Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math: student projects at the Allegheny Observatory span all of these.
The Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Sciences is a summer program for high school students between their junior and senior years. Four students completed a project comparing their image of the Veil Nebula with one taken in 1900 to characterize the expansion. Paper coming soon.
Vincent studies exoplanet transits looking at hot Jupiter type planets and how their periods change.
This is one section of a large HII region. Sarah is looking at the H-alpha light and exploring the visual characteristics and spectra of the region to look for the ionizing star hidden deep in the dust.
Gianna compared the image she took of the Veil Nebula with one taken in 1900 to see the expansion of this supernova. She won the Earth and Space category at Pa. Jr. Academy of Sciences in 2024.
Esme built an HR diagram for this star cluster. She won the Director's award at Pa. Junior Academy of the Sciences.
The 2023 project team at PGSS imaged M13 and built an HR diagram. You can read their paper here.
Two students at North Allegheny School District, Isha Vyawahare and Ellie Tang imagined how star gazing would help astronauts on Mars thrive by connecting them with Earth. They won second place in the Mars New Year STEAM competition with their video.
Gazing our Way Home by Ellie Tang and Isha Vyawahare: Two sisters stargazing from Mars remember their past lives as they view their old home.
Supernovae remnant NGC 6992 taken with the Keeler 24" telescope in H-alpha and OIII filters.
Image by Erin Stumbaugh, Peri Schindelheim and Ed Potosky, University of Pittsburgh