Participants
| Name | Surname | Affiliation | Position |
| Karolina | Jarosik | MOA | R |
| Paulina | Ślósarz | R | |
| Klaudia | Zięba | R | |
| Sęk | Grzegorz | MOA Niepołomice | S |
| Kateryna | Andrych | R | |
| Vladyslava | Marsakova | Odessa National University named after I.I.Mechnikov | R |
| Dmytro | Tvardovskyi | R | |
| Dawid | Białka | R | |
| Pavol | Dubovský | Vihorlatská hvezdáreň | S, T |
| Marcin | Cikala | Obserwatorium Lubomir | S, T |
| Tomáš | Dobrovodský | HaP Žiar nad Hronom | R |
| legend: | S = | Supervisor | |
| T = | Operator, technical assistant | ||
| R = | Researcher | ||
| O = | Organizer |
Report
The astrocamp was organized by the Vihorlat Observatory in cooperation with Gmina Wisniowa at the Lubomir Observatory, from 13 to 19 July 2015. For the second time, a meeting of fans of variable star research was held at this place. At the top of the 900-meter-high mountain there is a newly built observatory on the site of the original one, which was destroyed in World War II.
Compared to the observatory in Roztoky or the Astronomical Observatory at Kolonica Saddle, there are not such comfortable conditions here. On the other hand, Lubomir is closer to the classical idea of an astronomical observatory far from civilization. The accommodation capacity is also enough only for a smaller group of participants. Specifically, there were 12 of them, but from three countries – Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine. At the beginning of the astrocamp, it was agreed that out of the ten research tasks offered, three would be solved. Thus, the participants naturally split into three groups.
The first group around supervisor Marcin Cikala solved the task about flickering in the “maybe” symbiotic star StHA 190. It was observed for only a few hours. As much as the weather allowed. Flickering apparently didn’t show up. However, there is a theoretical assumption that during the 30-day period of precession of the accretion disk, it could appear on some day. As usual, the result of solving the task is the conclusion: “we need further observations”. A group from the MOA in Niepolomice, led by consultant Gregorz Sek, was to devote itself to the task on Cepheids. The weather did not allow them to complete the assigned tasks. With Gregorz, however, youngsters are never bored. The group developed varied activities ranging from photographing the sun to hiking around the observatory. They even combined the two activities when they went out to photograph the sunrise one morning. The third group from the Astronomical Observatory of the Odessa National University gathered practical experience from observations of variable stars. Two students and an employee of Observatory V. Marsakova arrived excellently theoretically and mathematically equipped. However, students have not yet got to practical observation by the method of differential photometry with the help of a CCD camera. During the astrocamp, they went through the entire process of preparing the observation instrument up to constructing the light curve and determining the time of the minimum of the eclipsing binary star.
The output of each group’s work was a final presentation. All of them were presented at a mini-seminar on the last day of astrocamp.
RNDr. Igor Kudzej, CSc.
Director of the Vihorlat Observatory in Humenné