Star Party 2020, Sri Lanka - The First Ever Astronomical Observation Competition & Workshop for High-School Students in South Asia

• Print
• Email

Feb 19

2020

by B.G. Eranga Thilina Jayashantha

 Introduction

Star Party, Sri Lanka is the Largest High-School level Astronomical event in Sri Lanka and it is organized annually by Anandian Astronomical Association and Astronomical Society of Mahamaya Girls' College, Kandy which are the pioneering schools of Sri Lankan high-school based Astronomy. In every year, the event held in a specific day at Peradeniya University premises for 15 hours overnight.  Star party, Sri Lanka the event has a legendary history of 16 years which has been associated with its quality and the scope. The event consists of the first-ever Astronomical Observation Competition in South Asian region, A workshop and An Astrophotography competition. Each year more than 600 high-school students, more than 60 high-school teachers and more than 250 observers participate for the programme. Teams for the observation competition were selected through a selection criteria by the Academic committee. Furthermore, In 2009 It was reported as the main International Year of Astronomy (IYA) event from Sri Lanka. In 2019 It was endorsed as a Global Astronomy Month event by Astronomers Without Boarders, From 2012 to 2019 it has been endorsed by United Nations' Space Generation Advisory Council. In this year International Astronomical Search Collaboration, Texas-USA has also endorsed the event. 

In this year (2020), It celebrates its 16th year of excellence and will be held in 28th and 29th of February, 2020 at the aforementioned location with the participation of more than 800 participants. All the academic activities are done by the Academic Committee of Star party 2020. The competition is held in highly standard manner according to the international standards of reporting observations. It has been following BAA and AAVSO general standards for marking the reports and a marking scheme is prepared accordingly. All the past marking schemes, question papers and results are available in the Star Party, Sri Lanka official web page (www.starparty.lk). The winners are awarded with Star Party Trophy and crowned as "The Best Observational Astronomy Team in Sri Lanka" while certificates are presented to all participants.