Astronomical club recently at the Brno observatory

Brno, 14 January 2016

Department of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics together with the Observatory and Planetarium in Brno opened from February Astronomical club for elementary school students. Club will be lead by graduate and doctoral studets of astrophysics at Masaryk University, while using favorable environment of the Brno observatory. Children over four months will be introduced to observations at the telescope, but also deepen their knowledge about the solar system, the stars and the entire universe.

Newly opened Astronomical club is designed primarily for pupils of primary school (ie. lower secondary school students) and provides a comprehensive overview of the basics of astronomy, both theoretical and practical sense. While the children will explore the structure of the universe (the earth and the solar system, through the stars, interstellar medium, to the Milky Way and distant universe) through short lectures, they will also try to work with the telescope, observe the sun, moon and planets, learn to recognize constellations of the northern sky and find the most interesting objects in the night sky.

The leaders of the club are graduate and doctoral students of astrophysics from Masaryk University, who have experience not only with the popularization of astronomy, but also with management classes and lecturing for elementary school students. The lessons use supporting visual presentation, optical experiments, a small planetarium and last but not least, the Brno observatory telescopes and telescopes from observatory of Faculty of Science.

Club will be held from February 3 every Wednesday from 17 pm in the lecture hall of the Brno Observatory and it offers a total of seventeen lessons. The entire training program is free and aims to encourage young talented students to study astronomy and even help them in solving astronomical Olympiads or other physical contests.

If interested, you can contact the head of the Astronomical club, Mgr. Lenka Zychová, via email – zychova@physics.muni.cz.

Mgr. Lenka Zychová, zychova@physics.muni.cz