News

EU teachers invited to France (May 2009)

In the course of the EU-COMENIUS project, teachers are invited to a training session in Observatoire de Haute-Provence (OHP), south of France.

Coming from 14 EU countries, the selected teachers will spend 4 days at OHP, free of charge, to learn new skills to teach science to their pupils. Dates are: 7 - 10 May 2009.

EU grants 300 000 to HOU project

European Union supports HOU project 2009-2010 through COMENIUS grants.

The “European Hands-on-Universe teacher training and support program” proposal as a COMENIUS multilateral action within the Lifelong Learning framework has been selected by the European Commission (EC), out of 162 proposals.

Galaxy Zoo 2 has been opened!

Good news for Zookeepers from all over the World - the Galaxy Zoo 2 has been officially opened - it is available under address http://www.galaxyzoo.org

One should also pay attention to Galaxy Zoo blog at http://www.galaxyzooblog.org

Delphinus 3.0 - now available for download !!!

Digital cameras are increasingly popular tools for taking astronomical images. In order to facilitate applications of Canon digital cameras in amateur and educational astronomy we have introduced a new

software package Delphinus, available free of charge, which allows to control camera from your computer in the same way as SalsaJ allows to control webcams adapted for long exposures. Delphinus functionalities allow also for a basic processing of acquired images. Now, the new, extended version is available for download. Enjoy!

Delphinus 3.0 - new version available for download !!!

EU-HOU students catch the 2nd and the 3rd prize in the "Catch a Star" competition !!!

EU-HOU students from pilot schools in Poland and Portugal have won the 2nd and the 3rd prizes in this year ESO "Catch a Star " competition.

Marta Kotarba with teacher Grzegorz Sęk, from MOA Youths Observatory in Niepołomice, Poland have won the 2nd prize for the "Galaxy Zoo and I" project. The polish language version of the Galaxy Zoo web site was opened in January 2008 in a common effort of EU-HOU.PL and popular polish astronomy portal Astronomia.pl.

The 3rd place of "Catch a Star" contest was won by Andréia Nascimento, student of Leonor Cabral. She presented the "Hunting 'O' stars" project. Congratulations to her and her fantastic teacher and of course the amazing NUCLIO team!

Young researchers hunt asteroids in Portuguese school

Six students, ages 12 and 13, participating in the Asteroid Search Campaign, have contributed to confirm the discovery of an asteroid and helped determine the orbit of another one. The International Asteroid Search Campaign is a project promoted by the Hardin-Simmons University in collaboration with Hands-on Universe. “My students are very excited”, describes the proud teacher, Ana Costa, while humbly accepting the congratulations for the well done work. "Gladly", she adds, "even the parents are now cooperating in the research."

Polish students discover yet another asteroid this year !

Polish students discover 10th asteroid this year.

The tenth asteroid has been discovered by three lower secondary school students from Nicolaus Copernicus Lower Secondary School in Sierpc, Poland. The young discoverers, Marek Urbanski, Patryk Stanczak and Bartosz Zielinski, all three from class III c, found the object in images provided for the school within the framework of the "International Asteroid Search Campaign". Students work under the supervision of their IT and physics teacher - Józef Urbanski.

Polish schools, including the one in Sierpc, participate in the IASC Campaign within a wider EU-HOU programme, which in Poland is coordinated by the Center for Theoretical Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Within the programme students are equipped with modern didactic tools facilitating educational efforts in sciences, for example, computer programs for astronomical observations by means of web-cams or programs for the remote control of telescopes and radiotelescopes.

Polish young astronomy enthusiasts have so far discovered 10 asteroids this year. The spring edition of the International Asteroid Search Campaign resulted in 6 Polish discoveries, with the students from the following schools becoming new discoverers: Secondary School No. 13 in Szczecin, Tadeusz Czacki Secondary School No. 27 in Warsaw and Secondary School No. 10 of the Stefan Banach Complex of Schools in Torun.

The same schools joined the autumn edition of the programme, which resulted in yet next discoveries: 2 planetoids have been discovered by the Warsaw and Szczecin schools, with another two recent discoveries credited to schools from Torun and Sierpc.

"The discovery made by students from Sierpc means a lot to us. It's been for the first time in the history of the project that these are students from a small, as opposed to a big town that have discovered a new planetoid. This proves that schools from smaller towns situated far from urban areas also have the potential, which has not been realised in full until now" - emphasised Professor Lech Mankiewicz, the coordinator of the EU-HOU programme in Poland.