Catch a Star!
...and the Winners are...!
Congratulations!
Here is the eagerly awaited list of the prize winners in the "Catch a Star!" competition, as announced by the international jury during a short ceremony on Monday November 10th, 2003, at the "Physics on Stage 3" festival event (at ESTEC-ESA, Noordwijk, The Netherlands). "Catch a Star!" is a web-based all-European educational programme organised by ESO and EAAE. It took place within the European Week of Science and Technology 2003 by the European Commission.
The jury members were very impressed by the quality of many of the 132 reports received and it was a very difficult task to find the winning teams. Much attention was paid to the proper fulfillment of the rules as these were displayed on the top page of the "Catch a Star!" website. In order to be considered for a prize, the reports also had to demonstrate originality, individual initiative and thoroughness. The quality of the presentation also played a role. The jury also decided to award a number of additional prizes, and more teams are therefore receiving official recognition for their good work. There are also two "special prizes".
The jury and all who were involved in the organisation of this year's "Catch a Star!" cordially congratulate the winners! Thank you to all teams who participated! All "Official Participants" (indicated with a blue colour in the "country" and "object" tables), will in due time receive a T-shirt as a pleasant memory of this competition (*).
Winners of the main prizes! (*)
The reports of the 20 winning teams and those of the 6 teams that received special prizes are now available (click on the team number). Please note that due to the different formats in which the reports were delivered, there may possibly be browser incompatibilities. If you have problems with one browser, try to use another. Moreover, although care was taken to check that all links function properly, there may still be some bad ones, since the ESO web servers are UNIX-operated, while most of the reports were generated on PCs in a Window-environment.
Place | Prize | Object | Group | Location | Reg. No. |
1. prize | A trip to the Paranal Observatory | Alpha Lyrae (Vega) | Carlo Botto Marco Bottero Massimo Caldarone Marco Leoncino | Italy - Acqui Terme (AL) | 042 |
2. prize | A trip to ESO HQ in Garching | Europa (Jovian satellite) | Chris Baker Jack Baker Charles Franklin Catherine Wilson | UK - Warminster-Wiltshire | 088 |
3. prize | A trip to the Wendelstein Observatory | Earth's Moon | Egor Eremeev Irina Guseva Artem Khvastunov Stanislav Pashkov | Russia - St. Petersburg | 138 |
4. prize | A MEADE telescope | Southern Cross | Consuelo Alizadeh Ruiz Leyton Ana Leticia Rojas Maria Constanza Pavez Saavedra Gabriela Constanza Rossi Vargas | Chile - Coquimbo | 065 |
5. prize | A BAADER Home Planetarium | Dumbbell Nebula (Messier 27) | Camille Bachelier Antoine Clenet Mikaela Godissard Marlena Lubenova Jean-Jacques Rives | France - Montaigu | 037 |
6. prize | A COLUMBUS Star Globe | Mercury | Bilyana Hristova Dimitar Kokotanekov Vladimir Palankov Iliya Valev | Bulgaria - Dimitrovgrad | 112 |
7. prize | A COLUMBUS Moon Globe | Crab Nebula | Michel Faye Obey Liu Marielle Phuong Bianka Shoai Tehrani | France - Paris | 129 |
8. prize | Three large ESO Sky Photos | The Leonids | Daniel Bozhík Gareth Kucinkas Lúbomír Novák Eva Steinová | Slovakia - Bratislava | 049 |
