International Astronomy Camp at Vladeasa

Despite the not quite favorable weather conditions, the First International Astronomy Camp at Vlădeasa, organised by the Meridian Zero Astroclub, was a success.

On Monday, the thick layer of clouds and the strong wind made astronomical observations impossible. Tuesday night, the strips of clear sky between clouds made the observation of some deep-sky objects, variable stars, and Jupiter possible. On Wednesday, the sky was clear for some hours, thus some of the participants counted 65 meteors around the Perseid maximum. Thursday night, the limiting magnitude reached the value of 7. Through the 20 cm Dobsonian, M27 was a spectacular view, in M31 you could see the spiral arms, and the Veil Nebula showed complex structures, especially when using an OIII filter.

 

Constellation Aquila (Barnard’s E, a dark nebula, is visible to the right of Altair)

Besides nocturnal observations, the participants took part in different activities. Every afternoon, after dinner, they had the possibility to follow presentations from various domains of astronomy: variable stars (Csukás Mátyás), the history of Dobson telescopes (Mizser Attila), potentially hazzardous asteroids (Sárneczky Krisztián), the Sun’s magnetohydrodynamics (Anabele Pardi), and deep-sky objects (Tibi Vesselényi).

During daytime, we have visited Vlădeasa Peak (1836 meters), the White Stones, and we’ve played card games, and a variety of musical instruments.

Group photo at the White Stones

The only source of light pollution was Huedin to the east. In the other directions, the sky was free of any sign of light pollution.

 Panorama of the observations’ field (fireball on the right of the image)

The sky has shown its true potential only after the camp had ended, when the cloud layer covering East Europe has left the area, and the Moon wasn’t a disturbing factor anymore.

    
14 minutes exposure, Canon 400D

Except the tough road conditions of the last few kilometers, the location has all the parameters necessary for an astronomy camp. In the future, we will try to choose a more optimal period for the camp.

I would like to thank the presenters, Csukás Mátyás for the translation, Mizser Attila and MCSE (Hungarian Astronomical Association) for their support, and the leaders of our club: Pazmany Nicoleta and Hofer Gratian, their contribution being essential for the organization event.

Tibor Vesselényi

With the beginning of the International Year of Astronomy, our club's website has been translated to English and Hungarian!

Unfortunately. the large quanteties of articles about our past activity has not yet been translated, but in the year 2009, the website will be countinuosly updated with photos and articles about our latest events...in all three languages.

IYA 2009 officially launched in Oradea...

On the 23 January 2009, Friday, the International Year of Astronomy has begun for the people of Oradea, in the festive hall of the Fortress of Oradea. At 6pm, the members' presentations have begun in front of a hall full of audiance. The night began with the short introduction of Pazmany Nicoleta, the club's president, as she talked about the importance of this year. After her speech, Valentina Matei discussed about the worldwide astronomical events of 2009. Andra Filimon presented the life of a woman astronomer.

Official video of IYA 2009

Next, Bica Marin Dacian presented the life of Galileo Galilei, and his first astronomical observations, as this year we celebrate their 400th anniversary. Denis Derenichei presented the evolution of the refractor telescope, Cristian Lazăr made a presentation about the Spitzer Space Telescope, Filimon Sergiu Vlad talked about radio astronomy, and Dan Cernea presented about X-ray astronomy. The event ended with Marius Deaconu's presentation of our plans for the upcoming year

..Images of the inauguration of IYA in Oradea..