Astrogruppe Cusanusgymnasium Bruneck

 tl;dr - A rare clear spring night allowed our astronomy group to capture 16 distant galaxies across the constellations Leo, Coma Berenices, Virgo, and Canes Venatici. Using a spontaneous observing approach and three-minute exposures, we explored the rich morphological diversity of galaxies under an exceptionally dark sky. In spring we rarely have suitable weather conditions for astronomical observations. As so often, the exception proves the rule: in March and the first days of April 2026 we were blessed with quite clear skies. Thus, on April 8, we set out to fish for distant galaxies in the "deep waters" of the constellations Leo, Coma Berenices, Virgo, and Canes Venatici. Spring is the perfect season for this endeavor. The winter Milky Way sets early, while the summer Milky Way does not rise until after midnight. This opens up a vast stretch of sky with little obstruction by dust and foreground stars. Here, where the North Galactic Pole lies, the line of sight goes straigh...

 tl;dr - On the nights of December 10th, 13th, and 14th, 2025 we decided to target the small asteroid "Hossi", named after the German physicist and influencer Dr. Sabine Hossenfelder. Altogether, we collected 81 light frames with an exposure time of three minutes each along with the corresponding calibration frames. This allowed us to follow the asteroid's path over half a degree in the sky in the constellation Cetus. If you read the "Discovery Circumstances" section for the asteroid Hossi on the JPL Small Body Database browser you'll find:  "Sabine Karin Doris Hossenfelder (b. 1976), nicknamed “Hossi” in school, is a German physicist, philosopher of science, author, science communicator, musician, and singer. She has authored several books about fundamental physics, cosmology, and philosophy." Dr. Hossenfelder conducts her work as a science communicator mainly through her YouTube channel and thus some of the members of astrocusanus were famili...

 tl;dr - A teacher and two teenagers drive up to an observatory with a 16-inch telescope at 1,600 m in South Tyrol on a clear December night. The plan is to discover faint asteroids with the so-called “blink” method. Despite several obstacles, as a snowstorm of hotpixels and a merciless ski-slope light dome, they come away with ~  3x15 faint asteroids  (and one interesting variable star). Here’s the full story! On 28 December 2024 the sky was clad in a perfect winter blue, and two of my students — Emma (15) and Miriam (17) — despite being in the midst of winter holidays, agreed to an observing night at our school's rooftop roll-off observatory. Ready to hunt down asteroids. Our 16-inch RC telescope. The evening started promisingly: While we set up our equipment the air smelled cold and clear. Then however, the village below started their night-skiing and a gruesome light dome devoured all faint stars in the southeast. We had no other option but to postpone plan A (our ast...

 tl;dr - At the end of the school year 2021/22 we installed an all-sky camera on the roof of our school building. For over three weeks now the gadget has reliably delivered live images of the day and night sky. Our main goal is to catch some impressive meteors and bolides. A few weeks ago we were finally able to set an end to a year-long struggle and installed our DIY all-sky camera on the roof of our school building. The first steps of this project were already made back in December 2019, but soon after, the Corona virus made its dreadful appearance on the global stage and the pandemic showed to be a hard-to-shake-off millstone around the neck of the endeavor.  Now, however, we are past the first test phase of the cam and everything seems to run smoothly. Let us get you acquainted with what we have.  We proudly present our all-sky camera!  In the image you see the fisheye lens (Fujinon 2.7mm), the video camera (ASI 174MM) and the Raspberry Pi 4B along with...

Dear Universe, you have quite a lot of asteroids strolling about in the outer regions of our Solar System. One of them, the big one with almost 600 km of diameter and an orbital period of about 400 years, the one we call by the odd name 2002 TC302 , that's the reason we are writing you today. Well, this asteroid recently caught the attention of us earthlings, since on 11 November 2021 it is going to occult the 11.7 mag dim star  UCAC4 616-007599 - odd name, too, we know and we swear we had nothing to do with that. However,  the roaming rock will cast its 600 km wide shadow on our home planet Earth and everyone who happens to stand in the right spot, will see the star suddenly vanish for up to 21 seconds.  Sorry, we forgot to duly introduce ourselves: We are four members of the students astronomy group 'astrocusanus' and some of your biggest fans. You probably hear that often, but believe us, this is not the usual 'kiss the Universe's ass' stuff. No, we are the ...