Wonderful news from the Razom Ticket as the International Astronomy Olympiad 2018 came to an end. We congratulate the Ukrainian team, who won three bronze medals! Razom Ticket is grateful to Infopulse Ukraine and all our individual donors for providing financial support that allowed the team to attend the Olympiad, represent Ukraine and gain the precious experience!
From October 06 to October 14, the XXIII International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO 2018) took place in Colombo, Sri Lanka. This year’s Olympiad was attended by 83 students from 18 countries. All students were divided into two groups: younger (α group, with participants aged 14-15 years) and older (β group, with participants aged 16-18 years).
Ukraine at the Olympiad was represented by a team of four participants, two in each group. They were students of the Ukrainian Physics and Mathematics Lyceum of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukrainian Physical-Mathematical Lyceum) Andrey Dovbush, Taisiia Karasova and Andriy Semenov and a student of the Lviv Physics and Mathematics Lyceum of the Ivan Franko Lviv National University Sviatoslav Lushney. According to the results of three rounds, our team has received three bronze medals (diplomas of the third degree) and one diploma of the participant. Bronze medals went to Andrei Dovbush, Taisiya Karasev and Sviatoslav Lushney.
During the theoretical round of the Olympiad students were solving a possibility of creating a mercury mirror on the North Pole of the Earth, “helped” scientists to determine the distances to distant galaxies, studied the circumstances of the great confrontation with Mars that took place in the end of July of this year (2018), and the associated confrontation of phenomena, determined the time of sunset in Colombo by the given image, studied the motion and conditions of visibility of the geostationary satellite and counted the number of objects and their total mass in the Oort cloud.
During the observation round that took place in cloudy weather, the students had to demonstrate their initial skills of working with telescopes and determine the individual parameters of sight in the celestial sphere with the help of astronomical software (the second part of the observation round was conducted by the computer).
During the practical round, students were able to explore short-period pulsed star variables such as SZ Lyn, a double S ant system, analyze the O-C diagram for a proposed star variable, and conduct a calibration of the solar spectrum.
The mentors of the Ukrainian team at the Olympiad were: the engineer of the Department of Astronomy and Physics of the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University Andriy Simon (scientific tutor) and senior researcher of the International Center for Astronomical and Medico-Ecological Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Vera Godunova.
Special Thank-You goes to the Razom Ticket team, and specifically Lyuba Shipovich, Pasha Gavrylenko and Alisa Holoshchapova! The participation of the Ukrainian team at the XXIII International Astronomy Olympiad would have been impossible without support from the Razom Ticket.
It is incredible to see our young Ukrainian bright minds compete at the international level in such complex fields as astronomy. Razom continues its mission of encouraging and motivating young Ukrainian students focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) disciplines, and represent their schools at national Olympiads, and Ukraine at the international competitions. Ukraine’s STEM progress starts at school, and we should do our best to support it! Learn more about Razom Ticket, and support the project by donating today. Thank you!
