Research skills, 2 minute read

Citizen Science: Real Research from Zimbabwe

You do not need a degree or a telescope to contribute to real astronomy. Projects you can join from Zimbabwe, discoveries volunteers have made, and how to make your observations count.

A meteor shower under the Milky Way
Meteors cross the sky beside the arch of the Milky Way in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Credit: ESO/P. Horálek, CC BY 4.0.

Modern telescopes produce far more data than professional scientists can examine alone. Citizen science projects invite anyone to help, and volunteers have made real discoveries.

What volunteers have found

  • In 2007 the Galaxy Zoo project asked the public to sort galaxies by shape. A Dutch schoolteacher, Hanny van Arkel, spotted a strange glowing cloud that astronomers had never noticed, now known as Hanny's Voorwerp ("Hanny's object"): gas lit up by a black hole that has since faded.
  • Galaxy Zoo grew into the Zooniverse, which by April 2026 had passed 3 million volunteers in more than 160 countries. Their classifications have contributed to hundreds of peer-reviewed research papers.

Projects you can join

  • Zooniverse (zooniverse.org): classify galaxies, search telescope data for new planets, and more. All you need is a phone or computer.
  • Globe at Night (globeatnight.org): count the stars you can see in a constellation to measure light pollution. Observations from Zimbabwe help fill a gap on the world map.
  • International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC): school and university teams search real telescope images for asteroids. Participating teams have made provisional asteroid discoveries that are reported to the IAU's Minor Planet Center.
  • International Meteor Organization (imo.net): report meteor counts. Southern-hemisphere observations are especially valuable because there are fewer observers here.
  • AAVSO (aavso.org): measure the brightness of variable stars, stars whose light changes.

Doing it well

  • Follow the project's instructions exactly, so your data can be combined with everyone else's.
  • Record the date, time, location and sky conditions (Moon, cloud, haze).
  • Report what you actually see, even if it is "nothing". A careful count of zero is data too.
  • Never make up or "tidy" data. Honest, careful records are what make citizen science trustworthy.

Share it with ZAS

If you take part in a project, tell the community: use Share with ZAS in the Community section. And if your family has names or stories for the stars, recording them is research too; see the lesson on star lore.

Sources

Part of the course Astronomy Research Methods.