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News and Events
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.
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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 Science Congress 2021
Submit your abstract before 26 May 2021
Dear colleagues,
We would like to remind you that the deadline for submiting your abstract to EPSC2021 is next week, on 26 May 2021, 13:00 CEST. This is a strict deadline and will not be extended.
EPSC2021 is the second EPSC to be held as a virtual meeting. While we look forward to face-to-face meeting in the future (2022 in Granada) we believe that virtual meetings are likely to play an increasingly important role in supporting our community, widening participation from under-represented groups and at the same time addressing the global challenge of climate change and reduce our carbon footprint. Building on the success and learning lessons from feedback on our first virtual meeting in 2020, EPSC2021 will have a hybrid format of live sessions and asynchronous scientific oral and poster presentations with an emphasis on live interactions and discussions. The ethos for EPSC2021 is to create a simple, flexible, and inclusive virtual meeting that provides multiple opportunities for interaction, scientific discussion, and networking.
The Scientific Organizing Committee of the EPSC2021 invites all planetary scientists to participate in the congress, submit contributions to the topical sessions and share their research with colleagues and friends.
The current list of sessions is organized around the following Programme Groups:
Terrestrial Planets (TP)
Outer Planet Systems (OPS)
Missions, Instrumentation, Techniques, Modelling (MITM)
Small Bodies (comets, KBOs, rings, asteroids, meteorites, dust) (SB)
Exoplanets and Origins of Planetary Systems (EXO)
Outreach, Diversity, Amateur Astronomy (ODAA)
Detailed instructions on the abstract submission process can be found at:
https://www.epsc2021.eu/abstract_management/how_to_submit_an_abstract.html
The scientific programme and the abstract submission tool are accessible at:
https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2021/sessionprogramme
Please browse the list of sessions and identify the session that most closely matches your area of interest; your abstract can be submitted directly to that session.
You may see all deadlines & milestones of the conference at the following website:
https://www.epsc2021.eu/information/deadlines_and_milestones.html
Please note that an abstract processing fee (APF) of €50 gross per abstract is levied and this is separate from any participation fees. The participation fees have been increased to cover the actual costs of organizing a virtual meeting (EPSC2020 ran at a deficit last year), but are still much lower than for past physical meetings, particularly when travel and accommodation are taken into account. Bursaries will be offered to support students, early career professionals, educators, outreach providers, amateur astronomers and researchers from under-represented states. For more details, see:
https://www.europlanet-society.org/note-on-epsc2021-fees/
A separate online request form for splinter meetings & workshops, as well as tutorials and tools for the online presentations will be available soon on the meeting web site.
Please forward this message to colleagues who may be interested.
We look forward to welcoming you to the virtual EPSC2021 in September.
Call for Nominations of Paolo Farinella Prize 2021 now open
** DEADLINE: May 15, 2021, 23:59 UT **
To honour the memory and the outstanding figure of Paolo Farinella (1953-2000), an extraordinary scientist and person, a prize has been established in recognition of significant contributions in one of the fields of interest of Paolo, which spanned from planetary sciences to space geodesy, fundamental physics, science popularisation, security in space, weapons control and disarmament.
The prize was proposed during the ‘International Workshop on Paolo Farinella, the scientist and the man‘, held in Pisa in 2010, and the 2021 edition is supported by the Europlanet Society.
The eleventh Paolo Farinella Prize 2021 will be awarded to a young scientist with outstanding contributions in the field of planetary science concerning ‘Terrestrial Planets and Super-Earths’, including work on the physics, dynamics and observations of terrestrial planets inside or outside of our solar system. The award winner will be honoured during the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2021.
workshop in Spanish
Virtual Workshop on the use of the Europlanet Telescope Network for amateur astronomers.
The Europlanet 2024 RI project funds access to and use of a network of telescopes (the Europlanet Telescope Network) for the astronomical observation of Solar System objects and exoplanets. One of the objectives of this network is to train and support amateur astronomers in the observations of Solar System objects (planets, asteroids, comets ...), encouraging their participation in Pro-Am collaborations within the scientific fields of the Solar System and exoplanets research.
