Updated February 14, 2004

In this section we give you a list of the kinds of things you'll need to get started doing Sky Scan. Here's how to get started.

Sky Scan is committed to covering as many of the costs as possible. We will provide a free radio, cables, software and assistance. More on costs.

If you are interested in signing up for the project or would like more information directly from our Education Coordinator, go to our Sign Up form.

Once you've signed up for the project here is a guide to the equipment you'll need and some directions on how to go about doing it. Sky Scan staff and volunteers are available to help you with this. Contact us at brucem@skyscan.ca.

http://www.skyscan.ca/Antennas.htm 

This would make a great project for schools with a construction lab. For more details, follow the links from this page. You may have a couple of "keeners" in your class who may wish to check out this page for themselves. 

If in-school construction is not an option, at least in the shorter term, we will look towards donated equipment from local amateur radio operators as well as commercial models available. Sky Scan is committed to helping with such acquisitions, including covering at least a portion of the expenses. 

http://www.skyscan.ca/fm_receivers.htm

http://www.skyscan.ca/car_radios.htm

We are leaning towards the car radio option as the more affordable, unless you or a student has a digital receiver kicking around at home which can be used for a few weeks. We have acquired a few car radios from a wrecker for this purpose, and will be providing them at no cost. 

You will need at least one dedicated computer (preferably one per class) with sound card for data collection.  We expect that schools will be able to provide their own PC computer for logging data for the project. If this is not possible, we can see about the possibility of finding a second hand computer that could be used for the job. However, our resources are slim and we hope your school can provide the computer.

Speakers would also be useful to have. It would be helpful if this computer is networked to others and has access to the Internet. You will need Internet access for your class but not necessarily from the data computer. As timing of meteor hits is important, the accuracy of the clock on the computer may be an issue. We can provide resources (a time "shim" program) that will compensate for slow or fast clocks. 

We recommend a Pentium computer running Windows, with a hard drive with about 400 Megabytes of free space, 128 Megs of RAM, a sound card, and a school network connection (preferably). Please contact us regarding this before you decide on which computer to use.

Many schools run a program called Deep Freeze that must be deactivated in order to install and run the data collection software the Sky Scan project uses.

http://radiosky.com/skypipeishere.html

Note this is not our site, but that of the software provider, Jim Sky of Hawaii. We will most likely be using the shareware version of the software in the classroom, which is downloadable from this link. We are talking to Jim Sky about getting a group rate on the Pro version. Cost to schools will be little or nothing.

http://www.skyscan.ca/cables.htm

You will need:

Sky Scan is committed to covering as many of the costs as possible. We will provide a free radio, cables, software and assistance. The estimated value of this equipment is around $100, made possible by a donation from the Edmonton Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. For more information on the equipment needed to undertake this project, follow this link. Or if you'd like more information fill in the Sign Up form. Signing up does not commit you to anything, just let's us know you are interested and gives us some background to help us understand what resources you may need to carry out the project and how we can contact you.

If you are interested in signing up or having our Education Development Coordinator contact you, please fill out and submit the Sign Up form below. Signing up does not commit you to anything, just let's us know you are interested and gives us some background to help us understand what resources you may need to carry out the project and how to contact you.