• NASA
  • IPAC

Other EPO Programs Using Real Data

There are many other programs out there that get teachers and/or students in contact with real astronomy data. Here are the ones we know about. Please let us know if you know of one not listed here.  Please note that some of these programs may have suffered in this budget environment and are no longer operating (though website activities may be still available).  We also maintain a separate list of other somewhat simpler opportunities that might be suitable for, say, K-6 teachers.

Jump down to:
Astronomy Programs for Teachers and Students
Exoplanet Stuff
Public-web-access robotic telescopes
Astronomy Citizen Science
Even Bigger Projects
Teacher Training
Summer research opportunities for high school students
Places to publish for high school students

Astronomy Programs for Teachers and Students

All of these programs aimed at educators and students up through grade 13; there are many more opportunities to get your hands on real data in college. Also note that for this subset of the page, the programs are very roughly sorted by wavelength; the wavelength regime as listed is often the primary but not the only data used in the program.

Exoplanet Stuff

Some of these programs provide a place to start, a place admittedly with training wheels, but they do provide different aspects of the skills leading to jumping into the public archive directly. In order to actually get into the archive and do anything substantive, one needs to understand the nature of photometry, instrumental errors, and what signals to look for, before getting into data downloads, Fourier transforms, and programming. One can start to build that skill set by starting with any of these programs, plus more from elsewhere on this page, or programs that you can find that are not on the list. These are *very* roughly in order of depth of understanding required.

Public-web-access robotic telescopes

Astronomy Citizen Science

Originally grabbed from here, which has a much better (if possibly dated) list, with a description for each project.

These programs all involve the use of real data on the forefront of astronomical research, but are "packaged" so as to make accessing the real data far more easy (e.g., entirely web browser-based) than it might be otherwise. These projects are a great way to start to get into real data. Many offer "hooks" to get into the research questions at a deeper level when you are ready. Many have lesson plans ready-to-go.

Even Bigger Projects

Things that need more of a time commitment, e.g., your own observatory (not a 3-inch cheap telescope, but not a 3.5 meter either):

Advanced Teacher Training

The programs I list here are advanced, and as far as I know, use real, research-grade data in their programs. Please see teacher workshops entry here for more introductory teacher training.

Summer research opportunities for high school students

Many of these at the high school level cost money; a few pay the student. At the college level, there are many opportunities where the student gets paid.

Places to publish for high school students

We're back from the Jan 2024 AAS and we had a grand time!