Astronomy - short presentation - Gimnazije Šentvid

Astronomical group of Gymnasium Šentvid-Ljubljana

Sunset behind the highest Slovenian mountain Triglav (elevation 2864 m), 20th June 2001, between 18:30 and 18:45 UTC. If we observe the sunset from Sentvid - Ljubljana (60 km far from Triglav) at midsummer, the Sun sets exactly behind Triglav. It is very beautiful scene and event, it is the beginning of the summer. On URL: http://astro.sentvid.org/animacije/210605.avi (http://astro.sentvid.org/) we can see the sunset (21th June 2005) behind Triglav when the clouds for a moment opened the view - little window - towards Triglav. The smiths and villagers from Sentvid made a Faraday Cage (little tower named Aljazev stolp) and they transported it on the top of Triglav (7th August 1895) to prevent the alpinists of thunderbolts. So the Sun, midsummer, mountain Triglav and villagers from Sentvid are in the authentic natural connection. Astronomical Society Vega & AKG Sentvid - Slovenia.

Short presentation

Astronomy on gymnasium has old tradition (beginning in the '50s in the 20th century).

What are we doing?
When the weather is bad we have scientific lectures, because good astronomers need astronomical observations and also knowledges from other scientific spheres (physics, optics, chemistry, mathematics, geometry, history ...). With the greatest pleasure we watch astronomical slides, astrophotos, CCD pictures which have been taken by members of astronomical group, listen presentations of research projects in last years we also use the Internet technology.

When the weather conditions are good we go to school observatory (made in 1995) on gymnasium terrace, there we have automatic computer guiding telescope MEADE LX200, 10" (f/10) (made in 1993). In 1999 we have bought (pupils - parents's donation) CCD camera ST7 (SBIG). Some CCD pictures of our confirmation of nova and supernova and measuring of magnitude we have sent to ISN and VSNET. The light polution is very strong (city Ljubljana) but classical astrophotography is possible any way. In any case the conditions are good enough for learning the skills of astrophotography.

Look on page "Confirmation of the supernova"

Look on page "Drawing graphs and animation of the motion of the bodies (planets, asteroids, commets ...) in the (Sun) gravitaton only with JavaScript (ie)! "

The Venus Transit 2004-06-08: Live webcast from Slovenia - Sentvid - Ljubljana

Total Solar Eclipse of 2006 March 29: Live webcast from Turkey

Grinding and Testing a Telescope Mirror, 30 cm, f/4

Our position (Sentvid-Ljubljana Slovenia):
Gauss-Krueger coordinates system (official name in SI D-48).
   latitude (D-48):  46 deg   5'  54"      (x_GK=  5106123)  
  longitude (D-48):  14 deg  28'  15"      (y_GK=  5459091)
          altitude:  335 m

World Geodetic System 1984, WGS-84 coordinates system (GPS):
   latitude (WGS-84):  46 deg   5'  53"      
  longitude (WGS-84):  14 deg  27'  58"
   Earth-Ellipsoid WGS 84   a = 6.378.137,000 m  b = 6.356.752,315 m  f = 1:298,257223563

The village Sentvid, 360 degree night photo panorama have been taken by club ADV (Dejan Kolarič) 11th of October 2005 from our astronomical observatory. It's beautiful but light polution is to strong, so the starry light is almost invisible. The panorama have been composed by Gregor Vertačnik.