On May 15, 2021 (Saturday) we will organize an virtual workshop dedicated to the amateur community, which aims to demonstrate the use of the telescopes within the Europlanet Telescope nNetwork to amateur astronomers. The workshop will be held in Spanish and will use the Calar Alto 1.23m telescope for practical demonstrations showing its remote use.
It is necessary to make prior registration. Contacts: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
We are very happy to inform you that the Europlanet Early Career (EPEC) Communication working group is giving all Bachelor's, Master's and PhD students involved in planetary science the opportunity to showcase their research through a 4-minute video contest at this EPSC 2021 called #PlanetaryScience4All.
The deadline for submissions is the 1 August 2021. All the submitted videos will be shown during dedicated sessions during the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2021, which is being held as a virtual meeting from 13 to 24 September 2021. The winner will be announced at the end of the virtual conference.
#PlanetaryScience4All challenges students to explain their research project to a general public audience in just 4 minutes. The videos will be judged on scientific content, communication skills and creativity.
The winner of the competition will receive free registration for EPSC 2022, which will be held in Granada, Spain. The winning video will be also shared via the Europlanet website, newsletters and social media and will be used to inspire young people in future EPEC outreach activities.
Entries are welcome on all planetary science-related topics (atmosphere, surfaces, models, analogues, simulations etc) applied to any planetary bodies (planets, asteroids, comets, meteorites, exoplanets).
For further information on how to submit and related FAQs, please visit https://www.europlanet-society.org/early-careers-network/epec-communications-group/planetaryscience4all-video-contest/
If you have any questions about the #PlantaryScience4All video contest, please contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Looking forward to know your research via this contest !
Dear observers:
During these days at the end of the year, a unique astronomical event is taking place with the great conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn that will reach a relative distance of just over 6 arc minutes on the night of December 21. This very close planetary conjunction has not occurred with this closeness since 1623 and the next comparable conjunction will be in 2080. Even with a modest telescope it will be possible to see both planets, the rings of Saturn and the main satellites of both planets in the same visual field. As you know, both planets are low in our night skies at a maximum height of less than 30º and visible at the beginning of the night towards the West.
From the Spanish-Portuguese node of the Europlanet Society, the Spanish Astronomy Society, the Federation of Astronomical Associations of Spain and Astronomers without Borders we are organizing a set of activities to celebrate this astronomical event and the pleasure of night observation. We think that the joint vision of Jupiter and Saturn is an inspiring image, a true meeting of giants capable of raising our gaze towards the sky. We would very much like to have your observation of both planets. Whether you are a fan of deep sky astrophotography, or if you prefer planetary photography or even night landscapes, we invite you to observe these planets during the next few nights and send us your observations to the photo gallery that we are preparing.
The activities of this gathering of giants are avalaible here and include events to disseminate on the internet, retransmission of the conjunction by different telescopes on key days, and a gallery of images that we hope to fill with content thanks to your collaboration.
We are especially interested in photographs that show the conjunction on different dates as both planets gradually get closer to each other until they end only 6 minutes apart on December 21 to progressively move away from then on. If you wish to send us your images, please send your photographs to Joaquin Alvaro <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.> along with your name. The images will be available on this website and if they are very numerous we will make a complete gallery and a gallery of selected images.
A cordial greeting.
Miguel Ángel López Valverde, Joaquín Álvaro y Ricardo Hueso Alonso (Sociedad Europlanet)
Blanca Troughton (Federación de Asociaciones Astronómicas de España)
Iñaki Ordóñez-Etxeberria (Sociedad Española de Astronomía)
Victoriano Canales Cerdá (Astronomers without Borders)
Ana Ulla (Sociedad Española de Astronomía)
Amelia Ortiz Gil (Nodo de divulgación de la Unión Astronómica Internacional)
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One of the most significant events of the Europlanet Society is its Annual Congress (EPSC), which usually gathers over 1,000 participants in each edition. This year, 2020, the venue should have been Granada, at the end of September. But the exceptional circumstances caused by Covid-19 have determined that the development of EPSC2020 will be carried out under the virtual modality format. EPSC2020 is the first time EPSC has been held as a virtual meeting. We believe that virtual meetings are likely to play an increasingly important role in supporting our community, broadening the participation of underrepresented groups, and addressing the global challenge of climate change. EPSC2020 is an opportunity for us to be creative in developing innovative and complementary ways for our community to interact.
