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Science Festival in Torun

Apr 27, 2009

Last week (April 23-26, 2009) we have had a traditional (9th) Science and Art Festival in our town Torun (Poland). Since the beginning it is connected with Nicholas Copernicus University and other institutions in our region, which during 4 days prepare more than 150 (this year almost 170) events covering around 40 science and art disciplines. It is very popular not only among our town's inhabitants, some people come to visit our town during these days to have also an opportunity to see something interesting (total number of visitors of all the events is estimated to around 30 000). This year we have had a special contribution from astronomy (due to IYA 2009), which was present during main festival events. More people than usually were invited to visit the Observatory in Piwnice near Torun, on Saturday night around 60 telescopes were gathered in the central square of an Old Town which was darkened to allow night-sky watching.

We (Stanislaw Rokita and me), from Torun Planetarium, decided to show the night sky we can't see from our site. The events called "Night sky at the antipodes" took place on Thursday and Friday nights and gathered around 100 visitors each day. We have described the most interesting constellations and stars of the southern sky and demonstrated an LCOOGT live observing session on Faulkes Telescope South on Thursday and simulated one on Friday. The observations were very successful and watched with interest and enthusiasm. Many guests were not even aware of such an opportunity - to control a networked telescope located on the other side of the globe. It was admired both by young kids (even 5-years old) and grown-ups.

Next year the 10th Festival of Science and Art will take place during the last weekend of April (22-25), 2010. All people interested in modern culture and technology achievements are welcome!

- Sent in by Krzysztof Rochowicz from Torun Planetarium, Poland