My visit to ASTROFEST 2018 in Targoviste/Romania

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Nov 01

2018

by Johannes Stübler

Crossing borders again and meeting friends from around the globe. Following some of my impressions

Valentin Grigore the Romanian AWB- National Coordinator announced, due to late funding grants very short dated, ASTROFEST-2018 in Targoviste (18. - 20. October). Anyway, for me it was clear to join. I visited Valentin already during GAM2011 .... so it was high noon to do this again. This meant 2500 km -there and back- driving by car for Ulrike, my wife, and me. Just to get an idea of this, because there are not everywhere motorways, I needed for example from Sibiu to Targoviste, where I arrived on 17th for only 250km about 6 hours - but, looking back, I can say it was worth every hour to drive to join this event ;-)

Besides many outdoor activities on th Piata Tricolorului, for example a public talk on the stage from the Romanian cosmonout Dumitru Prunary and Prof. Alexandru Mironov .......

... several events during daytime and doing public observing at night .....

 ..... there have been a lot of lectures during the conference sessions in the History Museum of Targoviste, where also a big astrophoto exhibition took place.

I had the pleasure to talk about the 400 Year Anniversary of 3rd Law of Johannes Kepler and our activities in Austria to honour this great historic citizen of my hometown Linz. Additionally I presented a poster session about all these activities including the story of dedecting the living house of Johannes Kepler, where he wrote his most famouse works. This was even worth an APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day): https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180515.html

You can read something about this anniversary in an older AWB-member report here: https://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org/member-reports/4411-400-year-anniversary-3rd-kepler-law.html

From left to right: Mirel I. Birlan ("Institut de Mécanique Céleste et de Calcul des Éphémérides" /IMCCE, Paris), Roger Ferlet (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris), John Goldsmith (TWAN-photographer, Perth/AUSTRALIA), Valentin Grigore the host and president of Societatea Astronomica Romana de Meteori (SARM), Mike Simmons (President and founder of AWB, US/Los Angeles), Jessica Suzette Santascoy (AWB-ProjectManager, US/NewYork), Roger Hambleton (AWB-NC Dubai/UAE), & me (AWB-NC AUSTRIA /Astronomical Society of Linz  "Johannes Kepler"), and last but not least Audrey Fischer the "starlight lady"  from US/Chicago. 

During the Gala session, in the presence of the local authorities and special guests Valentin awarded some very individually presents for foreign participants - many thanks for this on behalf of all.

Valentin presented 25 years of SARM ... an outstanding story ... an outstanding man !

Some more talks from foreign guests during Astrofest 2018:

Mike Simmons - One People, One Sky
Audrey Fischer - Blue Light at Night
Roger Hambleton - Astronomy & Space Exploration in the UAE
Mirel Birlan - Asteroids Spectroscopy
John Goldsmith - The Universe, Yours to discover
Roger Ferlet - Astrophysics institute in Paris

.... and so many, many more great presentations from local scientists, astronomers and astroamateurs from Romania.
Hopefully I can manage to show the whole list here in the next time.

On Saturday, October 20

 "Astro-Humanist and Astro-Poet" Andrei Dorian Gheorghe introduced, presented and performed .....

...... together with Valentin ..... the ultimative highlight of Astrofest2018:

 "AWB & SARM Cosmopoetry Show"
with Astrofolk music by Dan Mitrut (examples of music from Dan Mitrut you can find here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGmnRq1ibVM).

We all shared during this session spontaneous our thoughts on the beauty of the nightsky
Beeing connected - One People, One Sky - One People, One Poem!

J O H A N N E S   S T U E B L E R
Ambassador and National Coordinator AUSTRIA
of Astronomers Without Borders - AWB
http://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org
TWAN-Austria event coordinator
http://www.twanight.org
National Organizer Sidewalk Astronomers
http://www.sidewalkastronomers.us
Member of LAG - Astronomical Society of Linz
http://www.sternwarte.at
Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society
http://www.ras.org.uk/
Charter member of A4E - Astronomy for Education
http://www.virtuelleschule.at/a4e
Associate of the IAU Division Commission C2
http://iau.org/administration/membership/associate/15957/
Consulter - Project "Keplarium"
http://johannes_stuebler.public1.linz.at/keplarium/keplarium_en.html
About me:
http://johannes_stuebler.public1.linz.at/autor.html
Owner of Austrian Polarstern-Prize 2017
http://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org/member-reports/3844-yuris-night-2017-vienna.html
400-year-anniversary 3rd Kepler-Law
http://johannes_stuebler.public1.linz.at/kepler_anniversary.html