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A Golden Age of Collaborations
Join the webinar on 31st may 2022, 14:00 CEST
Astronomy is one of the few sciences where non-professional scientists equipped only with modest means can acquire data that opens new discoveries. In recent years professional astronomers have become more aware of the immense potential offered by professional and amateur collaborations, and a vast number of citizen science projects have flourished. These projects engage not only amateur astronomers, but also the general public who can actively participate in the scientific endeavour.
In this webinar, Ricardo Hueso will review some success stories in professional and amateur collaborations in planetary science including the ever-expanding field of exoplanets. A look forward to new missions and large telescopes in the next decade indicates that the golden age of Pro-Am collaborations in Solar System astronomy is far from its end, and that new projects will largely benefit from collaborations with the public. The Europlanet Society and Europlanet 2024 RI promote many of these collaborations through various of their different programs including the access to the Europlanet Telescope Network.
The webinar is led by Ricardo Hueso (Europlanet Society Executive Board)
Register for this event by completing your:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6Zn5zg8LQm6-1LeoabajeA
Our friends from amateur astronomy in Portugal celebrate their "7th Concentration of Telescopes" on May 28 and 29. For some time now, and with the aim of strengthening ties, we have been talking about developing joint activities and participating in them as a single Iberian group. This is a good opportunity to strengthen this type of relationship under the sky and promote knowledge and coexistence among astronomers.
In addition to the outreach talks and scheduled cultural activities, the strong part of the meeting is the concentration of telescopes, so it is an excellent opportunity to attend with your own teams. There are also scheduled workshops on solar observation, photometry, telescope collimation and a used material fair.
These Conferences have the recognition of the Portuguese NOC of the IAU.
In this edition, a part of the program is reserved for Spanish associations, (Astronomical Association of Plasencia (Mintaka), Astróbriga of Ciudad Rodrigo and OSAE of Salamanca), in addition to the Federation itself.
Pro-Am Comet Community (Hybrid) Workshop
First Announcement and Call for Applications and Abstracts
10 – 12 June 2022, Prague
1: Call for a Medium-size and a Fast mission opportunity in ESA's Science Programme
The ESA Director of Science solicits the scientific community in ESA's Member States for proposals for both a "Fast" mission opportunity (to be launched in the 2030-2031 timeframe) and for a Medium mission opportunity (to be launched around 2037). The new long-term scientific plan - Voyage 2050 - for the Science Programme of the European Space Agency (ESA), has been issued in June 2021, following a broad consultation of the scientific community and a peer review process, with final recommendations issued by an independent scientific Senior Committee. The plan includes three Large (L) missions in selected science themes (Moons of the Giant Planets, From Temperate Exoplanets to the Milky Way, and New Physical Probes of the Early Universe) and a set of Medium (M) and Fast (F) missions. The definition of the F and M space missions is based on a competitive, peer-reviewed selection process. Even though the Voyage 2050 plan identifies a set of possible themes for the Medium missions, proposals in all fields of space science will be considered, with no prejudice.
Full details can be found at: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/call-for-missions-2021/
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2: Call for Membership in the Expert Committee for the Large mission covering the science theme “Moons of the Giant Planets”
The Director of Science at the European Space Agency (ESA) has issued a Call for Membership in the Expert Committee for the Large mission covering the science theme “Moons of the Giant Planets” that will support the initial definition of space mission concepts to fulfil the goals set for the “Moons of the Giant Planets” science theme. This is the first scientific theme identified in the new long-term scientific plan (Voyage 2050) for the ESA Science Programme for the large mission following Athena and LISA. “Moons of the Giant Planets” addresses issues such as habitability, biosignatures, prebiotic chemistry, etc., to be implemented through a planetary probe to one of the moons of either Jupiter or Saturn.
Deadline for receipt of applications is 18 January 2022
Full details can be found at: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/call-for-expert-committee-for-moons-of-the-giant-planets/
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I would be grateful if you could bring these two Calls to the attention of the Spanish space science community. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about these.
February 9 - 11, 2022
Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure project and the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy of Vilnius University are pleased to announce the international conference „Europlanet Telescope Network Science Workshop“.
