Astronomical Events

November 10 - Full Moon. The Moon will be directly opposite the Earth from the Sun and will be fully illuminated as seen from Earth. This phase occurs at 20:16 UTC.

November 17, 18 - Leonids Meteor Shower. The Leonids is one of the better meteor showers to observe, producing an average of 40 meteors per hour at their peak.

November 25 - New Moon. The Moon will be directly between the Earth and the Sun and will not be visible from Earth. This phase occurs at 06:10 UTC.

November 25 - Partial Solar Eclipse. This partial eclipse will only be visible over Antarctica and parts of South Africa and Tasmania.

December 10 - Full Moon. The Moon will be directly opposite the Earth from the Sun and will be fully illuminated as seen from Earth. This phase occurs at 14:36 UTC.

December 10 - Total Lunar Eclipse. The eclipse will be visible throughout most of Europe, eastern Africa, Asia, Australia, the Pacific Ocean, and the North America.

December 13, 14 - Geminids Meteor Shower. Considered by many to be the best meteor shower in the heavens, the Geminids are known for producing up to 60 multicolored meteors per hour at their peak.

December 22 - December Solstice. The December solstice occurs 05:30 UTC. This is the first day of winter (winter solstice) in the northern hemisphere and the first day of summer (summer solstice) in the southern hemisphere.

Contact

Sandor Kruk

Newman House
111 Gower Street, Room 219
London, WC1E6 AR, United Kingdom
+(44) 755 3693403
sandor-iozsef.kruk.10@ucl.ac.uk

Practical experience

IXth NEON Summer Observing School, Moletai, Lithuania

In the summer of 2011, I participated in the NEON (Network of European Observatoris in the North) Summer School in Lithuania organised by Opticon and ESO and meant for Phd students to develop their observational skills.

We conducted a small research project in a group of four about with the topic: Chemical and phyisical parameters of red giants in the open cluster IC4756. We performed photometry study of the cluster using the 1.65 m local telescope and high-resolution spectroscopy using the FIES spectrograph on the Nordic Optical Telescope 2.5 m (La Palma) in remote control. The data was then reduced and analysed using IRAF and Mydas. Finally, the results of the project were presented to the lecturers, organisers and the other participants.

Summer internship, University of Heraklion, Crete

In August-September 2011 I participated in a summer internship in the Department of Physics, University of Heraklion, Crete where I studied X-ray/Be binaries. I spend 2 weeks at Skinakas Observatory where I took spectra and images of this type of stars using the 1.3 m local telescope.