Students in introductory-level astronomy courses usually study concepts and discoveries made by others, but rarely have the chance to conduct observations and make astronomical discoveries of their own. In Astronomy 105, Stars and Galaxies, Prof. Caty Pilachowski offers students the chance to discover novae, or exploding stars, in the Andromeda Galaxy.

The goal is to engage students in the process of discovering new novae. Prof. Pilachowski has found that students become more actively involved with the course when they learn content through textbooks and lectures, and then apply these concepts to real astronomical observations of Andromeda, the large spiral galaxy nearest to our own.

The NovaSearch website gives students tools to do what astronomers do: identify new objects in the Andromeda Galaxy, estimate magnitudes of these stars, determine dates of their appearances, and plot their light curves. CCD images of Andromeda, taken with powerful research telescopes at Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona, are sequenced together and delivered on the website as Flash movies.

Students view these image sets in time-lapse loops and frame by frame, identifying new novae as stars that appear brightly and then disappear over time. NovaSearch includes older image sets, allowing students to practice identifying and measuring novae before they begin working with new data.

When A105 is offered in the fall, Andromeda is visible in the night sky. Students then participate in remote observing sessions, gathering new data about the galaxy through live video interactions with astronomers at the Kitt Peak Observatory. Controlling the video unit remotely, students participate in observation and and capture images to be used in new NovaSearch image sets.

Once students have identified and confirmed new objects as novae, they write announcements which are then published on the NovaSearch website and shared with astronomers compiling a database of novae in Andromeda. Students' discoveries are thus recognized by professional organizations in the discipline, and the experience is connected to the world beyond IUB.

Prof. Caty Pilachowski (Department of Astronomy), Dr. Travis Rector (University of Alaska, Anchorage/National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucscon AZ) and the Teaching and Learning Technologies Centers collaborated to develop this project, which was supported by funding from the SBC Fellows Program and the National Science Foundation (grant ESI 0101982).