Bringing the Faulkes Telescope to Classrooms in

Hawaii

The Telescope

• British-Hawaiian collaboration• Largest for education only use• Offline and online use

Data Delivery

• British classrooms:– Immediate jpeg delivery– Download for further imaging

• Hawaii alternative?

Existing Imaging Tools

• Sophisticated tools– SAOImage and SAOImage DS9– SkyCat and Jskycat– ATV

• Tools for K-12 users– HOU-IP– LTImage

Applets as Imaging Tools

• Interactive

• Portable

• Require only a browser

• No applications to install or maintain

The Tools Page

Blink Tool

Grey Scale Image Tool

Color Image Tool

Measurement Tool

Testing the Tools

• Evaluated in terms of software usability

• Servlet container on Maui machine

• TOPS workshop test users

• Rated “perceived usefulness” and “perceived ease of use”

• Scale from 1 to 7

Test Results

Users also made a significant number of thoughtful comments

 Perceived

UsefulnessPerceived Ease of

Use

Blink Tool 5.6 5.8

Gray Scale Tool 4.5 3.9

Color Image Tool 4.6 5.3

Measurement Tool 6.3 6.0

Conclusions

Results appear to indicate that applets can be useful successfully as astronomical imaging tools