Astrogruppe Cusanusgymnasium Bruneck

 tl;dr - On the late morning of December 27 2025, a group of thirteen current and former members of astrocusanus met for an informal get-together at the local pub. Image 1: The participants of the first official astrocusanus meet-up.   The students astronomy group of the Cusanusgymnasium Bruneck first saw the light of day in 2006 – the year of the total solar eclipse in Turkey. After witnessing the two eclipses in 1999 (Austria) and 2001 (Zambia), I definitely didn't want to miss this one. However, this time the celestial event would take place on March 29, right in the middle of the school year. I therefore I proposed to the head of my school to combine pleasure with business and to assemble a travel group of young astronomy enthusiasts, who were just as eager to see the eclipse as I was. As you can probably guess, this was an easy task. A few weeks later we all experienced one of the most fantastic shows  this planet has to offer at the sunny beach of Side. Image 2: T...

 tl;dr - In 2008 we started monitoring the star CY Aquarii, a pulsating variable with a remarkably small period of ~90 min and a > 0.7 magnitudes amplitude. Together with Prof. Dr. Christiaan Sterken from Vrije Universiteit Brussel, we recently published data tables and findings from the 2022-2024 observing seasons in our seventh scientific paper.  It is now common knowledge that among all the stars in the sky the students of the Cusanusgymnasium Bruneck have one undisputed favourite: a tiny little speck of light in the constellation of Aquarius with the unpretentious designation CY. The latest Gaia measurements put it at a distance of 1,367 light years, hence, despite being hotter, bigger and brighter than the Sun, to us it appears ~100 times dimmer than the faintest stars visible to the unaided eye. Yet, its remarkable property to change its brightness fast (within ~90 min) and considerably (~ doubling its energy output) secured it a special place in our hearts. Ind...