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Share your own activities, experiences, and thoughts about astronomy with the rest of the worldwide AWB community.

Member Reports from Julio Vannini

Sep 29
2015

September 2015's Lunar eclipse from Nicaragua.

Let's start by saying that we were lucky enough to see the initial part for this event. Weather has been behaving badly for astronomical adventures these months in the entire Central America region. So we were uncertain about the possibilty of watching the eclipse. But patience and perseverance paid back to us, at least for a while. In Nicaragua, amateur astronomers organized local events in their neighborhoods and towns instead of making a one-only event. Amateurs from Leon, Managua, Masaya and Granada were following the wheater development and posting their experiences on Facebook and Twitter. Franklin Antonio Mejia organized a... Read More...

May 09
2013

GAM 2013 in Nicaragua

Hello dear and good astro-friends. This is a brief report for GAM 2013 activities in Nicaragua, a country located in Central America. This activities were made possible with the participation of the Nicaraguan Amateur Astronomers Society, ANASA-Carl Sagan ; and the newly inaugurated Neil Armstrong Observatory, ONA. (Website still pending, ugh!) So, here is the summary of activities: 1. IASC: International Asteroid Search Campaign. After the big success of the asteroid 2012FE52 discovered by students of the Pierre and Marie Curie School in Managua, a new set of students from this and the Hispanic-Nicaraguan School joined to 2013 campaign. Sorry,... Read More...

Apr 02
2012

AWB-GAM2012 SunDay in Nicaragua

The celebration of GAM2012 in Nicaragua blasted off in Nicaragua with the Sun Day, on April 1st. in the small town of Catarina, Masaya. With a couple of properly filtered telescope, educational posters, mylar hand-hel filters and a solar kitchen, ANASA and FUPROSOMUNIC (a.k.a. Women of the Sun), shared their love for the Sun with the people of Catarina. For a couple of hours, more than 80 local residents learned about the Main Star in the Solar System and how to take advantage of its light and heat. Children wanted to repeat their observations and asked questions about the size... Read More...

Sep 29
2011

A Giant Spot

Wow, a new active region emerged at the limb of the Sun, and it exploded with fierce emotion, sending its charged particles toward our Home. And the people around the poles celebrated when a glorious celestial fireworks showed above them, and tons of films and RAM where used, rolled and saved, while the Auroras danced, arched and played for them. It was a giant sunspot, 1302 it was named and it was as large and big as four Earths; with its energetic dark eye looking at us, menacing, powerful, and barely tamed. As it crossed the disc of the Sun... Read More...

Apr 18
2011

GAM2011 - Sun Day - Nicaragua

The Sun Day in Nicaragua was burning hot! More than 50 people among locals and tourists, gathered around a small telescope to watch the Sun with their own eyes. Luis Rivas, Yader Velásquez and myself spent together more than 3 hours under a relentless sun, inviting the people to come and look. The people was able to look through mylar filters and a filtered telescope to see the sunspots on the surface of our Star. They also had a glimpse of the vastness of space between Earth and the Sun using a scaled version of our planet and star. Also,... Read More...

Apr 12
2011

30 Night of Star Peace in Nicaragua (brief report)

Date: April 9th, 2011. Location: Villa Sandino's Communiy House frontyard. City/Country: Granada, Nicaragua. Lat: 11.946491 N Long: -85.949417 W Beggining Time: 7:30 pm (local time -6GMT) Ending time: 10:30 pm (local time -6GMT) Organizing Club: Asociacion Nicaraguense de Astronomos Aficionados, ANASA. Person in charge: Julio Vannini. Attendees: 60+ people. Telescopes: (1) 3" Newtonian reflector with Equatorial Mount. Objects observed/shown: Moon, Saturn, Mizar-Alcor and Omega Centauri. Notes on the event: About 70% of the observers where teenagers and kids. The event was escorted by the "La Villa Firemen Station". URL for Picasa Album: https://picasaweb.google.com/jvannini/30NightsOfStarPeaceNicaragua2011 Read More...

Dec 21
2010

December 2010's Lunar Eclipse from Nicaragua

One of the most wonderful astronomical events available without the need of any particular artificial optical instrument, and shared almost instantaneously in a whole hemisphere is without doubts a Lunar Eclipse. And the Eclipse from December 21st, 2010 was no exception to the previous statement, with so many good astro-friend in may Countries that were as expectant as I was for this event. This particular eclipse coincided with the Winter Solstice for the Northern Hemisphere and happened to be one of the most "darkest" (meaning that: one where the shadow of our planet fell almost perfectly over the lunar disc)... Read More...

Sep 23
2010

InOMN 2010 Nicaragua, Brief Report

On Saturday, September 18th, 2010, the Nicaraguan Amateur Astronomers Society (ANASA) took position on Galerias Santo Domingo, a public and crowded mall in the outskirts of Managua, Nicaragua. The event was publicized on ANASA's Facebook page, Twitter, ClickManagua and Galerías Santo Domingo. Carrying AWB's small buttons over our chest next to ANASA's logo, with 4 telescopes in the ranges of 3, 4.5, 6 and 12 inches and a compilation of multimedia material related to the Moon exploration by LRO, Kaguya and Apollo; ANASA spent more than 3 hours attending more than 400 visitors at the location. The clouds menaced the... Read More...

Sep 18
2010

Everything is ready for the International Observe the Moon Night 2010 in Nicaragua

With only few hours to go, ANASA is ready to participate in the largest Lunar Observing event of the World in 2010. If weather permits, we will install 4 telescopes for public moongazing and a fifth one for live broadcasting of the surface of the Moon. In case weather decides to play with us, we have a Plan B in place: to show videos about LRO, LCROSS and Kaguya and to educate about the Moon and the importance of water on her surface. ANASA's FaceBook page is already showing the following add: By the time I write this, I was... Read More...

Aug 06
2010

Noche Internacional de Observación Lunar

VER A LA LUNA… ¡con toda una nueva luz! Astrónomos Profesionales y Aficionado, Clubes de Astronomía, Planetarios, Centros de Ciencia y todos los entusiastas por la astronomía a nivel mundial están invitados a celebrar la compañera celeste de la Tierra, la Luna, durante el Sábado 18 de Septiembre del 2010. La Noche Internacional de Observación Lunar (InOMN por sus siglas en Inglés) da seguimiento a los grandiosos éxitos de las misiones lunares en el 2009. El Orbitador de Reconocimiento Lunar (LRO) de la NASA ha enviado ya más imágenes con acercamiento y datos digitales durante su primer año que cualquier... Read More...

Jul 22
2010

Opportunity Watch 1

One of the best instruments we ever have to enjoy the Universe are our own eyes. As the guys from "The World at Night" say: "If you can see it, then you can photograph it"! And you know what? It is true! How many time have you seen something in the skies worth to capture in a snapshot? Since some years ago I always carry a digital camera with me virtually all the time, so I reduce to a minimum the chance of losing the capture a nice event with it. Lastnight, while I was at home, I had the... Read More...