The CXC continues to invest considerable effort in its public website (chandra.harvard.edu). The website continues to win awards for design and content, and to generate considerable traffic, consistently averaging well over 2 million hits per month. Since December of 1999, when scientists released the first images based on their observations, 43 science images (and one artist's illustration of a science result) have been released on the public web site. They join the 11 public calibration images which were released in the first months after launch. We keep statistics of visits and note a significant increase in traffic each time a new science result is released. Clearly the public is interested in the Chandra science, and we encourage you to contact us with potential new material for public release.
The CXC press office welcomed the addition of Megan Watzke. Megan has taken on most day-to-day responsibilites for the Chandra press functions at the CXC. Wallace Tucker remains in the role of CXC press spokesperson and science advisor. Please call Megan to discuss any potential press or image release material.
We have produced a CDROM containing many public Chandra images in a variety of formats. Version 1.0 was released at the San Diego AAS meeting in January 2001. We are working on a revised version which will bring in some of the newer images. The revised version should be available at the end of March. The purpose of the CD is to provide improved access to Chandra images for scientists, museum and planetarium specialists, and educators for presentation and instructional purposes. Please note that the CD does not contain the underlying data files. Those are available from the Chandra archive. The images are presented in jpg, tif and pdf formats, and are accompanied by brief explanatory captions, a glossary of terms, and some background information about X-ray astronomy and the Chandra mission. The same set of image handouts that is available in our Photo Album section is also contained on this CD. To request a CD or see a brief preview, go to the on-line request form at:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/edu/cd/request.html
For those of you using electronic presentations, we remind you of our growing PowerPoint "slide" collection at: http://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/presentations.html
Included are individual slides from which you can assemble your own presentations, and two baseline zipped presentations which contain video and sound files. (These can be edited.) All materials are downloadable from the web site. The individual slides are also posted in pdf format and can be printed as transparencies.
We have made a limited number of 35mm slides of each image as it is released. You may borrow slides by e-mailing us at cxcpub@cfa.harvard.edu. These slides must be returned in timely fashion. If you wish to own your own slides, a slide set of early results is available through the ASP catalog, or you may contact one of the commercial companies listed on our website -- http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/order.html) -- which will produce slides from the images of your choice.
We released a revised Education section on our web site (http://chandra.harvard.edu/edu/index.html). The new material, aimed at pre-college education, includes a number of classroom ready activites aligned with national science standards and keyed to performance rubrics. This section has won awards from several education groups such as the Eisenhower Clearinghouse (NSF) and has been included in the National Science Teachers Association sciLINKS list of educationally valuable websites. You may want to bring this section to the attention of your local school system.
Our next (ambitious) plan is to release a simplified suite of software that will allow middle and high school students to manipulate Chandra data in a PC environment. We are looking to develop accompanying science activities. If you are interested in participating, please contact Kathy Lestition at kathy@cfa.harvard.edu. Two teacher workshops are planned for the summer of 2001 in conjunction with the Wright Center for Science Education at Tufts.
- Kathy Lestition, Outreach Coordinator
You can also enjoy Chandra highlights at the San Diego AAS meeting (put together by the outreach group):
http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/aas/
- Editor