PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011

Contact: Jim Doyle

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                             August 23, 1994

     The Mount Wilson Institute and NASA's Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory are making it possible for students from kindergarten 
to 12th grade to observe the skies.

     The program, begun in 1993, is called Telescopes in 
Education (TIE). Founded and directed by Gilbert Clark of JPL for 
the Mount Wilson Institute under the direction of Dr. Robert 
Jastrow, TIE will provide schools across the country with access 
to a high quality 24-inch telescope located at an altitude of 
1,768 meters (5,800 feet) at the Mount Wilson Observatory in the 
San Gabriel Mountains.  

     The TIE program is designed to make research-grade 
telescopes and the data they produce available to schools and 
amateur astronomers across the country.	With the help of 
professionals from both institutions, teachers are able to 
control the telescope using a computer and modem from their 
classrooms.

     With the proper software, students view the night sky on a 
computer screen and choose an object for study. Using their 
computer, the students direct the telescope to move across the 
sky to the object. A charge-coupled device (CCD) camera forms an 
image of the chosen object. The image is downloaded through 
telephone lines and ends up on the computer in the classroom.

     Once the newly acquired image is in the computer memory the 
students can repeat the process to obtain another image.

     After the software has been installed on the school 
computer, the teacher calls the TIE program to reserve a block of 
time. When reservations are made, the user is also given a time 
and date for an online test. The test is to make sure the school 
computer can communicate properly with the telescope's computer. 
The test is conducted during an afternoon in the week prior to 
the scheduled night of observation.

     Obtaining an image takes seven to 10 minutes. This includes 
the time it takes to slew the telescope, set the exposure on the 
CCD camera and download the image.

     "There's been a great deal of interest within the 
educational community," said Clark, a staff engineer in JPL's 
Engineering and Science Directorate and task manager of the TIE 
program.

     "We went public with the program about two months ago, and 
so far we have had several hundred inquiries," Clark said. "We 
have had about 20 classes online, and expect at least that many 
more within a month."

     A grant from NASA allows the TIE program to offer the 
telescope to teachers from kindergarten to 12th grade at no cost. 
The grant goes through this fall and also includes community 
colleges actively involved in education programs with their 
neighboring primary, intermediate or secondary schools.

     The current operating plan for Mount Wilson's telescope is 
to reserve weekend nights and holidays for amateur astronomers 
and astronomy clubs, and weekday nights for schools. Amateurs 
will have stand-by status during the week when schedules permit.

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8/23/94 JJD
#9448