Popular and Educational Astronomy Activities in the Ankara University Observatory - 107B074


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Albayrak B.(Executive), Selam S. O., Yüce K., Demircan Y., Okan A., Tanrıverdi T., et al.

TUBITAK Project, 2007 - 2008

  • Project Type: TUBITAK Project
  • Begin Date: September 2007
  • End Date: September 2008

Project Abstract

Ankara University Observatory was established by Dutch astronom Prof. E. A. Kreiken and has started it’s service in 26th August 1963. It is one of the active university observatory out of 4 in our country and the only one in the Central Anatolia Region. Our Observatory has a career more than 40 years and is a leading institute in promoting astronomy and science in our country. The observatory has two main functionality with it’s current instrumentation; one is to produce observational data for international scientific researches, while the other is to give popular and uptodate astronomy knowledge and education to astronomy enthusiastic people (especially in last 4 years). We are trying to make the current popular activities more systematic, well planned and organised.


By developing the technical equipments and human power in our observatory through this project we aim to give correct and uptodate information about astronomy and space to the primary, mid and high school students that are interested in astronomy and willing to take part in scientific researches. We plan to do this by make them watch the various celestial bodies (Moon and it’s surface structures, planets and their moons, comets, meteor showers, stars and multiple star systems, galaxies, nebulae, dead stars and their remnants, different form of matter in the universe etc.) through the telescope, and by giving them popularized lectures on interesting astronomy and space topics. This information transfer shall be easily understandable and as clear as possible, instead of being abstract and theoretical that give the opportunity to make practical applications of them by the audiance. Moreover, this project also aim to relate with too many people from the different part of the public as the target audiance who interested in astronomy. If our project succeeded with these aims and targets, we believe that we shall contribute to establishing and spreading a scientific thought (culture) in our country on the topics of astronomy and space researches.