Lowell Observatory Launches New Professional/Amateur Initiative


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 22, 2012

Lowell Observatory launches new professional/amateur initiative

Flagstaff, Ariz. -- Lowell Observatory is proud to announce the Lowell
Amateur Research Initiative (LARI). This program seeks to pair the
ever-growing and technically sophisticated amateur astronomy community
in exciting research projects with Lowell astronomers.

A passionate researcher, Percival Lowell always sought to communicate
new ideas and the joy of astronomy research to the public. In that
same spirit, LARI brings together professional and amateur astronomers
in a way that affords interested amateurs an opportunity to participate
in cutting-edge research and potentially make significant contributions
to science. Amateurs can help Lowell astronomers in their work and help
create dedicated research teams. LARI will expand Lowell Observatory's
education and public outreach missions, and promote greater awareness of
astronomy and related sciences.

Currently, Lowell astronomers are conducting several projects that would
benefit from the participation of amateur astronomers. These projects span
a broad range of technical skills and knowledge from taking very deep
images of galaxies to monitoring small stars for transient events to data mining.

Visit http://www.lowell.edu/LARI_welcome.php to find out more and to create
your LARI account. After getting a sense of your skills and interests, we will
do our best to match you with the appropriate researcher and project.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Science contact: Bruce Koehn, Lowell Observatory, (928) 233-3274,
koehn[at]lowell[dot]edu

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