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GTN: About the GTN

GTN GLOBAL TELESCOPE NETWORK

ABOUT THE GTN

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Amateurs and professionals alike are invited to join astronomers around the world in exploring our universe. We're looking for participants to help acquire, reduce, and interpret astronomical data relating to some of the most exotic and enigmatic objects in the sky. This program supports several space observatories, including Swift, and XMM-Newton (both already in orbit) and the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST, due for launch in 2007).

The Global Telescope Network provides:

• involvement for students , teachers , and amateur astronomers in cutting-edge astronomical research.

• activities and instructional materials for a range of levels and interests.

• mentoring in research practices, telescope use, data analysis and educational resources.

Partner Or Associate? That Is The Question.

Partners are individuals or groups who dedicate some portion of their time and expertise on observatory hardware they already own to regularly observe astronomical targets that are part of the GTN program. Partners may occasionally be able or willing to offer telescope time to GTN participants. Of course, partners may also be involved with analyzing GTN data. If you have a telescope that you think might be useful in the continuing quest to understand gamma-ray events, sign up at http://gtn.sonoma.edu/public/join_partner.php .

Associates are individuals, groups, or classrooms who dedicate some portion of their time to analyzing data taken with other people's telescopes. You can adopt your own program objects from our list, or request data for other objects by submitting a short proposal. If this sounds exciting to you, sign up at http://gtn.sonoma.edu/public/join_associate.php.

The GTN targets include:

• Blazars (supermassive black holes in the cores of distant galaxies that shoot out wildly variable gamma-ray jets)

• Gamma-Ray Bursts (powerful explosions that occur at random locations in the sky)

• Polars (binary systems with flaring highly-magnetic white dwarfs)