address:
ul. “Dositej Obradovik” 14-2/1
1000 Skopje
R. Macedonia
e-mail:
kontakt@astronomija.com.mk
contact phone numbers:
+389 70 300899 (Vasko)
+389 70 682849 (Radan)
meetings:
every Monday at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Skopje, at 20:00; |
The “Skopje Astronomical Society” (SAS) is a society of citizens, astronomy lovers of all age and nationality. It was founded on the founding assembly held on December 10th 1998, in the city of Skopje.
The goal of the society is to spread and promote astronomy as a science, and to unite all astronomy lovers in their mutual quest for more knowledge, bonding and clearer skies.
www.astronomija.com.mk is the official web-site of the Society.
The logo at the beginning of this page (up) is the official logo of the Society.
SAS nowadays has approximately 70 active members.
The Skopje Astronomical Society maintains contact and cooperates with other domestic and foreign astronomy societies on a regular basis, such as: the Macedonian AS, the Bitola AS, the Youth Cultural Center of Macedonia, Emiter (magazine for popularization of science and technology), the International Meteor Organization (IMO), Astronomski Magazin (web magazine from Serbia), AS “Infinitum” (Zagreb, Croatia), Loznica AS (Serbia and Montenegro), "Rudzer Boskovic" AS (Belgrade, Serbia), Alfa AS (Nis, Serbia), etc…
Activities
The regular meetings of the SAS are held on Mondays at 8 pm, at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in Skopje. The Society organizes courses of astronomy, series of lectures on astronomy, field observations for its members, observations open to the public, astro-camps, active cooperation with the media through obtaining fresh and up-to-date information about the ongoing celestial happenings and phenomena.
While this web-site's gallery is still under construction, here and here you can find pictures from all the activities of the Skopje Astronomical Society.
Astronomy courses
So far, the Society has organized ten astronomy courses, nine of them basic, held every spring from 1999 to 2006, as well as one advanced course in the fall 2000.
The basic courses from 1999-2002 had the following program:
1. Introduction to astronomy, history of astronomy
2. Celestial sphere, coordinate systems used in astronomy
3. On the force of gravity, measuring units
4. Solar planetary system (basic characteristics of the solar planetary system, the planet Earth as a part of the solar planetary system, the Moon – a natural satellite of the Earth)
5. Solar planetary system (small planets, large planets)
6. Solar planetary system (small objects in the solar system)
7. The Sun
8. The stars
9. Formations of stars
10. The Universe
Approximately 30 participants attended these courses.
The basic courses from 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2007 had the following program:
1. The sky and coordinate systems in astronomy
2. Basic laws in astronomy
3. The Sun
4. The solar system – planets and small objects in the solar system
5. Stars and stellar evolution
6. Deep space
7. Astronomical instruments: binoculars and telescopes
8. Constellations and sky observation
These courses were attended by approximately 70 participants. A multimedia CD and a script were obtained for the participants, which contained all the lectures and presentations of the courses. They are the first astronomical materials of this kind written in Macedonian.
In order the basic courses to be more advanced and serious, the 2005 course was divided into two parts. The first one ("Astronomy 1") was held 07.03 - 17.05.2005, attended by over 50 students. This part was concentrated on the basics of celestial mechanics and the Solar System, having the following programme:
1. Movement of Earth and phenomena on the celestial sphere I
2. Movement of Earth and phenomena on the celestial sphere II
3. Gravity and basics of celestial mechanics I
4. Gravity and basics of celestial mechanics II
5. Terrestrial group of planets I
6. Terrestrial group of planets II
7. Small objects of the solar system
8. Comets
9. Jovian group of planets
10. Practical problems from the previous lectures
The second part of the course ("Astronomy 2") was held 10.10 - 28.11.2005, attended by approximately 15 students. This part was concentrated on cosmology and star evolution, having the following programme:
1. The Moon
2. Telescopes and astronomical photometry
3. Spectral analysis and Doppler effect
4. The Sun
5. Stars and star evolution I
6. Stars and star evolution II
7. Galaxies and cosmology I
8. Galaxies and cosmology II
Learning materials were provided for both parts of the course (the books "Astronomy 1 & 2" by Vladis Vujnovic)
The upper course, held in September and October 2000, was attended by approximately 20 participants.
