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R. D. Dietz (U. of Northern Colorado), J. N. Heasley (Inst. for Astronomy / U. of Hawaii), P. R. McCullough (U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Stardial is an autonomous astronomical camera on the world wide web (WWW). From its roof-top location facing the meridian at the University of Illinois it captures a drift-scan image of the equatorial sky every fifteen minutes, all night, every night. These images are immediately available on the WWW (www.astro.uiuc.edu/stardial/). Since its inception in July of 1996 Stardial has captured and archived some 37,000 images containing stars, galaxies, planets, asteroids, comets, meteors, satellites, airplanes, and many clouds. Several hundred measurable variable stars are found in the seven percent of the sky patrolled by Stardial. This data set represents an unprecedented resource to be exploited in the teaching of astronomy.
We report on our experiences in using Stardial data as a tool for instruction in astronomy at three different universities. We display selected Stardial images, class assignments, and student projects. Finally, we discuss the feasibility and the motivation for a network of Stardial cameras. Interested parties are invited to contact us at the meeting or by email.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/stardial/. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: rdietz@unco.edu