Le Stelle Vanno a Scuola (SVAS)

Le Stelle Vanno A Scuola (SVAS) proposes a modern tool to support teaching of astronomy, through the study and experimentation of its observation methods.   SVAS offers to schools and teachers a remote laboratory with which carry out real observation sessions, managed in real time by the students under the supervision of the teacher, in the classroom, and of an astronomer, at the OATs, thanks to the telematic link between the school and the observatory. Students and teachers experience real astronomical observations, through the interactive participation to the different steps of planning, observing and acquiring the data. The project is addressed to 13-18 yr students. Every observation is previously planned together with the teachers, according to age and curriculum of the students, with the aim to maximize the results.

The observing activity, lasting about 90 minutes and led by an astronomer of the OATs, can be done during the morning (observation of the Sun) or in the evening (observation of stars, nebulae, clusters and galaxies).

SVAS involves the Astronomical Observatory of Trieste (OATs), the school (of every level) and the University of Trieste. SVAS is supported by the Consorzio per l’Incremento degli Studi e delle Ricerche dei Dipartimenti di Fisica e Astronomia dell’Università di Trieste and by the Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca.

A real astronomical observational session will be done live form your school, using the two telescopes dedicated to the project and located at the Basovizza Observative Branch, detached branch of the Astronomical Observatory of Trieste (OATs).

The OATs instruments are managed remotely by students and teachers, through a computer available in the school and connected via internet to the computers of the OATs. The observations are managed by the class under the teacher's supervision while an astronomer, present in the dome and connected via videoconference with the school, conducts the observations and provides scientific support.

The didactic path, the type of observations and the objects to study are previously decided according to the teacher, taking into account the type of school, the student's age and their curriculum.

Thanks to the possibility to work form a distance and in real time, the students become protagonists of all steps of the observation:

• discussion on the objects to observe;

• control and pointing of the telescope;

• control of the CCD camera and set of the exposure time;

• filling and processing of the images.

Astronomical observations can be done both in the morning or in the evening, for a easier school planning. In the evening classical observations will be done, like nebulae, stellar cluster, galaxies and planets. In the morning the Sun will be observed, with the description of its standard activity (sunspots, prominences) and possible particular phenomena as flares or solar eclipses.