Remote radio astronomy in distance learning

Abstract

National Distance Education University (UNED) is a Spanish University whose methodology is based on the principles of Distance Learning. UNED has the largest student population in Spain and is one of the largest universities in Europe. PARTNeR (Proyecto Académico con el Radio Telescopio de NASA en Robledo, Educational Project with NASA’s Radio Telescope at Robledo) is an educational project that allows students to remotely operate a 34-meter parabolic antenna located at the NASA’s Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex. UNED science students perform real-time remote radio astronomical observations controlling PARTNeR radio telescope through Internet from their classroom. Students that cannot attend the observation on-site because of geographical dispersion or occupational tasks can join it on-line using the AVIP classroom, a virtual classroom based on IP technology. The main educational objective of UNED-PARTNeR collaboration is to learn the basics of general astronomy and radio astronomy and to understand the fundamentals of radio telescope operation. The technical objective of UNED-PARTNeR collaboration poses a double challenge: on the one hand, to remotely operate a firstrate scientific instrumentation using AVIP classroom and, on the other hand, to carry out a real scientific research using distance learning methodology. Keywords: Distance learning; Remote radio astronomy; Virtual classroom; Practical Astrophysics