Samtse College of Education (SCE) welcomed a team of professional and amateur astronomers, Dr. Oliver Guyon, Dr. Preethi Krishnamoorthy, Dr. Nour Skaf, Mr. Joe Wise, and Ms. Summer Dawn Chamberlain, from Project PANOPTES, the USA, on May 10, 2023. The main aim of their visit is to train the members of Project PANOPTES of Samtse to build a robotic telescope. The Project PANOPTES samtse team consists of students and faculty from the College and a few students from Samtse Higher Secondary School and Samtse Lower Secondary School. Prior to their visit, the Project PANOPTES team at Samtse attended several online trainings during weekends facilitated by Project PANOPTES USA.
During their one-week stay from May 10 to May 16, 2023, at SCE, the following activities were carried out:
- Building units of PANOPTES
The unboxing of the PANOPTES units was an exciting and hands-on activity. All the students were engaged in assembling the components on the Control Box, Camera Box, and fixing the Mount and Pier. To kick off the installation process, the students began by setting up the Ubuntu server on the Raspberry Pi situated in both the Control and Camera boxes of the PANOPTES. After getting the Raspberry Pi up and running with the necessary operating systems, we installed a software system called PANOPTES Observatory Control System (POCS). The PowerBoard provides power distribution to various components of the system, including the camera, mount, and control box.
2)Star watching
On May 11, 2023, a total of 100 college students, faculty, and staff, as well as their family members, took turns watching stars in the night sky. The telescope used for the night sky watch was the 10-inch hybrid truss tube Dobsonian Telescope. The astronomers interacted with the incoming audience and engaged them by helping them recognise certain stars and notice moving satellites in the night sky. They were also delighted to entertain questions from a wide range of audiences related to astronomy. The star-watching event was enjoyed by the public using the telescope.
- ii) Astronomical talk show
Around 500 students and faculty of Samtse Higher Secondary School gathered in the College Auditorium on May 12, 2023, to attend inspiring talks on “Introduction to Astronomy and the Search for Life in the Universe” by Dr. Nour Skaf, followed by a question and answer session. The talk show went on for about an hour, during which the students got the opportunity to clarify their misconceptions related to space science and technology. And Dr. Oliver Guyon, Dr. Preethi Krishnamoorthy, and Mr. Joe Wise proactively answered some of the questions raised by the students. Overall, this talk show was an enriching experience for the students and faculty of the school. It also played a vital role in promoting enthusiasm amongst the audience for learning STEM subjects and their career prospects.
iii. Empowering women for STEM
On May 10, 2023, there was an interactive session by three women, Dr. Preethi Krishnamoorthy, Dr. Nour Skaf, and Ms. Summer Dawn Chamberlain from Project PANOPTES with the members of the Women in STEM group at Samtse College of Education. The interactive discussion was centred around the issues faced by women around the world, focusing on imposter syndrome and the difficulties faced by women in education and their workplaces. Moreover, the discussion led to the concept of women supporting women to achieve their dreams.
- Paper presentation on the Project PANOPTES
On May 15, 2023, Dr. Preethi Krishnamoorthy presented a paper titled “Exploring the Universe and Finding Exoplanets with Small Cameras: Project PANOPTES” during the 2nd National Conference in Higher Education. Her presentation was an eye-opener for many in the audience to hear about Project PANOPTES and how it sets up a global network of small telescopes, built by citizen scientists and schools, to monitor much of the sky.