LAUNCHING AN EYE IN THE SKY STUDENTS TO REMOTELY CONTROL TELESCOPE BASED IN AUSTRALIA.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Palmdale School District teachers will undergo training in higher-level math and computer programming, to be used for the district's telescope in Australia that students will be able to operate by computer.

The teachers who complete the training workshop next month will be able to instruct students to program the remote telescope and interpret the data provided.

``It's for projects involving the solar system, doing supernova research, searching for planetoids and measuring moon craters,'' said Jeremy Amarant, the district's planetarium director.

The district's $26,000 telescope is scheduled to be shipped to Townsville, Australia, later this year, and the program should be up and running early next year, officials said.

Situated on the northeastern coastline of Queensland, Townsville is more than 800 miles north of the state's capital of Brisbane and is the largest tropical city in northern Australia.

``It's a pretty city; it has lots of clear nights a year,'' said Carl Pennypacker, a research physicist with the University of California at Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science, which is working with the district on the project.

The telescope will be located temporarily for two years on the campus of James Cook University, atop one of the school's physics buildings, Amarant said.

``It's a roll-off roof kind of structure that sits on top of a building,'' Pennypacker said.

Palmdale School District has been working on the telescope project for about three years.

The district originally planned in 1999 to lease a telescope in Australia for about $3,000 a year, but decided to buy one instead, saying it was more affordable.

The district originally worked with the Mount Wilson Observatory telescope education program, but backed out, saying the project was taking too long.

Under the agreement with the Lawrence Hall of Science, the district's telescope will be placed in an observatory that will be built by Lawrence Hall and its partners in Australia.

Palmdale's automated telescope, which would be controlled from Palmdale, will serve as a prototype for one the Lawrence Hall wants to place in the same area.

As part of the project, the district upgraded its telescope to make it fully robotic. The district paid for the improvements with a $40,000 state grant it received for the telescope project.

The Lawrence Hall of Science is a resource center for preschool through high school science and mathematics education, and a public science center with hands-on experiences for learners of all ages.

Established in 1968 at Berkeley in honor of Ernest O. Lawrence, the University of California's first Nobel laureate, the hall is a leader in developing innovative educational materials and programs.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Jeremy Amarant, planetarium director for the Palmdale School District, glances inside the district's telescope.

(2 -- color) Jerey Amarant says that projects to be conducted with the new telescope will include ``supernova research, searching for planetoids and measuring moon craters.'' The $26,000 telescope will be shipped to Australia later this year.

(3) Planetarium director Jeremy Amarant checks out the Palmdale School District's new telescope, which will be shipped to Australia later this year. Students here in the Antelope Valley will be able to operate the telescope by computer.