The National Science Foundation has awarded a five-year grant to expand RECON to include over 40 telescope sites stretching across the entire western United States. Watch a three-minute Science360 video produced earlier this year to learn more about the RECON project.

As part of recruitment efforts during Fall 2014, project leaders Marc Buie and John Keller will visit teachers and community members in and around the cities and towns highlighted in blue on the interactive map below.

View RECON – Research and Education Cooperative Occultation Network in a larger map

Note that the 14 communities highlighted in green and yellow have been actively participating in the pilot RECON network since Spring 2013.

After new RECON teams have been selected, telescope and camera equipment will be shipped to community. During Spring 2015, representatives from new and veteran RECON teams will participate in training workshops — one in a location south of Las Vegas and the second in the Tri-Cities region of Washington.

By April 2015, the full RECON network of over 40 communities will be operational, and the project will begin to carry out network campaigns to measure occultations of Kuiper Belt Objects and other trans-Neptunian Objects.

If you are interested in learning more about the RECON Project and ways you can participate, please complete our RECON Interest Survey. Alternatively, if you know of any community members in or around our target communities, feel free to help us get in touch by completing the RECON Referral Survey.