2011 NEON  Summer School

 

One of the participants of the BELISSIMA project, from the Astronomical Observatory of Belgrade (AOB), Mr. Nemanja Martinović, took part in the work of the  2011 NEON (Network of European Observatories in the North) summer school held at Molėtai Astronomical Observatory, Lithuania from 14th to 27th of July, 2011.

 

The School was organized to provide the opportunity for young researchers to gain practical experience in observational techniques, data reduction and analysis. During the whole time of the school a series of lectures was organized  on various topics of general interest (observational and data reduction techniques, instrumentation and presentation of some of the European observing facilities, etc).

 

At the beginning of the School the participants were split into 5 groups  which worked on various projects. Mr. Martinović participated in the work of the group led by Dr. Lorenzo Morelli. The goal of the group's project was to determine the stellar kinematics and age, metallicity, and alpha/Fe of stellar populations in the central region and along the radial profile of a galaxy selected by the group from given constraints (location of the observing facilities available, brightness, etc). The group selected the galaxy NGC 5866.

 

The following observations of the galaxy were planned by the group members:

 

1) CCD photometric observations executed using the local 35/51cm Maksutov telescope ACT-452 using Vilnius photometric filter system with P, V, Y, X and S filters used were successfully executed.

 

2) The long-slit spectroscopic observations in remote control at the Nordic Optical Telescope (2.5m ) were successfully executed.

 

3) The CCD photometric observations with the Moletai 1.65m telescope using the BVRI filters, due to the inadequate weather conditions, unfortunately, could not be performed.

 

The subsequent data reduction was performed using IRAF and IDL packages, with analysis performed using the locally written code and IDL's GANDALF code (Gas AND Absorption Line Fitting). Upon completion of the project, the group presented results in a 30 minute talk where each of the group members presented his/her contribution to the project.

 

At the end of the School successful participants were presented with diplomas (acknowledging minimum of 125 hours of work load during the school) and general discussion was held addressing topics of interest for young researchers in various field of astrophysics.

Participants of the NEON summer school: Nemanja Martinović is in front of the tree.

 

 

 

 

Lecturers of the NEON summer school

 

 

 

 

 

Last Updated on Friday, 12 August 2011 10:36