The Europlanet Telescope Network (EPN-TN), launched in 2020, is a network of small telescope facilities to support planetary science observations by professional and amateur astronomers. The EPN-TN currently comprises 16 observatories with 46 telescopes ranging from 40 cm to 2 m in size. The network can be accessed free of charge to carry out projects on a wide variety of scientific studies about the Solar System and exoplanets, as well as related astronomical investigations.
The goal of this workshop is to encourage community-led proposals and to highlight scientific results achieved with EPN-TN and other medium size and small telescopes. We invite interested astronomers and amateurs to participate, to learn more about the instruments offered, their capabilities, and scientific potential.
Sessions will be distributed over three half days. They will be dedicated accordingly:
Day 1 - Solar System planets
Day 2 - Exoplanets
Day 3 - Minor Solar System Bodies
Registration free of charge and with no deadline.
Participants are encouraged to submit a short abstract describing the science questions and topics they would like to address with EPN-TN. We anticipate a talk length of 12+3 min for contributed presentations and by 2-3 min for poster presentations.
The deadlines for abstract submissions:
oral presentations - 7 January 2022 23:59:00 UTC (notification of acceptance by 14 January 2022)
poster presentations - 21 January 2022 23:59:00 UTC
For Application and registration form follow this link
As many of you know September will have another edition of the Europlanet Science Congress which runs as a Virtual Meeting from 13 to 24 September online at https://www.epsc2021.eu/
This meeting has a strong amateur astronomy session organized in the last few years by Marc Delcroix with co-conveners well known in this list such as John H. Rogers and talks given by both amateurs and professionals. Most of these talks will be later available online on Vimeo for wider diffusion.
I would like to announce and advertise a set of Splinter Online Meetings organized during this meeting and directly focused into professional and amateur collaborations. These splinter events DO NOT require registration in the EPSC meeting and will be held as a set of Zoom meetings with prominent speakers from the amateur and professional side. They will also have time for questions and open discussion. Please find bellow details of these events which you are all cordially invited to participate if they fit in your schedule. Recordings of the sessions will also be made available after the meeting but please come and join us in these topics with our speakers and join in the discussions.
EPSC 2021 Professional and Amateur Splinter Workshops
SMW2: Pro-Am collaborations (I): Juno's Extended Mission at Jupiter
Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87556952793?pwd=aTM2bmFuS3hvelZnRHNWcWRTMEV2QT09
Meeting ID: 875 5695 2793 Passcode: 985567
Detailed program:
* Introduction - Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU)
* Juno Extended mission – Shawn Brueshaber (JPL)
* New JunoCam Views of Jupiter – Candice Hansen (LPI)
* HST /OPAL observations of Jupiter- Amy A. Simon (NASA Goddard)
* Jupiter atmosphere from 2016 to 2021 – John H. Rogers (BAA)
* Jupiter landscapes from Voyager to Juno – Björn Jòhnson
Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89374868296?pwd=U3hoT2hBWnFMUjNhN0lqWUJtTXVBZz09
Meeting ID: 893 7486 8296 Passcode: 240591
Detailed program:
* Introduction – Leigh. N. Fletcher (University of Leicester)
* Gas Giants and the JWST – Leigh. N. Fletcher (University of Leicester)
* Ice giant variability– Mike Roman (University of Leicester)
* Neptune's amateur observations – Marc Delcroix (SAAF)
* Amateur spectroscopy of Uranus and Neptune – Christopher Pellier
* Challenges of Ice Giant imaging – Anthony Wesley
Join Zoom meeting: https://oeaw-ac-at.zoom.us/j/91295913963?pwd=dUNxSmgvVlJTMkVac0xOUE9ObERBdz09
Meeting-ID: 912 9591 3963 Code: Eikta2
Detailed program:
* Introduction – Manuel Scherf (Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences)* The Europlanet Telescope Network – Manuel Scherf (Space Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences)
* Fireballs collaboration – (speaker to be confirmed)
* Comets Pro-Am observations and collaborations – Helen Usher (BAA - Open University)
* Venus amateur observations: From BepiColombo’s flybys to Envision – Itziar Garate (UPV/EHU)
* ExoClock – Anastasia Kokori (UCL)
* Amateur observations of Exoplanets and ExoClock participation – Yves Jongen
Deadline: 6 September 2021
The Europlanet Society Congress 2021 (#EPSC2021) is inviting schools and space enthusiasts of all ages to get creative and share their artworks and performances on the theme of 'Ingenuity' in the #InspiredByOtherWorlds contest.
