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2009 Annual Science Report

University of Hawaii, Manoa Reporting  |  JUL 2008 – AUG 2009

EPO Activity: Hawaii/Brazil Asteroid Parallax Project

Project Progress

Project START was initiated by former UH IfA graduate student Marcelo Emilio, now an astronomy professor at State University of Ponta Grossa in Brazil. He has an observatory at his university and wished to have students in Brazil and Hawaii cooperatively work on calculating the distance to an asteroid by a parallax method, using images from different site on the globe. We recruited Hawaii teachers willing to have their students participate in this project. Unfortunately, internet access for communication proved to be difficult due to firewalls set up at the Hawaii public schools. Thus, this project was unable to “get off the ground” in spring, 2009. The summer break for Hawaii schools disrupted the project. The non-synchronous school year in Brazil and Hawaii due to opposite seasons add to the difficulties. Here is the website where participants register for project: http://kopiko.ifa.hawaii.edu/start/ UH NAI EPO lead Mary Kadooka visited these Brazil schools in August, 2009, to the delight of everyone there. This visit validated that we are serious about accomplishing the goals of this project and has motivated the teachers in Brazil to continue to work on it. Collaborations have again begun in fall, 2009.