Virtual Astronomy Laboratory (VAL)
VAL is a virtual world for learning about astronomy. It is useful for high school students, undergraduates, and the general public.
The major facilities at VAL include a planetarium, a museum, a lecture hall, and a radio telescope control room. From the control room, authorized users can target and collect data from the Smiley telescope at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI), a radio telescope observatory that was once used by NASA.
VAL is accessible in Second Life, where it is affiliated with the SciLands, and is also compatible with OpenSim, which can be run publicly or behind a school firewall. Telescope time from the control room may be booked online from PARI, and specific lesson plans and teaching guides are available from the OpenVAL web page.
