International Astronomical Search Collaboration: Online Discovery Program in Astronomy for High School {\&} College Students

The International Astronomical Search Collaboration (IASC $=$ ``Isaac'') is an online outreach program, in which students make original discoveries of near-Earth objects and Main Belt asteroids. On occasion, students discover comets and trans-Neptunian objects. Each year more than 5000 students participate from 500 schools located in 70 countries. Image sets taken only hours before at professional observatories are provided online to the students. They download these sets and analyze them using the software Astrometrica, preparing a report submitted to the Minor Planet Center (MPC, Harvard). The observatories include the Astronomical Research Institute (Westfield, IL), University of Hawaii (Pan-STARRS), and the Mt. Lemmon Sky Center (University of Arizona). Other professional observatories provide follow-ups of the student discoveries. A follow-up is required by the MPC within 7-10 days of the original discovery. The observatories include Western Kentucky University (Kitt Peak National Observatory), Las Cumbras Observatory (Faulkes Telescope), Tarleton State University, G.V. Schiaparelli Observatory (Northern Italy), and Magdalena Ridge Observatory. To date, students have discovered 850 asteroids, of which 27 are numbered and named by the International Astronomical Union (Paris).