For Global Astronomy Month 2020 (123): Echo (17) - GAM Time Tunnel (16)

By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe (text) and Florin Alexandru Stancu (design)

Published: Thursday, June 11 2020 18:30

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My time tunnel showed me that the most active astronomical complex (of those based on an optical planetarium and a small observatory) during GAM 2020 in Romania was in Bacau. 

This complex was created in the 1970s, initially organized by another great popularizer of astronomy, Matei Alexescu, and named after Victor Anestin - the founder of the first Romanian astronomical magazine in 1907 and the first Romanian astronomical society in 1908, who was born right in Bacau. 

(“At first the fascination of the Cosmos
was just a platonic love
because I never imagined I would hold
a piece of another heavenly body in my hands.
But… never say never.”
-Razvan Andrei, Targu Jiu, the most important Romanian collector of meteorites-

Before starting his astronomical career in Bucharest, Victor Anestin moved for a while from Bacau to Oltenia, South-West Romania, a province in which Victor Daimaca discovered two comets in Targu Jiu during World War II and today a few astronomical entities are active: the SARM Gorj Astroclub led by writer Marcel Jinca in Bumbesti Jiu, the largest collection of meteorites in Romania and a few good astrophotographer's grouped around the “Youth for Future” Society in Targu Jiu, a digital planetarium and the “olympic” astronomical circle led by teacher Octavian Georgescu in Craiova - this kind of circles for high school students was successfully created in Romania by Gheorghe Vass in Bucharest in the 1980s, continued by Erika Lucia Suhay in Bucharest and Florin Serbu in Eforie in the 1990s and developed by many others after 2000.  

“An eclipsed light -
Galactic routine.
An illuminated eclipse -
Provoked apocalypse.”
-Dan Mitrut, Bacau, former multiple national astropoetry & astroart laureate-

In the 1990s, Bacau’s planetarium hosted also the seat of the Bacau branch of the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy-SARM, led by teacher Dan Mitrut. 

“What can I do with you
Meteor inhaled by
A suicidal planet?”
-Lucian Boboc, Roman town, former national astropoetry youth laureate-

It is interesting that the Bacau branch of SARM was astronomically united in the 1990s with the Neamt branch of SARM, led by teacher Lucian Boboc in the Roman town, after a religious model, the two towns being part the same archdiocese. 

“I greet Jupiter’s satellites as friends,
Wonderful Universe,
Well-invented Galileo.”
-Tit Tihon, Roman town, former national astropoetry laureate-

After 2000, the Neamt branch of SARM was replaced by Quark, the astronomical circle of the Roman Voda College, led by Tit Tihon, a teacher of mathematics who prepared participants for astronomy olympiads and was able to organize here even an astronomical symposium with international participation in 2018.

“TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE -
the circle of fire
with its sacred aura
is veiling us”
-Iulian Olaru, Iasi, former national astrohaiku laureate-

However, it is surprising that for over 30 years the most advanced astronomical center in East Romania, or the province of the former Moldova principality, or West Moldova, was in Bacau and not in the former Capital City of Romania during World War I and the current unofficial Capital of this region, the much larger town of Iasi, marked astronomically by the activities of professor Neculai Culianu - the leader of the Moldavian-Romanian sky lovers for over 40 years in the 19th century -, the national geodesist-cartographer Constantin Capitaneanu - who made here a small observatory in 1875 - and professor-writer Viirgil V. Scurtu - who wrote the most beautiful Romanian book about the history of world astronomy, “In Cautarea Astrilor” / Looking for the Stars, in the 1980s; also in the Iasi zone, a few astronomy circles were more or less active after 2000, including the Iasi Astroclub led by Ioan Agavriloaiei and a SARM branch - the Lyra Astroclub.)

So, during GAM 2020, Bacau’s observatory and planetarium took a few pictures by telescope (such as sunspots - by Radu Mihai Anghel, who won a “NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day” in 2018 - and Supermoon - by Gabriel Rotaru) and realized an on-line contest of astroart for children.

Planetarium
And observatory,
Simulated canopy of heaven
And excerpts of closer Universe.
Outside and around them,
The air is colder,
The natural ceiling is much larger
And the feeling is older.
-Andrei Dorian Gheorghe-