Welcome ...
to the education site of the Virtual Astronomical Observatory!
The Virtual Observatory (VO) is an international effort to bring a large-scale electronic
integration of astronomy, data, tools, and services to the global community. The Virtual
Astronomical Observatory (VAO) is the U.S. NSF- and NASA-funded VO effort that seeks to put
efficient astronomical tools in the hands of U.S. astronomers, students, educators, and
public outreach leaders. These tools will make use of data collected by the multitude of
ground- and space-based telescopes
over the previous decades. READ MORE >>
This site is designed for educators. If you are a scientist interested
in learning about the VAO from a technical perspective, and using VAO
tools in your research, go to the main VAO site at www.usvao.org.
We present tools for sharing, mining, and displaying images and data from observatories and databases
the world over.
NEWS: VAO Educator Workshop
Science Tools for Data-Intensive Astronomy:
A Standards-Based Approach to Using Astronomical Data in the Classroom with Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope
The VAO is happy to announce that we will be holding a formal educator workshop in Austin, Texas, on January 8, 2012, from noon – 2pm local time.
If you are a high school or community college science educator, this workshop offers a novel new tool that allows STEM-based subjects to be taught
using real astronomical data from the most powerful ground- and space-based telescopes. This tool, Microsoft’s WorldWide Telescope, is being utilized the
world over. The VAO is developing a standards-based pilot lesson that utilizes WWT’s capabilities. We are looking for educators who are excited to
learn WWT and are also interested in maintaining a relationship with the VAO education team for further development of the WWT pilot lesson.
For more information, see the Workshop Advertisement (PDF).