The "HEllenic LYceum Cosmic Observatories Network" is a distributed cosmic ray telescope for research and education. The telescope comprises an extended network of detector stations installed on roofs of Lyceum and University buildings. A station consists of at least three large (1m2 effective area each) scintillation counters with a inter-detector distance of about 20 meters. It also includes a GPS based synchronization system, digitization and control electronics as well as a data acquisition system on a personal computer. A very detailed simulation and reconstruction software package has been developed in order to describe the individual detector and the whole station/telescope performance. The HELYCON detectors have undergone several, successful tests concerning their sensitivity and resolution in recording and reconstructing Extensive Air Showers (EAS’s), in excellent agreement with the simulation predictions. Furthermore, HELYCON provided the platform for the development of an external calibration system for underwater neutrino telescopes, such as the KM3NeT.

HELYCON, in full deployment, will consist of station-networks in the areas of Patras, Thessaloniki, Chios island and Nicosia in Cyprus. The collected data by each station are broadcasted, through the internet, to the main counting rooms for further processing and the reconstructed EAS’s become available to the users for physics analysis. The users, high school and university communities, will also have the means to perform calibration and test operations on individual stations as well as to participate in the development and construction of the HELYCON instrumentation. An interactive control, data monitoring and DAQ online system has been developed in order to provide user-friendly communication with each HELYCON station. An extensive collection of e-lectures and videos concerning the use of HELYCON in education (fundamental interactions and the properties of matter, instrumentation and signal processing, calibration procedures and laboratory guides, data analysis techniques etc) have been already developed and used in special courses for university students and high school teachers. Several educational events have been already organized, using the operating HELYCON stations, with the participation of many high school physics teachers. A Summer School for physics students and teachers is planned for the summer of 2011 to initiate the HELYCON use in high school educational activities including high school students’ participation in construction, deployment and operation of HELYCON stations..