By Neil Pacheco

Neil Pacheco is the science subject leader at Kiveton Park Meadows Junior School in Sheffield, UK. Neil and his pupils have had some tremendous success with the Faulkes Telescope Project Real Time Interface! Here is what Neil had to say…

I am the science subject leader at my school and teach in Y5, where one of our science topics is space. We have been involved in the Tim Peake project where we had a stargazing evening. Unfortunately, this was hindered by bad weather. Using a grant from the institute of physics, I was able to purchase some telescopes. However, the after school club had the same children taking up the offer and my limited expertise meant that there were limited spectacular sights for the children to see.

This changed with the Faulkes telescope. With the whole class being able to participate was fantastic and the images the children and I saw were truly jaw dropping. Prior to the session, we discussed nebulas, galaxies and star clusters.  For a novice such as myself, the list of galaxies, star clusters, nebulas made it easy to achieve awe-inspiring results. The children were hooked. I have been able to book 3 successful sessions (weather seems to effect stargazing efforts no matter what country the telescope is in), which children from three classes have been able to participate in with all the children and staff captivated by the stunning images. Some children were even able to see the action from home by joining in on a Google Hangout session.

Besides the images, we looked at the location of the telescopes, the weather in the countries where the telescopes are located and the time difference, including the difference between UTC and GMT. Thank you so much for this amazing resource which I, the children and staff, have found amazing.  

If you want to take a look at more of the fantastic images captured by Neil and his pupils, check out their school webpage here.