Astronomy Has Strong Showing at Hawai`i State Science Fair.

Travis Lee and Dr. J. D. Armstrong

At the recent Hawai`i State Science fair there were two projects which I believe that people in the LCOGTLas Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network community might find of interest.

In the Junior Research Division 8^th graders Kira Fox and Gina Hyun won the Team Award for their project on the asteroid Datura 1370. Mentored by Institute for Astronomy graduate student Nick Moskovitz the two analyzed images taken by the Faulkes Telescope North to construct a light curve of the asteroid. They used the information to find the shape, rotation period and color of the asteroid.

Punahou freshman Travis Lee received third prize overall for his project "WASP 2-b or not 2-b". Travis was mentored by Dr. John Johnson from the Institute for Astronomy, and Dr. J. D. Armstrong from Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope. Travis analyzed images taken on several nights by the Faulkes Telescope North. Dr. Gareth Wynn-Williams – President, Hawaii Academy of Science – commented that Travis’s performance was additionally impressive since: 1) He is a 14 year old Freshman, competing against sophomores, juniors and seniors and 2) the only two students to beat him in the final tally (Lucia Mocz and Nolan Kamitaki) are highly experienced competitors; each been the overall winner of a previous State Science fair

Congratulations to all of these outstanding students.

JD Armstrong