9. prize | Three large ESO Sky Photos | Pluto | Janis Libeks Iveta Murane Kristina Popila Martins Priedols | Latvia - Riga | 023 |
10. prize | Three large ESO Sky Photos | Messier 33 | Fie Buus Christian Hedeager Clausen Jeppe Overbeck Petersen Mogens Winther | Denmark - Sønderborg | 154 |
11. prize | A rotating KOSMOS Star Map | Wolf-Rayet Stars | Jürgen Leschhorn Leonhard Storz Manuel Wolff Johannes Zabl | Germany - Landsberg am Lech | 142 |
12. prize | A KOSMOS Star Map | Northern Lights (Aurorae) | Mikko Jukkola Mikael Kuoppala Miikka Toernroos Snejana Valtchanova | Finland - Helsinki | 022 |
13. prize | A MEYERS Big Star Atlas | Mars | Anton Iliev Nadezhda Lyubomirova Veselka Radeva Christo Stoev | Bulgaria - Varna/Smolyan | 001 |
14. prize | A HALLWAG Map of the Northern and Southern Sky | Comet Tempel-Tuttle | Rafael Eduardo Gabaldón Pacheco Javier Martín Sobrino Sergio Sanroma Tato Antonio Muñoz Villanueva | Spain - Ciudad Real | 093 |
15. prize | A HALLWAG Map of the Moon | Callisto (Jovian satellite) | Daniel Holdsworth Jermaine Olphert Andrew Robinson Catherine Wilson | UK - Warminster/Wiltshire | 089 |
16. prize | A HALLWAG Map of the Moon of the Solar System | Alpha Ursae Minoris (Polaris) | Sonia Germain Cemilia Deschamps Anne Girard Jean-Jacques Rives | France - Montaigu | 038 |
17. prize | A complete Set of the ESO/EAAE Summary Information Sheets | Orion Nebula (Messier 42) | Valeri Postarov Veselka Radeva Petar Todorov | Bulgaria - Varna | 067 |
18. prize | An ESO Panorama: Paranal at Sunset | Southern Cross | Mario Campos Duque Felipe Garrido Goicovic Juan Soto Rosales Matias Marchant Taborga | Santiago de Chile | 007 |
19. prize | A Set of ESO Slides and a CD-ROM | Reflection Nebula NGC 1999 | Nicoletta Armenante Anna Chiara Padovano Sorrentino Maria Serra Giulio Vitagliano | Cava de' Tirreni (SA) | 077 |
20. prize | Several ESO DVD's | Exoplanets | Victor Carenco Denis Patriarca Maxime Quenin Nikolas Wingerter | Germany - Berlin | 116 |
The reports delivered by these teams will soon be displayed on the "Catch a Star!" website.
Winners of two special prizes! (*)
The jury also decided to present two special prizes, one to a Danish team that conceived a particularly good scientific idea, and another to five teams of 12-year old participants from a school in Portugal.
Prize | Object | Group | Location | Reg. No. |
Special Prize: Visit by an ESO astronomer | Andromeda Galaxy | Line Andresen Marie Kjærgaard Karen Olsen Mogens Winther | Denmark - Sønderborg | 151 |
Special Prize: Visit by an ESO astronomer | Mercury | Maria Leonor Cabral Rodrigo Cruz Andreia Nascimento Raquel Soares | Portugal - Cascais | 169 |
The Sun | Maria Leonor Cabral Felipa Nuñes Cristina Gonçalves | Portugal - Cascais | 170 | |
The Milky Way | Maria Leonor Cabral Margarida Cruz Cátia Garcia Carolina Graça | Portugal - Cascais | 171 | |
Saturn | Catarina Arrais Maria Leonor Cabral Madalena Esteves Joana Gonçalves | Portugal - Cascais | 172 | |
Supernovae | Tomás Boto Maria Leonor Cabral Miguel Miguéis Pedro Pereira | Portugal - Cascais | 173 |
Winners of 25 additional prizes! (*)
The jury also decided to give 25 additional prizes to teams who had done a very good work. They are listed below in order of their registration number. Each of them will receive the beautiful large-format ESO 2004 Calendar with a spectacular astronomical photo for each month.