While this web-site's gallery is still under construction, here and here you can find pictures from the lectures organized by the Skopje Astronomical Society.
Lectures in the field of astronomy
Beside these courses, SAS has organized several series of various lectures on the field of astronomy.
In May 2003 several lectures on different subjects were given for the students of ASUC “Boro Petrushevski” high school in Skopje.
In October 2003, the students from the American high school "Nova" had the opportunity to listen to an astronomy lecture, as well.
On September 29th 2005, answering an invitation from the American Corner - Skopje (ACS), the lecture "The Moon - introduction, origin, structure and facts" was given for the guests of the ACS.
With the lecture "Einstein's year of Physics", held on February 28th 2005 by professor Gjorgji Ivanovski from the Institute of Physics at the Faculty of Natural Sciences, SAS marked the Year of physics 2005. This lecture was attended by a record number of guests.
On April 28th 2005 (before the orthodox Easter), SAS organized a lecture "Why this year Easter is on the 1st of May?".
On the day of the partial solar eclipse from October 3rd 2005, the Society organized a lecture "Solar and lunar eclipses".
Expecting the Christmas and New Year holidays in 2005, on December 25th SAS organized a lecture "New Year and calendars according to various civilizations".
Due to the big interest, the lecture "New Year and calendars according to various civilizations" was reated before the Christmas and New Year holidays on December 25th 2006.
Marking the 21st anniversary of the catastrophe in Chernobyl, on April 27th 2007 the Society held a lecture named "Nuclear Energy - morals and consequences from Chernobyl".
As part of "Prilep - city of culture 2007", answering the invitation of the city of Prilep, the Skopje Astronomical Society organized an Astronomical Weekend in this town, filled with astronomy lectures and projections of documentary films. Also, There was an exhibition of astronomy photographs from the SAS's archives, first of this kind. Unfortunately, due to bad weather, the scheduled open-to-the-public observations didn't take place, but the rest of the event was organized as planned. This was the first presentation of the Society's activities before the Prilep's public.
In the period of October 6th ‘till November 24th a series of astronomy lectures was organized, having the following titles:
06.10.2003 Astronomy inventions in the new era
13.10.2003 Mars and its terraforming
20.10.2003 Extrasolar planets
27.10.2003 Life in space
03.11.2003 Black holes
10.11.2003 Stellar skies through a telescope
17.11.2003 Space missions
24.11.2003 The truth about horoscope and astrology
For this series of lectures a multimedia CD was prepared as well, with the contents and presentations of every lecture, also the first of this kind written in Macedonian. Each lecture was attended by approximately 60 visitors.
From November 29th 'till December 27th SAS organized the second series of popular astronomy lectures, with the following titles:
29.11.2004 The truth about the horoscope and astrology
06.12.2004 The dark side of the Universe
13.12.2004 Black holes
20.12.2004 Interstellar travel
27.12.2004 Life in space
The third series of popular lectures, which were held every first Thursday of the month, started on May 5th 2005, and with a small break during the summer, ended on March 16th 2006. The following lectures were included in the series:
05.05.2005 General relativity and black holes
02.06.2005 The truth about the horoscope and astrology
06.10.2005 Space missions
03.11.2005 Mars and its terraforming
01.12.2005 Asteroids - insignificant little rocks, or lurking killers?
05.01.2006 Star Trek - Utopia or the future? (held from guest-lecturers from the web-blog "Maktrek")
02.02.2006 Life in space
02.03.2006 Black holes (held by guest-lecturer Blagoj Petrushev, from the Institute of Physics at the Faculty of Natural Sciences)
The fourth series of popular lectures started on October 19th and ended, and is scheduled to end on December 21st, containing a total of ten lectures.
19.10.2006 Why Pluton isn't a planet anymore?
26.10.2006 Asteroids - insignificant little rocks, or lurking killers?
02.11.2006 Interstellar travel
09.11.2006 Cosmology
16.11.2006 Moons and artificial satelites
23.11.2006 From a star to a black hole
30.11.2006 Extrasolar planets
07.12.2006 The wonderful sky
14.12.2006 Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
21.12.2006 Star Trek - reality in the future
The public was informed about these courses and lectures through a number of written and electronic media, and posters about these activities were presented to the Skopje high schools and faculties, informing the corresponding professors at the same time. All this was done in order to achieve a high degree of involvement of all citizens in the activities of the Skopje Astronomical Society.
