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Space to Grow

The Faulkes Telescopes

The Faulkes Telescopes are a pair of 2-metre (mirror, below centre), professional-grade telescopes. Click the links for information and YouTube videos (3.5 mins) on Faulkes Telescope South at Siding Spring Observatory outside Coonabarabran NSW (below left with the UK Schmidt telescope) and Faulkes Telescope North on Haleakala mountain of the Hawaiian island of Maui (below right with 'clamshell' open, courtesy LCOGT.net)

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The telescopes were constructed expressly for astronomy education and outreach by UK philanthropist Martin 'Dill' Faulkes, funded through his charitable organisation 'The Faulkes Foundation'.  They were designed to be operated remotely by students in the UK, USA and Australia with the aim of encouraging a new generation of young people to take an interest in science and technology.  The Faulkes Telescopes are equipped with state-of-the-art imaging CCD cameras indentical to the ones used by front-line research astronomers for obtaining spectacular multi-colour images of celestial objects. 

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The two Faulkes Telescopes have now been incorporated into the even grander scheme of the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT.net).  Established by Wayne Rosing, ex-vice president of software engineering at Google, this project will see more than 30 additional telescopes constructed around the world ranging in size from 40cm to 1m and made available to schools from all countries for educational purposes. A history and statement of purpose for the LCOGT project and the Faulkes Telescopes is given by the founder of LCOGT, Wayne Rosing, in this video.

NGC4038


Press on the link if you would like to view Gallery images taken on the Faulkes Telescopes. 

 

Image of NGC4038 and NGC4039 interacting galaxies taken on Faulkes Telescope North from LCOGTN Gallery images.

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