Winners of Second ESO Astronomy Camp Bursaries Announced

The second ESO Astronomy Camp will take place from 26 December 2014 to 1 January 2015 at the Astronomical Observatory of the Autonomous Region of the Aosta Valley, located in Saint-Barthelemy, Nus, Italy. The camp is organised by Sterrenlab in collaboration with ESO and its science outreach network.

The camp will explore the theme of distances in astronomy through lectures, hands-on activities, and nighttime observations with the telescopes and instruments at the observatory. Social activities, winter sports, and excursions will also be organised for the participants.

Registration for secondary school students has now closed. More than 250 applications from 24 countries were submitted and the winners of the bursaries offered by ESO and the national partners have now been selected.

The camp will accommodate around 50 secondary school students aged between 16 and 18. From these, the following were selected to receive either a full bursary that covers the complete cost of the camp including transport or to receive partial grants.

The recipient of ESO’s bursary is Allan dos Santos Costa (aged 17, Brazil) for his video entry Other Worlds. Our World. Allan commented on his selection for the bursary: “It really caught me by surprise! My whole family is very happy too; we couldn’t believe it when I found out that my video had been selected as the winning entry! I’m a huge fan of ESO’s work and many astronomical subjects, and I’m really excited that I’m going to see snow for the first time!”

The following bursaries were granted by national partners:

• From the Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille, France, support for Angèle Taillard.
• From the Astronomische Gesellschaft, Germany, support for Marielle Rüppel (aged 17).
• From the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Italy, support for Francesca Dresbach (aged 18).
• From the Polskie Towarzystwo Astronomiczne, Poland, support for Klaudia Zięba (aged 17).
• From the Fundacja “New Space”, Poland, support for Tomasz Świerczewski (aged 18) and Michal Grendysz (aged 17).
• From the National Children’s Fund, Poland, support for Zofia Kaczmarek (aged 16), Jakub Morawski (aged 18) and Mikolaj Sabat (aged 16).
• From Ciencia Viva, Portugal, support for Margarida Santiago (aged 17) and Diogo Ribeiro (aged 16).
• From the Petnica Science Centre, Serbia, support for Andjelka Milovanovic (aged 18).
• From the Sociedad Española de Astronomía, Spain, support for Ramón García (aged 17).
• From the Svenska Astronomiska Sällskapet, Sweden, support for Jakob Reinholdsson (aged 17) and Elin Löfman (aged 16).
• From the Université de Genève, Switzerland, support for Vania Vicenzi (aged 17).
• From the Eyuboglu High School, Turkey, support for Baran Berdan Çimen and Baris Can Soy (both aged 16).
• From the Science and Technology Facilities Council, United Kingdom, support for Sophie Abrahams (aged 17) and Alistair Duffey (aged 17).
• From the Royal Astronomical Society, United Kingdom, support for Awnit Singh (aged 16) and Jessica Goldie (aged 16).

The camp is also supported by several visiting astronomers, including Laurent Eyer (University of Geneva, Switzerland), Fernando Ballesteros (University of Valencia, Spain) and Arif Solmaz (University of Cag, Turkey).