While this web-site's gallery is still under construction, here and here you can find pictures from the lectures organized by the Skopje Astronomical Society.
Field observations
Field observations are organized for the members of the SAS on regular bases, whether there’s a specific astronomy event going on (such as eclipses, conjunctions, oppositions etc.), or just performing astro-photography, or even simply hunger for clear skies. Since its foundation, the Society has been observing every astronomical phenomenon so far, such as the Sun and Moon eclipses, meteor showers, comets, oppositions, conjunctions etc. From the latter bigger activities we single out the observation of the total solar eclipse on May 27th 2006, close to Antalya, Turkey. In an organized journey, 10 members of the Society, 3 Italian guests and 4 Croatian guests had the opportunity to witness this rare astronomical phenomenon.
During 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2007, SAS organized four Messier marathons.
The Society is maintaining contacts with IMO (the International Meteor Organization), where several members are registered and send reports of meteor showers on a regular basis. For the two biggest showers, the Leonids and the Perseids, detailed reports were sent for the years 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
While this web-site's gallery is still under construction, here and here you can find pictures from the field observations organized by the Skopje Astronomical Society.
Astronomy camps
Three astronomy camps have been organized by the SAS so far, two of them in the Kumanovo region and one on Rudine. The first took place 4th - 6th of July 2003, when 15 members of SAS and one guest from Serbia participated, while the second took place 11th - 14th of august 2004, when 10 members of SAS and also guests from Serbia participated. The third camp was organized on July 7th and 8th, 2005.
While this web-site's gallery is still under construction, here you can find pictures from the astronomy camps organized by the Skopje Astronomical Society.
Open-to-the-public observations
The Skopje Astronomy Society has organized a number of observations open to the public. So far, through the equipment obtained by SAS, the citizens of Skopje have had the opportunity to observe:
- the solar eclipse in august 1999;
- all lunar eclipses since the founding of the Society, if the weather conditions allowed it;
- the rare phenomenon of a simultaneous appearance of all the five planets visible with the naked eye in the spring 2002 and 2004, when 700 citizens of Skopje had the opportunity to observe this event;
- the opposition of Mars in August 2003, when for 15 days the citizens of Skopje had the opportunity to observe the closest approach of the red planet in 60 000 years, and to learn something more about it from the fliers prepared by the Society, as well as through the active conversations with its members;
- the transit of Venus June 8th 2004, when the SAS appropriately replied to the seriousness of this astronomical event, informing the public on time through various written and electronic media, while through sponsorships 6000 fliers and 100 posters were printed, having the greatest effect of involving the public. During the transit hundreds of citizens had the opportunity directly to observe this rare phenomenon through the equipment of the Society, placed at the city square;
- the simultaneous appearance of Mercury, Venus and Saturn 24 - 26 June 2005, when the citizens of Skopje had the opportunity to see them through the equipment of the Society, placed on the city square;
- during June 2005, on two occasions the public had the chance to observe sun spots for the first time;
- the partial solar eclipse on October 3rd 2005, when around 500 visitors could get a glimpse of this astronomical event through the equipment of the Society, placed on the city square;
- the partial solar eclipse on March 29th 2006, when again the citizens could observe this phenomenon from the city square. It was our great pleasure to see that, right after the event, a lot of photographs by amateur-photographers from all over the country were sent to our e-mail address. The total eclipse was observed by a group of members from the Society in Antalya, Turkey.
While this web-site's gallery is still in construction, here and here you can find pictures from the open-to-the-public observations organized by the Skopje Astronomical Society.
Publishing activity
SAS has published three issues of the magazine “Vselena” (”Space”) so far, which during 2001 was available to the public as feuilleton in the daily newspaper “Vest”. The complete preparation and elaboration of the feuilleton was done by the members of the Society.
SAS has its own bulletin called “InfoSAD”, which in 2002 changed its name to “Merak” and continued to exist under that name. Twelve different issues were released under the name “InfoSAD”, and additional three, entitled “Merak”.
