Students see that there may be no immediate results, and a project may take years to complete. At the same time, they begin to imagine the thrill of discovery and being the first person to see a new object. They enjoy collaborating with other scientists. They begin to realize that sometimes important discoveries are made by accident. Stardial has been, by far, the best resource I have ever used for motivating my astronomy students.
Stardial images provide the chance to do real science and make a real discovery.
These are all real possibilities, and my students get very interested and excited about them. With the real-time images of Stardial as motivation, my students are learning all about astronomy as well as computers, image processing, and the Internet. Here are the steps, using a Macintosh. Please note that other software and hardware differences may affect the steps you need to use. Also be aware that web sites do change over time.