Hvar Observatory announces an open 6-year PhD position

Written by Mateja Dumbovic Sunday, 25 August 2024 11:12

Hvar Observatory announces an open 6-year PhD position (4 years PhD + 2 years PostDoc) under the mentorship of Mateja Dumbović to work in the scope of EU HORIZON EUROPE project SPEARHEAD and other complementary projects (ESA funded project ForbMod2). The call is open at EURAXESS until end of September.

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Dr. Chen from Huairou Solar Observing station visited Hvar Observatory

Written by Jaša Čalogović Tuesday, 20 August 2024 09:06

Dr. Jie Chen from Huairou Solar Observing station (HSOS) of the National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences was visiting Hvar Observatory 16 - 19.08.2024. Dr. Chen is an expert in solar magnetic field observations and small eruptions. She held a seminar “Solar Magnetic Field and Solar Activities” in the scope of the Hvar Observatory seminar series “Scientific Tuesday”. HSOS, like Hvar Observatory, is one of the planned locations for future Solar Activity Monitor Network (SAMNet) network.

New textbook Stellar Rotation published by Hanselmeier and Brajša

Written by Jaša Čalogović Monday, 08 July 2024 11:29

A scientific textbook “Stellar Rotation” by Springer was published by Prof. Dr. sc. Arnold Hanslmeier, professor at the University of Graz and Dr. sc. Roman Brajša, permanent scientific advisor of the Hvar Observatory of the Faculty of Geodesy. The book provides an overview of the mechanisms, properties, observations and general research on the rotation of the Sun and stars and is available on the Springer website.

Open days of the Hvar Observatory and Science Festival 2024

Last Updated on Saturday, 20 April 2024 12:53 Written by Jaša Čalogović Monday, 04 March 2024 11:05

We are organizing open days on Hvar from 21 to 27 April 2024 on the occasion of the Science Festival 2024 with the theme "Intelligence". In the period from 22 to 26 April 2024, smaller groups of kids will have the opportunity to visit the Observatory on Hvar, see the telescopes, observe the Sun and take part in demonstrations prepared by the staff of the Hvar Observatory. On Sunday, 21 and Saturday 27 April the Observatory will also be open to the general public from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Additionally, the staff will also organize public night sky observations in Hvar, Stari Grad and Jelsa. (further text is in Croatian)

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Seminar by Željko Ivezić at Hvar Observatory

Written by Mateja Dumbovic Friday, 26 May 2023 12:17

In the scope of the Scientific talks series at Hvar Observatory Zeljko Ivezic from University of Washington, the director of the Vera Rubin Observatory project held a seminar on May 24th 2023 at 17:30 CET in hybrid form. The Vera Rubin Observatory, previously referred to as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), is an astronomical observatory currently under construction in Chile. Its main task will be carrying out a synoptic astronomical survey. The video of the seminar is available online here.

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European Space Weather Week 2022 in Zagreb

Written by Mateja Dumbovic Saturday, 01 October 2022 12:00

European Space Weather Week (ESWW) is the main annual event in the European Space Weather calendar. It is an international meeting organised annually within the European Region in collaboration with prominent members of the European space weather community. It began as a forum for the European Space Weather community and has since grown into an international event with global attendance. This year ESWW will be co-organised by the Belgian Solar-Terrestrial Centre of Excellence and Hvar Observatory October 24-28, 2022 in Zagreb, Croatia. ESWW2022 will again adopt the central aim of bringing together the diverse groups in Europe working on different aspects of Space Weather and Space Climate: such as scientists, engineers, satellite operators, power grid technicians, communication and navigation specialists, people working in aviation, space weather service providers, STEM practitioners. The ESWW is highly interdisciplinary by nature and actively promotes investigation of new technologies and approaches. In addition, ESWW is an excellent place to meet people, to exchange knowledge and ideas, to discuss the latest on solar activity, how space weather influences the earth environment and our technologies, and how to deal with space weather. The overarching theme for ESWW2022 is ‘The importance of comprehensive space weather monitoring’, with a number of session topics.

>> ESWW webpage

Science Festival 2022 and open days of the Hvar Observatory

Written by Jaša Čalogović Monday, 11 April 2022 12:53

The Hvar Observatory is the only observatory in Croatia that deals entirely with professional astrophysics and is not open to the general public due to its predominantly research purpose. The Hvar Observatory is organizing open days on Hvar from 4 to 7 May 2022 on the occasion of the Science Festival 2022 with the theme "Life" and the celebration of the 50th anniversary of its founding. In the period from 4 to 6 May 2022, smaller groups of preschool and school children will have the opportunity to visit the Observatory on Hvar, see the telescopes, observe the sun and take part in demonstrations prepared by the staff of the Hvar Observatory. On Saturday, May 7, 2022 the Observatory will also be open to the general public from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. In addition to the open day of the Hvar Observatory, the staff of the Hvar Observatory will also participate with various demonstrations at the Science Festival in Zagreb on 2 and 3 May 2022.

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Can smartphones detect geomagnetic storms?

Written by Mateja Dumbovic Friday, 01 April 2022 08:25

A recent study by S. F. Odenwald from NASA/GSFC has shown that smartphone magnetometers can detect geomagnetic storms: “Smartphone magnetometers are being commercially explored for applications as diverse as locating customers in shopping malls for targeted advertising, to precision needle-guided surgery. Meanwhile, Earth’s geomagnetic field, whose measurement forms the basis for precision positing monitoring, varies on many timescales with significant amplitudes. This presents a challenge for high-precision position sensing that demands stability in the local geomagnetic field at the microTesla-level over timescales of minutes to hours. This study shows that many smartphone models have the sensitivity to detect geomagnetic storms caused by space weather, which means that under certain circumstances, geomagnetic storms could be a significant source of error in compass and other positioning applications. ” [Odenwald 2022]

Brajša et al. 2022 paper selected for the cover page of Astronomische Nachrichten

Written by Jaša Čalogović Monday, 28 March 2022 11:39

Recently published Brajša et al. 2022 paper “A prediction for the 25th solar cycle maximum amplitude“ was chosen for the cover page of the March issue of the Astronomische Nachrichten journal. Figure at the cover page shows the smoothed monthly sunspot number in solar cycle maxima as a function of the same quantity three years before the preceding solar minimum, for solar cycles number 1–24. Least-square fits obtained with and without the peculiar solar cycle no. 19 are presented as blue and red solid lines, respectively. Dashed lines represent uncertainty of the fits. The location of solar cycle no. 19 is represented by the filled circle, while all other cycles are represented with open circles. Knowing that the last solar minimum was in December 2019, this correlation allows a prediction of the amplitude of solar cycle 25: Rmax = 121 ± 33. Brajša et al. analysis indicates that the next solar maximum will be of the similar amplitude as the previous one, or even something lower.

Asteroid named also after Bojan Vršnak

Written by Jaša Čalogović Thursday, 24 March 2022 14:26

Yet another asteroid 179847 (2002 TS315) got name in honor of Dr. Bojan Vršnak discovered also by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey telescope on 4.10.2002. Dr. Bojan Vršnak, scientific advisor working at Hvar Observatory, is one of leading astrophysicist in Croatia and major contributor to astronomy education in Croatia. He has authored several textbooks on plasma physics and received numerous international outstanding prizes for his excellent work such as "Kristian Birkeland Medal" and he was listed as top 2% most cited scientist worldwide.