says. One of these was named Gaia14aae. “I read the telegram on 20 October and that night aimed one my telescopes at it. It was no longer bright. Indeed it was very faint and very close to the limit of my telescope.”

Nevertheless, Agustino, who is a member of the group of amateur astronomers known as the Center for Backyard Astrophysics, which is run by Joe Patterson in New York, was convinced he had found an eclipsing cannibal star and reported his work to the Gaia Alert team. Subsequent observations by bigger telescopes proved he was correct. He had helped to uncover a doubly rare stellar object: a cannibal star whose eclipses are visible from Earth. In addition, he had found one that along with its partner star hadbe British schoolchildren.

Fraser Lewis, of the Faulkes Telescope Project explains: “We were set up by the UK entrepreneur Dill Faulkes who built two 2-metre telescopes – one in Australia and one in Hawaii – which he dedicated for use by schoolchildren. They could use them to observe the night sky on other side of the world while it was still daylight over here. And the aim was straightforward: to stimulate interest in science and technology.

“Those two telescopes are now part of a larger network known as Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network, which has a further nine telescopes in different parts of the world. Schoolchildren can program them in real time, watch as their observations are being made and then use the results for work in the classroom.”

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