PARI invites students, educators and researchers to assist with the classification of hundreds of thousands of unstudied stars by using Stellar Classification Online Public Exploration (SCOPE), right from their classroom or very own home!
Using SCOPE, future researchers have the opportunity to explore and compare the features of selected stars to those of the Sun by investigating differences in temperature, mass and color, or spectral type.
Explorers will classify stars using the Astronomical Photographic Data Archive. APDA is a collection of photographic plates taken over a period of nearly 100 years by astronomers at observatories worldwide, containing information on the spectra of more than 1 million stars. You can join these generations of astronomers and explore the stars!
Participants should visit scope.pari.edu for a tutorial on stellar spectra and to practice classifying using the free tool. Once completed and registered, participants can then select stars for classification using photographic plates uploaded online from APDA. These classifications will be recorded in a database where an accumulation of classifications of the same star will be statistically analyzed. Stars with known spectral types are included to test the reliability of classifications.
An appointment is required for all visits. Contact info@pari.edu, view our Calendar, or see the Visit section of this site to learn more.