[Educators] OLPC and astronomy

[Benjamin, Thomas]

Surplus Shed has deals on optics to make simple telescopes. The Galileoscope project produced some inexpensive ones. But the key thing in astronomy is a star map. Without an old-fashioned star wheel and atlas it is hard for a beginner to find anything. I would bet that a novice armed with Olcott's 1930 Fieldbook of the Sky and a vintage star wheel would easily outperform a novice armed with digital gear in finding anything worth viewing in the sky. 

Tom Benjamin

-----Original Message-----
From: educators-bounces at lists.laptop.org [mailto:educators-bounces at lists.laptop.org] On Behalf Of Bastien
Sent: Thursday, 27 June 2013 7:27 AM
To: José Raeiro
Cc: educators at lists.laptop.org
Subject: Re: [Educators] OLPC and astronomy

Hi José,

José Raeiro <zeraeiro at gmail.com> writes:

> Is there any astronomy tool in the standard software pack that comes 
> with OLCP?

Your best starting point is here:
  http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Moon

You also have the Telescope activity:
  http://activities.sugarlabs.org//en-US/sugar/addon/4481

And Alex Kleider demonstrating the telescope device designed by La
  Main à la Pâte (the "Hands On Science" foundation in France):

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqAKK9tUIiY
  http://www.fondation-lamap.org/node/17992

> I can help on the creation of content or I can work together with 
> coders to produce an astronomic software tool.

You can take this PDF and maybe explore possible adaptations, translations and/or enhancements:

  http://olpc-france.org/docs/Seminaire_edifolco_LAMAP-OLPC_dec2009-GB.pdf

> I would also like to discuss the creation of a $20 telescope in the 
> same philosophy of OLPC.

This is exactly what La Main à la Pâte has been trying to do.
The design is here, they are only looking for massive commands to start the production -- AFAIK discussions are pending, but not conclusive so far.

Hope this helps!

--
 Bastien
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