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The best students from all over Poland took part in the finals of the OMSA astronomy competition in Grudziądz, presenting their mini-research papers. The winner was Maja Zych from Krakow Youth Society of Friends of Arts and Sciences.
OMSA – what is it?
National Youth Astronomical and Astronautical Seminar named after Robert Głębocki, known in short as OMSA, is one of the oldest Polish astronomy competitions for young people. This year was its 49th edition. By tradition, it is matched only by the Astronomical Olympics, which had its 66th edition this year.
In this year’s OMSA finals, students presented 21 papers. The participants were the best people from the voivodeship eliminations, which had previously been held in 13 voivodeships. This year, the participants met live in Grudziądz, returning to the traditional OMSA formula after 3 years of conducting the online competition.
The final competition was held at the Planetarium and Astronomical Observatory in Grudziądz on March 23-25. The topics of the works prepared by the participants were diverse and included, among others: measurements of various structures on the Moon or the Sun based on observations from the Earth, various issues of space flights, meteorites, the most massive stars, or protection of the dark sky. The 15-minute presentations of the participants were evaluated by a jury of professional astronomers.
The winner was Maja Zych from Krakow Youth Society of Friends of Sciences and Arts, who gave a lecture entitled “Hills and troughs – or how to calculate the parameters of certain structures on the moon”.
The second place was taken by Oskar Kościański and Dawid Bugajewski (I High School in Kościan, Greater Poland Voivodeship), who tried to explore lunar craters using amateur methods, and ex aequo Kacper Jagielski and Maksymilian Szutkowski (III High School in Bydgoszcz, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship), who in turn developed an application that facilitates the study of the Moon based on photos.
The third place was taken by Hanna Hoffmann (International High School in Zabrze), who dealt with space law in her work, and the fourth place was taken by Marta Czupajło (Public Primary School in Dobre, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship), who searched for information about no longer existing constellations related to from Poland.
Three honorable mentions were also awarded. They were awarded to Kacper Romuk (I High School in Gryfino, Zachodniopomorskie Voivodeship) who analyzed the safe angle of the spacecraft entering the atmosphere, Julia Stankiewicz (II High School in Tczew, Pomeranian Voivodeship) for determining the rotation of the Sun based on observations of sunspots, and Yaroslav Zakharov ( I High School in Inowrocław, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship) for attempts at solar photovoltaic measurements.
The winners received prizes in the form of telescopes, binoculars, subscription to the journal “Urania – Postępy Astronomii”.
The OMSA competition has been supported for many years by the Ministry of Education and Science as part of the “Social responsibility of science” programme. It was also supported by the Polish Astronomical Society, the Polish Society of Amateur Astronomers, the Polish Astronomy Foundation, the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, and the patronage was granted by the local government (Piotr Całbecki – marshal of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and Maciej Glamowski – president of Grudziądz). The planetarium in Grudziądz is located in the Technical School Complex in Grudziądz.