One of LCOGT’s aims is to make astronomy accessible and exciting to the public. We have several ways of approaching this goal. One is by creating citizen science programs such as Agent Exoplanet, that can be accessed from anyone anywhere with an internet connection. As our network comes online, we will also have telescope observing time available to members of the public through our citizen science programs and through our partners.
LCOGT has education staff in Hawaii, Santa Barbara (California), Cardiff (United Kingdom), and Cape Town (South Africa). These people develop and support the citizen science programs described above, and also participate in more direct outreach in their local areas.
In Hawaii, JD Armstrong works with a number of school, after-school and summer science camp programs including the HI-Star program, and Astro Day, and works with students who want to do science projects related to astronomy.
In Santa Barbara, Rachel Ross hosts star parties for various groups at both the Byrne Observatory at Sedgwick as well as Photon Ranch. Rachel Ross and Jessica Barton also bring hands-on science activities to many school science nights and other science outreach days around Santa Barbara.
In Cardiff, Edward Gomez and Stuart Lowe do classroom visits to local schools as well as participating in other local astronomy events such as WISE, Show Me Stars, and dotastronomy.
In South Africa, Abiy Tekola works with many astronomy outreach groups including the International School for Young Astronomers, and the South African Astronomical Observatory.
