Participants
| Bartlomiej | Debski | H. Jordan Youth Center in Kraków | s | |
| Illia | Garbazhii-Romanchenko | Richelieu Scientific Lyceum | r | |
| Pavol | Mártonfi | Prírodovedecká fakulta UPJŠ v Košiciach | r | |
| Robert | Barsa | SAS | r | |
| Theodor | Pribulla | AI SAS | s | |
| Veronika | Dubovská | Vihorlatská hvezdáreň v Humennom | t | |
| Pavol | Dubovsky | Vihorlatská hvezdáreň v Humennom | s | |
| Tomáš | Medulka | Vihorlat Observatory | t | |
| Matúš | Kamenec | UPJŠ Košice | r | |
| Stanislav | Šúst | člen SAS pri SAV | r | |
| Viktoriia | Borshchenko | Odesa National Maritime University | r | |
| Sofiia | Kreminska | Odesa, Ukraine | r | |
| Anastasiia | Lashkova | UPJS | r | |
| Vladyslava | Marsakova | Richelieu Science Lyceum | s | |
| Weronika | Skrobacz | H. Jordan Youth Center in Kraków | r | |
| Legend: | r | researcher | ||
| s | supervisor | |||
| t | technical assistant |
Report
The Astrocamp was organized by the Vihorlat Observatory as part of a collaborative project between the Slovak Astronomical Society under the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) and the Astronomical Institute of the SAS, also supported by the Astronomical Institute of SAS. Additional co-organizers included the Section for Variable Stars and Exoplanets of the Slovak Astronomical Society under SAS and the Slovak Union of Astronomers (hereinafter referred to as the Section), the Slovak Central Observatory, and the Faculty of Science at UPJŠ in Košice. The event took place from July 26 to August 3, 2024, at the Astronomical Observatory on Kolonica Saddle. It was part of the implementation of the Vihorlat Observatory’s project “Through Poloniny to the Stars.”
Thanks to the “Through Poloniny to the Stars” project, participants were able to utilize the new infrastructure at the observatory. A new pavilion for visual observations and astrophotography is now operational. The second one is not yet fully equipped with remotely controlled telescopes, so some participants temporarily set up their equipment there. The greatest interest was aroused by the UVEX spectrograph. During Variable, the assembly and fine-tuning of the instrument took place. The mount on which the spectrograph will be placed already holds a telescope for simultaneous photometric observations. This is the well-known Newtonian reflector, which has served at the observatory for many years under the name “Púpava.” During Variable, it was used to gather data on eclipsing binaries. Additionally, the capabilities of the new altazimuth mount were tested, which generated considerable excitement.
The main theme, however, was satellite data. As in previous years, RNDr. Theodor Pribulla, CSc., from the Astronomical Institute of SAS in Tatranská Lomnica, led a course on obtaining and analyzing data from space-based telescopes. Many of the participants were already experienced in this field, so the course brought about significant mutual enrichment. For example, long-time participant Bartlomiej Debski solved the issue of downloading satellite data using Google Colab service.
A total of 15 participants attended the Astrocamp, including 4 from Ukraine, 2 from Poland, and the rest from Slovakia. The organizational leader of the Astrocamp was the chairman of the Section, Pavol A. Dubovský. The logistical arrangements were handled by the astrotourism manager of Vihorlat Observatory, Mgr. Veronika Dubovská.
In addition to the main course, the usual Astrocamp program took place. This included night observations and solving basic tasks related to the study of variable stars. The weather was quite favorable this time. Data for the assigned tasks were obtained using the 1-meter diameter Vihorlat National Telescope, the 28 cm diameter “Púpava” telescope, and during cloudy nights, the 60 cm diameter remotely controlled Csere telescope in Hlohovec helped. The “Ukrainian” group focused on continuing their research on poorly observed eclipsing binaries. Viktoriia Borshchenko from Odessa National Maritime University reported on the interim results during her final presentation. The “Polish group” focused on cataclysmic variables. Coincidentally, there was an opportunity to observe the eruption of the WZ Sge-type dwarf nova TCP J00003597+1757408 in the constellation Pegasus. Using the available data, Weronika Skrobacz created an O-C diagram of the superhump maxima, which is a standard task when observing superoutbursts. The method of determining the times of maxima was original. Weronika used the classic Kordylewski method, determining each maximum time multiple times to evaluate the measurement error. For her overall approach to the tasks, she received the Jindřich Šilhán Award, which is traditionally presented after the participants’ final presentations. Among the presentations, it is also worth mentioning the contribution of Bartlomiej Debski, who demonstrated how useful is to combine satellite data with ground-based observations. We would like to draw attention to his website, http://bade.space/. Matúš Kamenec surprised everyone with his simple program that brilliantly solves most of the tasks participants learned to handle during the satellite data acquisition course. The development is not yet complete, but Matúš promised that the software would be made available to the participants.
Whether the Variable Astrocamp will take place next year is not entirely clear. If it does, a preliminary program is already planned. It should focus on spectroscopy. The Astronomical Observatory on Kolonica Saddle already has the high-resolution LhiResIII spectrograph and the low-resolution UVEX spectrograph. There is hope that the setup will be expanded to include the NOU-T echelle spectrograph. This would provide an opportunity to explore a wide range of spectroscopy possibilities for variable stars.
Presentations used during the course are in the following place:
https://www.ta3.sk/~pribulla/V2024/Presentations
The following links lead to the photo gallery and some videos taken during the event:
https://rajce.net/dpv44/album/variable-2024
https://rajce.net/dpv44/album/variable-2024-2
Invitation document: