Annual Calendar

Boyce-Astro maintains a reliable year-in / year-out calendar of seminars. Specific dates and durations of each are determined according to the academic calendar with preference given to the San Diego, California high school and community college calendars.

Annual Calendar

Recommended Sequence

Unless a student has prior experience with photography with a telescope, we strongly recommend taking the courses and seminars in this sequence:

IntroSTARS >> DoubleSTARS >> Intro to Photometry and Exoplanets.

Exceptions may be approved.

IntroStars™ Prerequisite

To participate in any of the Boyce-Astro seminars or programs, a student must first take our free online IntroStars™ class and pass its final Quiz. Anyone can sign up for IntroSTARS at any time. One can complete the course in 10 to 20 hours depending on his or her prior astrophysics knowledge. The IntroSTARS Quiz is sent at least two weeks before the beginning of each DoubleSTARS or Intro to Photometry and Exoplanets seminar to those who have registered for IntroSTARS. Admission to the seminar is then permitted to any student who passes. Students may of course choose not to continue on the seminars by simply not responding to the Quiz.

DoubleSTARS™

This is the Boyce-Astro foundation course focused on astrometry which is offered in the fall and spring semesters. The formal online class time is approximately 12 weeks to the presentation of scientific posters. Writing the scientific paper follows and that can last from a few weeks to months depending on the participants writing skill and responsiveness to the editorial reviews.

Intro to Photometry and Exoplanets

Boyce-Astro offers this seminar to introduce students to time-series photometry through observing exoplanets and reporting those observations to NASA databases. The seminar is offered in late summer and mid-winter each year following the DoubleSTARS seminar. The formal online class time is approximately 6 weeks assuming successful observations and data reduction. On successful completion, the students is recognized as one of our Exoplorers™ and encouraged to continue observations with BRIEF in all types of variable stars.

Monthly Calendar

September

IntroSTARS Quiz for Fall DoubleSTARS
Start DoubleSTARS

December

IntroSTARS Quiz to qualify for January or February Seminars

January

Start Intro to Photometry and Exoplanets

February

Start DoubleSTARS

July

IntroSTARS Quiz for August Intro to Photometry and Exoplanets

August

Start Intro to Photometry and Exoplanets

Special Events or Opportunities

We continually try to bring new learning experiences to our students. These may be one-time events or prototypes for possible future courses or seminars such as in astrophotography, spectroscopy, or data mining and python.