She is an Astronomer

Municipal Clinical Emergency Hospital "Dr. Gavril Curteanu" Oradea, March 7, 2009.

In the first part of the activity, children admired galaxies, stars, comets with teacher Marin Bica from Dacia School, Oradea.
In the second part, I invited the children to name the next module on the ISS. The "Help Name Node 3" poll asked people to vote for the module's name either by choosing one of four options listed by NASA or offering their own suggestion.

Earthrise? Legacy? Serenity? Venture?

The node 3 has now a name. Tranquility, because it ties is to exploration and the Moon, and symbolizes the spirit of international cooperation embodied by the space station.







The children received small objects spatial memories made by my students.

Kepler Mission

The Fortress of Oradea, February 27, 2009

The Kepler Mission uses a NASA space telescope designed to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. The mission is named in honour of German astronomer, Johannes Kepler.

The Kepler Spacecraft was launched on March 6, 2009.

"The Universe, yours to discover"

The Fortress of Oradea, January 23-th, 2009


The International Year of Astronomy 2009 is a global celebration of astronomy and marks the 400-th anniversary of the first use of an astronomical telescope by Galileo Galilei.
''Meridian 0'' astroclub will participate in several special projects under IYA2009 ''She is astronomer'', ''100 Hours of astronomy'', "Universe Awarness"...
Other activities planned "Yuri's Night", "Remember Apollo 11", "World Space Week", "The Great World Star Count"...

Blue Moon (I)

Oradea' s Fortress, December 12, 2008

In December 2008 we celebrate 40 years since Earth was photographed for the first time from space during Apollo 8 mission.
In this context, I held an interdisciplinary activity Blue Moon that brought together scince and arts.
I gave my first powerpoint presentation of Apollo program, India soon launched Chandrayaan 1 satelite, and NASA's satelites LCROSS and LRO will launch next year, Constelattion program. My second powerpoint presentation was about the American students' projects.
Romanian students designed and built lunar beses, and later they observed the sky with the naked eye and the telescope.
The activity included also an exhibition of projects of the students from Northside Middle Scool Greenwood, South Carolina, USA, led by teacher Franklin Mitchell and paintings of students from Oradea and Stei.

Visit to the Hospital "Dr. Gavril Curteanu" Oradea

Oradea Municipal Clinical Emergency Hospital "Dr. Gavril Curteanu", November 15-th 2008

I organized the second activity at Oradea Clinical Emergency Hospital "Dr. Gavril Curteanu". I told the children about Endeavour space shuttle, ISS, constellations an I offered them space shuttles and rotative star maps.

Games and toys in space

Oradea' s Fortress, November 14-th 2008

The activity in the fortress was entitled "Games and toys in space" and it had two parts: a powerpoint presentation of STS-126 mission, presented by teacher Valentina Matei and a second part consisting of grouped six to eleven year-old and twelve to eighteen year-old students experimenting the scientific laws and principles that make the toys on the Earth work.

Six to eleven year-old students made an imaginary journey around the Earth aboard the International Space Station along they played and were very enthusiastic. For the students being twelve and fourteen, playtime proved to be more seriously completed. All children discovered through playing the scientific principles that make toys function in an environment where the gravity plays an important role: baloon-helicopter, wind-up toys, yo-yo. Another toys: whello, magnetic chess, jump rope, flipping clown, pecking hens, density wand. Their created their own toys (boumerang and climbing bear) and predicted on how would the same toys behave in microgravity environment. They saw a movie in which the astronauts "were playing" on International Space Station.

The central element of this activity was Buzz Lightyear, a toy astronaut which has been in space for six months. The children were very excited about the site in which the Buzz show them how some toys on ISS work and wait for his coming back on Earth.

The Great World Wide Star Count

Stei, October 29-th and Oradea,November 2-nd 2008

This international event encourages everyone to go outside, looke skywards after dark, count the stars they see in certain constellations and report what they see online.

In this class the students found out about the light pollution. In many cities in the world the inhabitans are deprived of the sight of the beautiful Milky Way. But Stei, being a small town, the light pollution is considerably reduced. We determined the pollution level watching the stars in the constellation Cygnus and we concluded that the light degree is four.

No. 1706, Stei, Bihor County, Romania, ID event 1975.

No. 1894, Oradea, Bihor County, Romania, ID event 2178.

Names into space

Oradea's Fortress, October 17-th 2008

Messages of yhe mankind for possible terrestrial civilisation rocketed into space by Pioneer 10, Voyager I and Voyager II spacecrafts. About Kepler Mission "Names into Space" a NASA discovery mission.

The Hubble Space Telescope

In the Fortress of Oradea, October 10-th 2008

The event that took place at the medieval fortress of the town had two parts: the presentation of Meridian 0 astroclub members' projects related to Hubble Space Telescope history, importance, future and the presentation of the objectives of the last telescope upkeep mission.

"The little astronauts" mended the space telescope and the audience admired the spectacular images taken by the telescope. 3D pictures of the Solar Sistem, oj the Sun and of the space telescope impressed the public.

The Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station

In my school, October 8-th, 2008.

Earth's artficial sattelites. Information about HST and the ISS. STS-125 and STS-126 missions' objectives. Details of the astronauts' trainings and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama experiences presented by teacher Valentina Matei.

In my school, October 15-th, 2008.

The Universe imensity, space and time. Discussions with the students. Cosmic terms in Romanian literature (La Steaua by Mihai Eminescu).