German teachers used Faulkes Telescopes North and South to obtain fantastic images of the Cosmos. The observing session was carried during a teacher training event, organized by Paul Breitenstein (AIM – Astronomy and internet in Münster), that resulted in plenty of practice material, even though the weather (clouds and moon) was not ideal.


To increase the knowledge of new digital possibilities for teaching in schools, the “Astronomy 2.0” teacher training course took place on May 18, 2022 at the Gymnasium Nepomucenum in Coesfeld, Germany. Under the guidance of Christian Ambros and Paul Breitenstein, from the educational initiative AiM (Astronomy and internet in Münster), numerous interested teachers from the region learned how to access large research telescopes with their students and how to use the raw data to create impressive images of distant galaxies and others create interesting objects.

Basics of CCD camera usage in astronomy was covered in the theoretical part of the workshop. The AstroImageJ software was introduced and used to create RGB composites from the raw data. This included a picture taken of M57, the well-known planetary nebula in the constellation Lyra.

It was shown that the process of creating such “pretty pictures” can be didactically broken down to lower and intermediate level and that school children can then also gain relevant astronomical knowledge.  Two Nepomucenum students explained their projects in short presentations, which involved determining the current distance of an asteroid from Earth using the parallax method. The event ended with solar observations and later stargazing from the roof of the school building.