The ESO Educational Office

The ESO Educational Office is part of the Public Affairs Department. The aim is to provide support of astronomy and astrophysics education, especially at the high-school level. This includes teaching materials, courses for teachers and specific educational projects, often in collaboration with partners such as the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE), the EIROforum, the European Commission and others.

News from the Educational Office

23.05.2008 The winners of Catch a Star 2008 have now been announced! See the full list of winners. We congratulate and thank everyone who took part.

18.04.2008 Thank you for your votes in the Catch a Star Artists competition. We are currently processing the votes, along with the entries for the Researchers and Adventurers categories, and hope to announce the results for the whole competition around the end of the month.

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  Birthday Stars

  Tell the Birthday Stars page when you were born, and it will look for a star that is your age in light years away from Earth. This means that the light we're seeing from that star today actually left the star around when you were born, and has taken your entire life to reach Earth.
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  Catch a Star

  ESO and the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE) present 'Catch a Star', their international astronomy competition for school students. The competition offers students the chance to win a once-in-a-lifetime trip to ESO's flagship observatory in Chile, as well as many other prizes. Students are invited to 'become astronomers' and embark on a journey to explore the Universe.
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  The Venus Transit 2004

  On June 8, 2004, Venus - the Earth' s sister planet - passed in front of the Sun as seen from the Earth. This very rare event lasted about 6 hours and was visible from most of Europe, Africa and Asia. It was followed by hundreds of millions of people all over the Earth.
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  The ESO/EAAE Journey Across the Solar System

  The European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE) have produced a series of instructive Information Sheets about the various astronomical bodies - the Sun, planets, moons, etc. - in the Solar System. They are available in different formats and will be of interest to students and teachers, amateurs and others who want to get a quick overview of this exciting area of modern astronomy.
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  The ESA/ESO Astronomy Exercise Series

  The European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have produced a series of astronomical exercises for use in high school. The prime object of the series \ is to present various small projects that will transmit some of the excitement and satisfaction of scientific discovery to students.
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