es2407 — Organisation Release
Winner of ESO’s Summer AstroCamp 2024 prize announced
18 July 2024
ESO and the Centre for Astrophysics of the University of Porto (CAUP) are very pleased to announce that the Summer AstroCamp 2024 prize offered by ESO will be awarded to the Spanish student Kiara de Mendiolagoitia. In a highly competitive selection process, Kiara emerged as the standout candidate among tens of talented applicants from around the world.
Offered by ESO, the AstroCamp 2024 prize will cover Kiara’s expenses to join the camp. These comprise the camp fee, full accommodation and meals, as well as insurance and transportation to and from Porto airport. Moreover, ESO will provide all twelve participants with a goodie bag, filled with items like posters, pens, and an ESO cap.
The summer AstroCamp is an educational initiative taking place every year and offered by CUAP with support from ESO. Held in a beautiful, protected landscape area in northern Portugal, it brings secondary school students from a wide range of backgrounds together for a unique learning journey into the world of astronomy and physics.
The camp has reached its 13th year and this edition, running from 4 to 18 August, saw the introduction of a new feature. In fact, AstroCamp has now become a three-year programme, for which students can apply in the antepenultimate year of their secondary education. In case of satisfactory performance, students will have the chance to join various remote and in person activities over the following two years.
During AstroCamp, students will take two courses, spanning classical and quantum physics, observational astrophysic, and cosmology. Each of them consists of 21 hours of classes and 4 hours of written exams. They will also work on practical projects, some of which extend beyond the camp's duration. One project relates to the total solar eclipse which will be visible in the north of Portugal and Spain on 12 August 2026, during AstroCamp 2026.
The camp will offer an array of exciting activities beyond the classroom. Students will have the chance to conduct astronomical observation, both with the naked eye and using telescopes. They will engage in remote conversations with astronomers and physicists from around the world. Recreational activities such as hiking, sports, film sessions, and community service activities are also on the agenda. Moreover, the programme includes a series of public talks, that will be broadcasted live on YouTube via the Paredes de Coura Municipality channel. The detailed schedule will be announced in July.
If you know someone who might be interested in joining AstroCamp 2025, or if you would like to participate yourself, we invite you to follow our channels to be informed of the next call for applications. Details of the 2025 edition are set to be announced on Saturday 1 March 2025 and the application period will run from 1 to 30 April that year.
More information
The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre
The ESO Supernova Planetarium & Visitor Centre is a cooperation between the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (HITS). The building is a donation from the Klaus Tschira Stiftung (KTS), a German foundation, and ESO runs the facility.
Links
Contacts
Wolfgang Vieser
ESO Education Coordinator
Garching bei München, Germany
Email: wvieser@eso.org
Oana Sandu
Community Coordinator & Communication Strategy Officer
Email: osandu@partner.eso.org