Object | Group | Location | Reg. No. |
Neutron Stars | Bjarning Grøn Christian Andreas Hvid Simon Lenler-Eriksen Johnny Strøm Petersen | Denmark - Viborg | 003 |
Earth's Moon | Veselka Radeva Elena Stateva Kamen Todorov | Bulgaria - Varna | 004 |
Supernovae | Rikke Bielefeldt Bjarning Grøn Allan Jensen Mikkel Vestergaard | Denmark - Viborg | 005 |
Mars | Jason McKee Mika Niskanen Riina-Julia Solman Maija Virtanen | Finland - Helsinki | 021 |
Mars | Andrew Connell Emma McGuinness Amanda McLaughlin Brendan O'Donoghue | Ireland - Moville/Donegal | 024 |
Uranus | Riku Levälehto Ville Peltonen Markus Reiman Jaakko Ruohonen | Finland - Turku | 031 |
Mars | Marie-Hélène Boullay Thoulouse Denis Ghazarian Razmick Ben Aissa Sofian | France - Toulouse | 032 |
Ursa Major (Constellation) | Ivaylo Chebaev Georgi Georgiev Natasha Ivanova | Bulgaria - Varna | 034 |
Zeta Ursae Majoris (Mizar) and Alcor | Francesco Iovine Emanuele Pisapia Guiseppe Pisapia Maria Serra | Italy - Cava de' Tirreni (SA) | 045 |
Venus | Kenneth Borg Robin Gunnarsson Dennis Hoff | Sweden - Karlshamn | 047 |
Crab Nebula (Messier 1) | Thomas Brethome Anne Claire Douillard Jean Hugon Marion Kerneur | France - Montaigu | 050 |
Alpha Scorpii (Antares) | Rafael García de los Reyes Ana María Ballester Peña M. Jesús Campos Venancio Carolina de Toro Teoh | Spain - Meliana (Valencia) | 052 |
Jovian Satellites (Galilean Moons) | Marc Giombetti Kim Michaux Gérard Tessaro | Luxembourg - Esch-sur-Alzette | 085 |
Helix Nebula | Caroline Modugno Gérard Tessaro | Luxembourg - Esch-sur-Alzette | 111 |
Milky Way | Lara Appleby Alan Burgess Steven Gore Ben Ling | UK - Hampshire | 118 |
Zodiacal Light | Georgi Kokotanekov Joanna Kokotanekova Dimitar Indzhov Dimitar Valevski | Bulgaria - Haskovo | 123 |
Black Holes | Sérgio Baptista Henrique Carvalho João Pedro de Carvalho Saraiva Sílvia Viera | Portugal - Entroncamento | 127 |
Andromeda Galaxy | Anna Yancheva Apostolova Joanna Kokotanekova Madlena Stanimirova Nikolova Dimitar Antonov Tonchev | Bulgaria - Haskovo | 130 |
Alpha Canis Majoris (Sirius) | Katerina Stoyanova Kurteva Rumyana Peteva Marinova Nelly Todorova Stoyanova Doroteya Dimitrova Valchanova | Bulgaria - Haskovo | 131 |
Zeta Ursae Majoris (Mizar) and Alcor | Irene Bolognino Maria Elisabetta Pratelli | Italy - Torino | 132 |
Orion Nebula | Dimitar Slavov Dimitrov Anton Mitkov Kamenov Joanna Stefanova Kokotanekova | Bulgaria - Haskovo | 139 |
The Pleiades | Stefan Iliev Karadatov Joanna Stefanova Kokotanekova Krasimir Veselinov Vasilev | Bulgaria - Haskovo | 140 |
Milky Way Centre | Bruno Gatamorta Araceli Muñoz De La Peña Cristina Prieto Jara Rodriguez | Spain - Getafe | 141 |
Andromeda Galaxy | Giuseppe Basiricò Giacomo Miceli G. Battista Previti Elisa Zichichi | Italy - Trapani | 149 |
The Leonids Meteor Shower | Ann Astashonok Siarhei Dubrouski Christina Karchevskaya Alexander Pobiyaha | Belarus - Gomel | 157 |
(*) The organisers will soon contact the teams who have won the three top prizes that involve travels as well as the ones who have won the special prizes. The other prizes will be sent to the winning teams within some weeks. The T-shirts will be sent to all "Official Participants", but this may take a little longer. Any team that is in doubt whether they have sent their exact postal address to the organisers should please send it now to eduinfo@eso.org.