Notes
Outline
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope: 
Experience with schools, training of students
and future prospects
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope:
Experience with schools, training of students and future prospects
Javier Méndez (jma@ing.iac)
ING Public Relations Officer
Meeting sponsored by OPTICON
and held in NUI-Galway
4-5 July 2002
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope: 
Experience with schools, training of students
and future prospects
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope
The JKT experience with schools
The JKT experience with training         of students
The current situation
What the JKT can offer to METEOR    and how to implement it
Conclusions
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope: 
Experience with schools, training of students
and future prospects
1. The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope: 
Experience with schools, training of students
and future prospects
1. The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope
Slide 5
Slide 6
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope: 
Experience with schools, training of students
and future prospects
The JKT experience with schools
At present we are inviting schools from UK, the Netherlands and Spain
to carry out their own observations on discretionary nights when no
engineering work is scheduled. Mainly we are interested in schools
which already carry out an astronomy educational programme. Below is a
summary of the followed steps to organise such a visit:
First contact. We checked that the school is experienced in astronomy teaching.
The school checks feasibility to send students to La Palma.
ING identifies a suitable discretionary night and a support astronomer (the ING PR officer usually).
The school organises an astronomy competition to select from 3 to 6 students.
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope: 
Experience with schools, training of students
and future prospects
They make travel and accomodation arrangements with the help of ING.
Fly to La Palma. Stay at the observatory’s residence.
Day 1: Visit to the observatory. Finish preparation of observing programme.
Day 2: Telescope and instrument set up. Observations.
Day 3: Data reduction and start of research.
Return. The students prepare a report. Dissemination in the school, on web pages, articles, etc.
The observing programme can be their own, one of ING’s PR projects or a collaboration with a professional research programme.
This pilot programme started in 2000. Since then we have had several visits and more are scheduled in the next months.
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope: 
Experience with schools, training of students
and future prospects
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope: 
Experience with schools, training of students
and future prospects
The JKT experience with training of students
The JKT has been incorporating students on training to the operation of the JKT
since 1998 as support astronomers. At present they are the only support
astronomers.
They are undergraduate and graduate students from UK and the Netherlands
universities mainly. They stay on La Palma for one year and they carry out a
research project under the supervision of an ING astronomer. ING covers the costs.
This has proved to be very successful to both the operation of the telescope and
their training.
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope: 
Experience with schools, training of students
and future prospects
The current situation
The JKT is efficiently operated by ING as a single-instrument telescope and the
allocation of time continues to be oversubscribed. The JKT is run at a very low cost.
Support astronomers are undergraduate and graduate students.
UK has joined ESO and this will impact on the level of funding. As a result,
the JKT will be shut down in September 2003.  Contrary to what it can be thought,
this opens new opportunities to the telescope. ING is looking forward to hearing
ideas to continue the operation of the telescope and to finance the JKT externally.
Public outreach projects can be accepted.
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope: 
Experience with schools, training of students
and future prospects
What the JKT can offer to METEOR
The JKT has a big potential in astronomy education and public outreach activities:
School visits are a highly educational experience. Students can visit the best observatory in Europe, stay and live with astronomers, prepare their own observations, carry them out and do research. The JKT is also an excellent tool for training of teachers.
The JKT experience is complementary to robotic telescope observing. What ING can offer is a completely different and complementary educational experience.
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope: 
Experience with schools, training of students
and future prospects
What the JKT can offer to METEOR
Possibility of carrying out observations for schools in service mode. Schools applying for observations and distance interacting with astronomers at the observatory.
Observing on the JKT and visiting La Palma is an excellent prize for astronomy educational competitions.  This is similar to ESO’s Catch a Star! educational programme.
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope: 
Experience with schools, training of students
and future prospects
What the JKT can offer to METEOR
Training of students. The JKT offers the students the possibility of gaining experience and responsability in the (direct) operation of telescopes and astronomical instrumentation. Visits of groups of students are also highly instructive.
Live images from the JKT. Discover the Cosmos from La Palma! is a PPARC funded project which aims at delivering real-time pipeline reduced images from the ING telescopes. The JKT is a key element of this project due to the fact that it is a permanent imaging telescope.
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope: 
Experience with schools, training of students
and future prospects
How to implement it
Continued operation of the telescope. The operation and maintenance of the telescope must be continued beyond 2003.  Integrating the JKT in METEOR could be a good excuse to avoid the shut down but financial support must be provided. This support could be shared with other projects interested in keeping the JKT open (NEOs? for instance). Cooperation effort required.
Approved fixed allocation of observing time for schools, training of teachers and service observations every semester (the so-called ‘school time’). Allocating time committee members from METEOR.
School trips financed by the schools themselves. Little support provided by METEOR.
Astronomy competitions and prizes financed by METEOR however.
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope: 
Experience with schools, training of students
and future prospects
How to implement it
Students on training will be responsible for the normal operation of the telescope. These students will be also responsible for supporting the school time and carrying out the school service observations.
ING can continue with the current student programme but to host more students external support will be required.
The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope: 
Experience with schools, training of students
and future prospects
Conclusions
The JKT is a competitive user-friendly telescope on an excellent observing site (the best in Europe and one of the best in the world) which has proved to be attractive to schools, successful in organising observing trips to schools and teachers, and training of students.
The JKT can be part of the METEOR network of telescopes by offering a different and complementary educational experience which can help METEOR to reach the objectives more efficiently.
Direct financial support is required for the general operation and maintenance of the telescope (proportional to the allocated school time) and probably for training of students costs.
Immediate actions are required. Telescope shutting down in September 2003.