HCMC – Thirty-nine Vietnamese and international students are attending an international summer astronomy workshop in Daklak Province from August 5 to 16 to obtain hands-on experiences on astronomy and gain additional knowledge in this scientific sphere under the instructions of domestic and international scientists.
During the course, jointly organized by Tay Nguyen University, Simons Astrophysics Group (SAGI IFIRSE/ICISIE), and Quy Nhon Observatory, 20 students from five Vietnamese universities and 19 students from four universities in the UK and Japan engage in practical astronomy activities.
A key component of the course involves hands-on experience with various telescopes, including the 60cm telescope of Quy Nhon Observatory, the 28cm Itoh telescope, the 40cm Kurita telescope, and several smaller telescopes at Tay Nguyen Observatory. In using these instruments, students will work on projects such as tracking satellite movements, measuring lunar crater depths, observing asteroid light variations, and measuring the brightness of carbon stars.
The course also helps students interested in the field dig deep into new research and work with leading experts in astronomy. Most of the instructors are Vietnamese astronomers, with eight out of 16 being residents or natives of Daklak. The teaching faculty also includes international astronomers who have previously come to Vietnam to support the Vietnamese astronomy sector.
This course is part of the activities of the astrophysics group SAGI at IFIRSE, funded by the Simons Foundation (USA). This is the first astrophysics research group established in Binh Dinh Province, supported and led by scientists of Vietnamese descent, including Dr. Nguyen Trong Hien, Dr. Hoang Chi Thiem from the Korea Space Science Institute, and Dr. Nguyen Luong Quang.