Find out more here >>
Contest FAQs>>
Application Deadline: 18 August 2021
Dear Colleagues,
Are you looking for funding to kickstart an outreach or education project related to planetary science? Or have you run a successful public engagement project for which you deserve some recognition?
Calls for applications for the Europlanet Outreach Funding Scheme 2021 and nominations for the Europlanet Prize for Public Engagement 2021 are now open.
Apply before August 18th, 2021.
Planetarily yours,
The Europlanet Society
The official magazine of Europlanet, the European community for planetary science.
This first issue has a strong focus on Mars, including European contributions to current missions, experimental research in labs and in the field, and outreach initiatives to engage the next generation. We look back at the origins of Europlanet and its links to the Cassini-Huygens mission at the beginning of this century. We also have updates on the Winchcombe meteorite and on several new partnerships to support planetary science.
Please check out Issue 1 and share with your networks to help us spread the word.
The second issue highlights some of the exciting science supported by Europlanet's transnational access program, including an experimental project to recreate Martian flows in the lab, field campaigns in Botswana and Greenland, and virtual access to facilities in Korea.
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On May 15, a virtual workshop on the Europlanet Telescope Network (ETN) and access to the network by amateur astronomers was held. The workshop was jointly organized by the Europlanet 2024 RI, the Europlanet Society Regional Hub of Spain and Portugal, the Spanish Astronomy Society (SEA) and the Federation of Astronomical Associations of Spain (FAAE) with the additional collaboration of Calar Alto Observatory in Spain. The workshop had the active participation of some 70 people from Spain, Portugal, France and also from Latin America.
The information sessions, dissemination, practical application writing workshop and colloquium, were completed with a night of live remote observation with one of the ETN telescopes, the 1.23m telescope at Calar Alto observatory, during which observations were counducted of two comets, (C2021A1 and C2017K2), the transit of the exoplanet WASP-14b, and Saturn and its satellites covering examples of different topics open to the ETN program within the Pro-Am framework.
- images obtained and calibration shots - (3.8 GB) - (1)
- enumerative file of images - (.pdf)
(1) - ZIP file. If you have problems with the direct download, click the right mouse button and select 'download linked file'.
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Saturn and moons. Single shot of 0.01 sec. close to sunrise on 05/16/2021 at 04:08:21 (UT) Recorded sessions
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During the development of the night session, with observation objectives previously proposed by some of the participants, the raw data was shown, (without calibrating), as it was being generated which, in addition to its undoubted formative and didactic nature, has made this practical session much more enjoyable and highlights the potential of using telescopes, which are generally not available to amateur astronomers, when they become accessible to them. Many amateur astronomers, who have extensive experience in astronomical data observations and analysis, can make valuable contributions to Pro-Am collaborations from telescopes in the ETN network.
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Comet C / 2021A1 astrometry, made from one of the images during the live session by Arnaud Leroy (Société Astronomique de France (SAF), Uranoscope de l'Ile de France). |
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Comets C / 2017K2 (left) and C / 2021A1 (right). Data analyzed by Ramón Navés and Montse Campàs, (Obs. Montcabrer-MPC 213). The images stack 25 and 21 exposures of 2 minutes respectively, taken on the night of 05/16/2021 with the 1.23m and the CCD DLR-MKIII from Calar Alto during the workshop. The colored boxes represent the isophots in both cases.
Europlanet Society Newsletter
The Spanish & Portugal Regional Hub is a node of the Europlanet Society. The Europlanet Society Regional Hubs support the development of planetary science at a national and regional level. Europlanet 2024 RI has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 871149