Interdisciplinary Workshop 1:

The equipment, art, techniques, and mathematics of doing astrophotography as well as a “Citizen Science Project” Galaxy Zoo will be introduced such that you can engage students in successfully exploring astronomy even in our light polluted neighborhoods. Beautiful images of the Aurora Borealis filmed in Iceland and of large diffuse nebulae, which were captured in Newark, will be shown.

With its roots dating back to July 2007, Galaxy Zoo is a renowned online citizen science project that began with a data set made up of a million galaxies imaged by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and currently has the largest number of publications based on citizen scientists’ input. Originally, the first Galaxy Zoo was a classification of galaxies into ellipticals, mergers, and spirals, additionally recording the direction of the arms if the galaxy was a spiral. Volunteers’ classifications have been useful for a significant number of researchers. In the subsequent Galaxy Zoo phases, more detailed images have been provided to volunteer classifiers which yield more specific data that supports an understanding of potential growth factors such as mergers, active black holes, and star formation. New, exciting discoveries are being made through Galaxy Zoo including most recently simulations of 936 galaxies for data analysis in 2016. To find more information about Galaxy Zoo, please visit Galaxy Zoo: The Story So Far and watch the YouTube videos: fun TED talk by a Citizen Scientist: “The discovery of a citizen scientist | Hanny van Arkel | TEDxGhent:” (7 minutes long) and for a more technical talk by an astrophysicist: “Citizen Science: Galaxy Zoo”.  (54 minutess long)

​Nico Carver is a senior assistant librarian in the Student Multimedia Design Center at the University of Delaware Library. He coordinates services at the Center, and consults on questions related to a variety of photographic tools. He is the Chair of Elections of the Delaware Astronomical Society. He specializes in astrophotography by taking wide-field photographs of the stars and large nebulae with a DSLR camera.

​Jon Cox is a National Geographic Explorer, an assistant professor in the Department of Art at the University of Delaware, Board Member of the Dorobo Fund for Tanzania and Board member of the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research. Cox’s latest published work was a six-year collaborative documentary book project with huntergatherers in Tanzania titled Hadzabe, By the Light of a Million Fires. Cox has directed over twenty photographic study abroad programs across the globe including destinations to Antarctica, South East Asia, Tanzania, Australia, Tasmania and several countries in South America. He was a pioneer in the field of digital photography, served as the adventure photographer/writer for Digital Camera Magazine and authored two Amphoto digital photography books. Cox is a co-recipient of a National Geographic - Genographic Legacy Fund Grant to support his current collaborative cultural mapping initiative with the Ese’Eja hunter-gatherers living in the Amazonia basin of Peru. Watch a video of his recent Amazon voyage. 

​​Jon Manon is the co-PI of the DISCovery Project. His recent positions included: Associate Director, Professional Development Center for Educators; Director, Mathematics and Science Education Resource Center, Public Service Faculty, School of Education; Senior Policy Scientist, Mathematics and Science Education Resource Center; Director, Mathematics Component, Delaware Statewide Systemic Initiative; and, a major contributor to the Delaware Mathematics Coalition. He is the recipient of the university’s Webber award in mathematics education and currently serves as the President of the Delaware Foundtion for Science & Mathematics Education. Jon has been a long-term advocate for social justice, equity, and diversity. With his recent acquisition of a fine telescope, it has rekindled his major interest in astronomy.