David James
Vanderbilt University
 

"Research Using the SMARTS Telescopes: Recent Highlights from the Astronomers of Fisk & Vanderbilt Universities"
 

A discussion of the research and teaching potential of the SMARTS consortium telescopes at the CTIO is presented.

Research highlights vary from the light-curve analysis of an eclipsing brown-dwarf binary system to establishing membership catalogues for nearby, young-intermediate age (<<700 Myr) open clusters. For our undergraduate, graduate and REU students, the pedagogical benefits derived from using these guaranteed access, smaller aperture telescopes are immense, and their successes are highlighted.