The programmatic content of the EPSC will be developed based on two types of events: sessions in real time, "live", distributed in short blocks (maximum of 2 hours) in the morning and afternoon, and video presentations with pre-recorded audiovisual narration. The first ones will take place during the week of September 28 to October 2, (dates initially planned for the congress in its face-to-face format), while the pre-recorded presentations and poster sessions will run from September 21 to October 9.
EPSC meetings span the entire planetary science domain and are distinctively interactive in style, with a wide mix of talks, workshops, and posters, intended to provide a stimulating environment for the community to come together.
For the first time, the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2020 opens its doors to schools and will give students an insight into how contemporary science is done. Teachers and students are invited to join us virtually with their classroom or educational institute (suggested age range 12-18 years or older).
The Diversity Committee of the Europlanet Society, in collaboration with Women in Red and WikiDonne, is organizing an Edit-a-thon during EPSC2020 to highlight diversity within the planetary scientific community.
The 2020 Europlanet Society Congress (# EPSC2020) is inviting schools and space enthusiasts of all ages to get creative and share their otherworldly inspired artwork and performances in a contest called #InspiredByOtherWorlds.
The Europlanet Society Conference (EPSC) has a long tradition of bringing amateur and professional astronomers together with sessions dedicated to amateur astronomy and Pro-Am collaborations. This year the opportunity to have both communities together in the same city is lost, (Granada would have been the case and it will return to it in person in 2022), discussing exciting observations and sharing personal experiences. However, the meeting organizers, along with amateur astronomers deeply involved in the last EPSC meeting, have worked to have the most comprehensive amateur astronomy program ever produced at this meeting.
A list of events is presented here with the invitation to join them to all those interested in planetary sciences from the amateur group. Splinter sessions do not require prior registration and will be organized primarily through the Zoom platform. The keynotes will be available, also open, as lectures on Vímeo after the conference.
To highlight topics such as exoplanets, the Europlanet Telescope Network or the keynote address by Marc Delcroix, which will cover the wide spectrum of Pro-Am collaborations in solar system astronomy.
Events index:
1.- SMW2: Amateur astronomers' ground support for the Juno mission - (This event does not require prior registration)
The Juno mission has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016. Its JunoCam instrument provides the highest resolution images ever obtained of the planet. To understand the temporal and spatial context of these images and the details of Jovian meteorology, Juno relies on global ground support from professional and amateur astronomers. This collaboration has been essential to the interpretation of these outstanding data. Hobbyist astronomers provide images that are used to plan JunoCam high-resolution observations, and citizen scientists process many of the astonishing high-resolution JunoCam images that contribute to mission success. The session will contain talks, questions, and a small panel discussion at the end and is open to Juno scientists, amateur astronomers, and citizen scientists collaborating with the Juno mission. The session will be recorded and available online after the conference.
Session program:
- Jupiter image processing. Christopher Go
- Recent weather events on Jupiter. John H. Rogers (BAA)
- The Juno mission. Glenn S. Orton (JPL)
- JunoCam in Juno. Candice Hansen (PSI)
- Junocam image processing. Kevin M. Gill
- The long-term value of Jupiter data. Arrate Antunano (University of Leicester)
Time: 21 sep 2020 - 18:00 (CEST) | Estimated duration: 1h45 min.
To join the Zoom meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84924336526?pwd=TDFCK0h3UnJlTStva24xZWZ1K2IrZz09
Meeting ID: 849 2433 6526
Access code: 915045
2.- ODAA3: Professional-hobbyist collaborations on small bodies, terrestrial and giant planets, exoplanets, and ground support for space missions.
