I am pleased to announce the launch of The Virtual Telescope, a new project bringing mid-sized, technologically advanced  telescopes to teachers, students, astronomers and amateurs to personally  explore the Universe.

The Virtual Telescope’s philosophy is to allow the telescope to become your very own from the time to you begin to use it. Live real time observing sessions with the opportunity for guidance sessions from professional astronomers and interactive forums with other users makes the VT unique in its ability to allow a voyage of personal discovery.

Educational resources for eduation are currently being developed in collaboration with the European Space Agency, the European Southern Observatories, and the Association for Science Education.

A dedicated networking group to encourage communication and support for teachers has been formed through the current established contants through the Association for Astronomy Education and British Association for Planetaria. http://www.cosmosmagazine.tv/teachersnetwork.htm

As you will read from the Press Release, to celebrate this event we have launched the “Discover Your Sky!” competition, where we invite students, teachers and astronomers to invent an astronomical experience and submit it. The competition offers the opportunity for pupils studying GCSE Science, 21st Century Science and GCSE Astronomy and international early years and high school science education to use the VT to support their coursework projects.

 Winners will be receive prizes and awarded telescope time on the Virtual Telescope.

To find out more, please visit:
http://virtualtelescope.bellatrixobservatory.org/VirtualTelescopePR.pdf  

Kind Regards,

Dr Gianluca Masi and Sotira Trifourki
The Virtual Telescope Team