<mailto:drothrock@madisonvillecisd.org>.  Ginger and Denise are long time IASC volunteers and participants.  They can help you use Astrometrica, should you have any problems.



It is very important for you to install and practice with Astrometrica prior to the start of the Pan-STARRS Asteroid Search Campaign on March 15th.   The key to the success of your students is that you as their teacher are able to:



§  Use Astrometrica to conduct an automated and manual search

§  Prepare clean and accurate MPC reports

§  Distinguish between true and false signatures (moving targets)



If you are able to do these three tasks, your students will succeed.  They will make Main Belt asteroid (MBA) discoveries and possible important near-Earth object observations.



If you are a returning school having participated in a previous IASC asteroid search campaign but new to the Pan-STARRS Campaign, it is important you also download and install the Astrometrica software.  There are changes in the program needed for the Pan-STARRS PS1 images.


Welcome to IASC, and...Happy Hunting!!

Dr. Patrick Miller


Department of Mathematics & Astronomy
Holland School of Science & Mathematics
Hardin-Simmons University
Abilene, TX   79698