FINCA researchers educate future astronomers from Finland and Namibia

This week, as every year, the University of Turku organizes a hands-on observational astronomy course, utilizing the Nordic Optical Telescope (owned by the University of Turku; located at Canary Island of La Palma). The course is an intensive 1-week block course, during which the students get to plan their observations, perform them remotely, and analyse the resulting scientific data. The course is attended by participants from all Finnish universities that teach astronomy (Turku, Helsinki, Oulu, Aalto) AND from Namibia! The University of Namibia (UNAM) is a strategic partner of the University of Turku and the two universities are collaborating in training the future astronomers, amongst others. The students from the University of Namibia are participating remotely and tutored by UNAM astronomer Prof. Michael Backes and FINCA astronomer Elina Lindfors.

Intensive preparations for the observations by UNAM students. What sources are visible? How long observation times do we need?

Students from Finnish Universities attend the course in-person. The scientific observations are performed with Nordic Optical Telescope using remote connections, but as sky was clear in Kaarina on Monday evening, the students got the opportunity to view Jupiter through the largest telescope in Finland, the Tuorla 1-meter telescope.