Utilizing a Low-Cost Telescope to Produce Color-Magnitude Diagrams of an Open Cluster

Hands-on learning is critical for students’ education, especially for more complex subjects, such as astrophysics. Astrophysics students are often taught more theoretical concepts than practical research skills, and thus have trouble adjusting to learning methods that produce new astronomical discoveries. This is a complicated problem, as it is difficult to obtain astronomical equipment due to high costs; large telescopes and good camera equipment are expensive. Many schools simply do not have the budget to spend on costly telescopes and cameras. This is an enormous drawback for students’ education, as they cannot apply the knowledge they gain in the classroom setting to further their understanding of the astrophysics topics they learn. This paper aims to show that producing scientific data is possible even with low-cost, entry-level astronomical equipment, which can be utilized in classroom settings to help teach students about typical astronomical research methodology through hands-on learning. Many tools exist in astronomy that are either open source or relatively cheap, and this should not go unnoticed by students and educators with a low budget. This paper aims to utilize these tools to show that astronomical data can be retrieved with a great deal of success. KEYWORDS: Astronomy Education; Hands-On Learning; Education; Accessibility; Low-Cost; Telescope; Photometry; Color-Magnitude Diagram; Open Cluster; Pleiades