Brief summary of talks and abstracts on amateur astronomy presentations (16) sent to the conference. This event is part of the meeting and requires to be a registered participant in the meeting. The talks and posters pertaining to this session will be available to registered participants on the meeting website.
Time: 24 sep 2020 - 11:20-11:40 (CEST)
3.- Keynote Lecture: The Growing Reach of Amateur and Professional Collaborations in Planetary Sciences - Marc Delcroix
This will be a live presentation as part of the EPSC plenary program with questions and answers at the end of the talk.
This keynote will be recorded and publicly available on the EPSC Vimeo channel after the meeting.
Time: 29 sep 2020 - 17:00-17:20 (CEST)
4.- SMW4: The Europlanet Telescope Network.
This event does not require registration. https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2020/session/38665
As part of the recently launched Europlanet 2024 research infrastructure, a new collaboration has been initiated between telescopes around the world to provide coordinated observations and rapid responses in support of space missions and in tracking new events. The so-called Europlanet Telescopio Network will thus provide professional scientists and amateur astronomers access to an initial set of 16 telescope installations. Scientists and hobbyists can now apply to visit these facilities. The Europlanet Telescope Network also plans to support the integration of amateur astronomers in planetary sciences, as their observations can be of crucial importance for various scientific areas.
The session will provide an overview of the network, the telescope facilities involved, and discuss support for amateur astronomers in Europe and beyond. The meeting is open to everyone interested in the Europlanet Telescope Network.
Time: 30 sep 2020 - 14:00-16:00 (CEST)
5.- SMW12: The Ariel mission for exoplanets and the support of amateurs.
This event does not require registration. https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EPSC2020/session/38673
So far more than 4,000 exoplanets have been discovered, and this number continues to grow rapidly! However, we know very little about them: what are they made of? What are the conditions there? How were they formed and how did they evolve? ESA's M4 mission Ariel will spectroscopically observe around 1,000 exoplanets to further characterize their atmospheres and try to answer these questions.
Exoplanets are one of the few fields in which amateur astronomers and the public can contribute significantly, with observations with small and medium-scale telescopes. In the case of Ariel, small and medium-sized telescopes are valuable for planning observations in the most efficient way possible. To achieve this, a good knowledge of the ephemeris of the planets is needed prior to the launch of Ariel in 2028. While the ephemeris of some planets are being refined on a case-by-case basis, an organized effort to collectively verify or update them when necessary does not exist.
This session will present the Ariel mission and the ExoClock project, an open, integrated and interactive platform for the purpose of producing a confirmed list of ephemeris for the planets that will be observed by Ariel. The project has been developed in such a way as to take full advantage of all available resources: observations reported in the literature, observations from space instruments and, mainly, observations from ground-based telescopes, including professional and amateur observatories. To facilitate inexperienced observers and at the same time achieve homogeneity in the results, we created data collection and validation protocols, educational material and user-friendly interfaces, open to all. ExoClock launched in September 2019 and now has more than 160 participants, mostly amateur astronomers, who have already observed 1,200 transits for 170 exoplanets.
The session will begin with Giovanna Tinetti from UCL, the Ariel Mission Principal Investigator, who will introduce the mission concept and goals and will continue with Athanasia Nikolaou from Sapienza, who will present Ariel's perspectives for small planets. Following this, Anastasia Kokori from UCL, ExoClock Project Coordinator, will share the scope and principles of Project ExoClock, while Martin Crow, an active ExoClock observer from the British Astronomical Association, will share his experience observing exoplanets and participating in ExoClock. . Finally, Angelos Tsiaras from UCL, coordinator of the ExoClock project, will demonstrate how to analyze observations of exoplanets with the specific and easy-to-use tools developed for the project.
The ExoClock project website: www.exoclock.space
Educational material can be found at: www.exoworldsspies.com
Time: 28 sep 2020 - 18:00-20:00 (CEST)
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