At this moment, all the attention on the field of media is focused on the Society’s official web-site astronomija.com. mk, which has an informative and educational role. It represents a contact place for the astronomers of these regions, functioning at the same time as an astro-classroom and a web-portal, on which the latest astronomy news are published (in Macedonian) on a daily basis.
Cooperation with the media
SAS has organized numerous public discussions on various astronomy topics, and its representatives have participated in a number of debates on radio or TV shows and programs of an informative character.
Very often, members of the Society give short interviews to various TV stations, thus meeting their need for information about different astronomy events. Reports are sent on regular bases to all media (written and electronic) in order to inform the public of the current astronomy events. Macedonian daily newspapers have published news about the activities of the SAS, or texts about the Society itself, on various occasions.
The Society is always available for consultations and giving useful information for the needs of any medium, especially for helping in the preparation and realization of educational programs in the field of astronomy. A special cooperation was established with the Macedonian Radio Television (MRTV) for the needs of the contact educational show “Dzvon”, intended mainly for children, when members of the Society completely prepared and organized 10 short-term educational shows with astronomy subjects. Also, meeting the needs of this TV house, in September 2005 the members of the Society prepared answers to six frequently asked astronomy questions, which were used for a special children's show.
The public is informed about the ongoing astronomy phenomena or the activities of the SAS on a regular basis, especially through the programs of A1 Television, Sitel Television, MRTV, MakSpot Television, as well as through the "Red Hot" show. In the beginning of November 2006 members of the Society were guests on the Late Night Show on Channel 5 Television, when the first 3 lectures of the IV series of popular lectures were discussed.
Cooperation is also established with “Emiter” (monthly magazine for popularization of science and technology), where the article “The sky above Macedonia this month” is prepared on a regular basis for every issue, as well as short news and other articles on astronomy subjects from the members of the Society.
The "Ethno-astronomy" project
Two field activities were organized through the project "Ethno-astronomy", when a lot of precious data was recovered and elaborated, regarding how the senior citizens of Skopje see and think of the astronomy phenomena.
World week of astronomy
The Skopje Astronomical Society marked the World week of astronomy (October 4th – 10th) by starting the series of lectures from October 6th – November 24th, the opening lecture being “Astronomy inventions in the new era” on October 6th.
After this, in the following years the world week of astronomy was marked on various ways, always informing the media.
International activities
The Skopje Astronomical Society maintains active cooperation with various astronomical societies and associations outside Macedonia, mainly from the Balkans.
So far, members of the Society participated in the following events:
- four astronomy summer camps "Letenka" near Nish, Serbia, in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006;
- numerous observations called "The Japetic Star Party", close to Zagreb, Croatia, organized by the Astronomical Society "Infinitum" from Zagreb;
- two members of SAS participated in the International Meteor Conference 2004 in Varna, Bulgaria;
- 22 - 31 July 2005 five members of the Society participated in the "Summer Astronomy School Rozhen 2005", organized by the Bulgarian National Astronomy Observatory on Rozhen;
Guests from Serbia participated in the two summer astronomy camps organized by SAS, expecting more international guests on the next summer camps.
Future projects of the Skopje Astronomical Society
- The Society's future most important and serious project was the project for building an observatory on the peek of the mountain Vodno near the city of Skopje, but unfortunately, due to the happenings in the country at the beginning of 2001, this project was abandoned, although the necessary funding had already been approved. The SAS once again is preparing a project for building an observatory on a location near the city of Skopje, suitable at the same time for serious and popular observations of astronomy events;
- One of the future most prior tasks of the SAS is, also, obtaining a full-time available office to its members;
- Organizing basic astronomy courses every year;
- Continuing with the traditional series of popular astronomy lectures;
- Organizing summer astronomy camps every year;
- Increasing the number of astronomy lectures in elementary and secondary schools in Skopje;
- Marking the World week of astronomy on a regular basis, through various lectures and activities;
SAS will continue to organize observations for all significant astronomy events and will continue informing and educating the public on all ongoing astronomy phenomena.
Contact
The web-page www.astronomija.com.mk is the official web-site of the Society. Everything you need to ask about us or about astronomy in general, please feel free to write to us at kontakt@astronomija.com.mk.
last updated 25.05.2007
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