SCHOOLS SET TO SEND SCOPE DOWN UNDER STAR PROJECT TO USE COMPUTERS.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

PALMDALE - A Palmdale School District telescope is expected to be shipped off to Australia, where local youngsters will be able to operate it by computer.

The district hopes to have its $26,000 telescope situated atop a physics building at James Cook University in Townsville by May, culminating a five-year effort.

``We are doing an improvement to the telescope. We are putting a locking collar on it, and that helps with the focus,'' said Jeremy Amarant, the district's planetarium director.

The $500 modification of the STARR telescope, which stands for Southern Terra Astronomical Robotic Research, will be paid for by Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California at Berkeley, one of the district's partners in the project.

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

For a time Palmdale officials worked with the Mount Wilson Observatory telescope education program, but backed out, saying the project was taking too long.

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.

The telescope will be sent to Australia after a memorandum of understanding is approved by Palmdale trustees and officials at Lawrence Hall and James Cook University.

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

The city of Townsville boasts some 300-plus days of clear skies in a year, James Cook Deputy Vice Chancellor A.R. Hyland wrote in a letter to both the district and to Lawrence Hall.

``This is clearly a wonderful opportunity for northern and southern hemisphere science and education, and we look forward to a productive decade ahead in collaboration and partnership,'' Hyland wrote.

The telescope will be located for two years on the James Cook campus atop one of the school's physics buildings. The telescope will then be placed in an observatory that will be built by Lawrence Hall and James Cook University.

In his letter, Hyland estimated that the university's in-kind contribution to the project, including maintenance, telescope site facilities and infrastructure, security and other features, totals about $200,000.

Lawrence Hall will pay to transport the telescope to Australia, maintain the equipment, and cover operating costs of the facility, according to the memorandum of understanding.

The district would have control of the telescope 55 percent of the time, and the rest of the time will go to its partners, the memorandum said.

The district will be using a math and science curriculum developed by Lawrence Hall as part of the telescope project.

``The concept of this program is to provide school students with astronomical data at the research grade for hands-on learning in skills such as computing, data analysis, the use of the Internet, math and astronomy and astrophysics,'' a district report said.

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