🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello!

This message is intended primarily for junior high and high school
science teachers.  I would like to get your thoughts and input on a
possible project idea that I am thinking of undertaking in the near
future.  My project idea is to use a high quality telescope and CCD
camera to take images of various celestial objects (galaxies, planets,
asteroids, variable stars, et cetera) and then send out these images to
science classrooms all over the world so that students can use these
images to participate in actual scientific experiments.

In addition to receiving regular digital CCD images via the internet, I
would also provide the teachers with all the lesson plans for the
various activities.  These activities could be used in math class as
well as in the science class.  If you are interested in more of the
details you can contact me about that, however, my primary concern at
this time is do you think it is a good idea with lots of potential AND
would you be willing to participate?  Although I would love to be able
to provide this service for free, there would actually need to be a fee
because this would be my livelihood, and not just a hobby.  I was
thinking of charging a $100 fee to participate in the program, which may
seem like a lot of money, but considering that the program would last
for approximately 33 weeks and all your students would get several hours
of activity from the program it seems like a reasonable price to me.  If
you disagree, please let me know.

Your students could "adopt-a-galaxy" for the school year and perhaps
even be the first to discover a supernova in that distant galaxy. 
Although the chances of this happening in any given year are quite slim,
there is still a finite possibility of it actually occurring.  Just
imagine how eager your students will be to receive their weekly galactic
image.  Keep in mind that there are plenty of galaxies out in space so
that each classroom participating in the program would have their very
own galaxy to keep an eye on.  If you ask me, this is very exciting!

Just to let you know a little bit about me, I am a fully qualified high
school science teacher in the province of Ontario (Canada) and I studied
astronomy in university where I used a CCD camera to make observations
as part of my course work.  I have been an amateur astronomer for 15
years and have spent the last couple of years working contract positions
at a few major museums, a science centre, and a planetarium here in
Canada.  I now have the urge to take all that I have learned from
working in these various institutions and go it alone by starting my
very own astronomical observatory dedicated to K-12 education.  However,
before I quit my current full-time job and spend $15,000 on equipment I
really need to know if there are actually teachers out there who would
be willing to participate.  Please let me know one way or the other. 
Thank-you!

Yours truly,

James Durbano
jdurbano@iname.com


P.S. If I do decide to do this I will have a FREE trial program later
this year.  If you are interested in participating in the free trial
program then please contact me as soon as possible.  I will probably
limit the trial program to fifty classrooms, so if you are interested
you should probably act quickly.