AstroCamp 2020

From 9 to 23 August 2020, AstroCamp 2020 took place at the Centre for Environmental Education and Interpretation in the Corno de Bico Protected Landscape in northern Portugal. AstroCamp is an astronomy-focused academic programme for secondary school students which aims to bring together students with different backgrounds and life experiences, but with one common passion: astronomy.

This year, the camp was organised under special circumstances due to the global context. A total of sixteen students participated in the camp, with those living abroad participating remotely and those living in Portugal attending the camp in person, under special safety conditions agreed with the local health authorities. Overall there were ten girls and six boys, aged between 15 and 18 and coming from Croatia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Portugal and Spain.

Over the two weeks, the students took courses on gravitational physics and on the physics of stars, galaxies and the Universe as a whole, they observed the dark night skies using both the naked eye and telescopes, and connected online with astronomers and physicists from different countries. They also completed a computational project, working with data from some of the world’s best telescopes, and contributed to a community service project.

While this camp has been running since 2012, it was only opened to international students in 2016. ESO began supporting the camp in 2017, awarding a full bursary to a student from one of ESO’s Member States. As this year the camp was organised under special circumstances, ESO offered a prize instead of a bursary, which consisted of a beautiful astronomical mounted image and an astronomy book. Furthermore, all participants received an ESO goodie bag with, among others, posters and an ESO cap.

The preparations for the 2021 camp have already started, and more information will be published on the website soon. Do not hesitate to write at  astrocamp@astro.up.pt if you have any questions about the next camps.