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The Gyula Astronomy Days continue: Researchers’ night

Next Saturday, Dr Bernadett Belucz will give two interesting astronomy-themed lectures on the occasion of the Researchers' Night at the Gyulai Almásy Castle Visitor Center.


A huge smile and experience!

High school students visited our observatory!


We held Gyula Astronomy Days again in September!

It was great to see so many interested people and our familiar, returning visitors! Thank you for the positive feedback! We are glad that you had an experience!


Congratulations!

Congratulations to Dr Marianna Korsos, who has been awarded a 1-yr fellowship to be held at Eotvos University, under the New National Excellence Programme 2023/24.


We are organizing the Astronomical Day in Gyula on 16-17 September again

The Hungarian Solar Physics Foundation is once again organizing its popular series of scientific events under the name Gyula Astronomy Days 2023 on September 16-17 at the Gyula Almásy Castle, to which we cordially invite and welcome all interested parties. In connection with the same event, we also participate in the national Researchers' Night event series!

We aim to bring the local scientific life closer to people, and to create an opportunity for those interested to get answers to their astronomy-related questions from our professional astronomers. We want to achieve this with a diverse and interesting event that goes beyond simply listening to a lecture. At the same time, we hope that the Astronomy Days in Gyula will create a tradition as well.

Detailed program.

The event is free to attend.


Hungarian Solar Physics Foundation in the journal Meteor

An overview article about our Foundation was published in issue 53 of the Meteor magazine. We recommend it to everyone!

See Meteor, vol. 53, published an article written by our colleague Dr. Marianna Korsós.

Sundogs on our IP camera

Szabolcs Soós caught a couple of sundogs on the recordings of our IP camera today.

An atmospheric phenomenon that appears on one or both sides of the Sun, often in the color of rainbow, is called a sundog. These bright "pseudo-suns" are created by light refracting on the side faces of horizontally standing sheet crystals.


Both the telescope and the dome survived the first remote observation!

Marianna Korsós and Szabolcs Soós from the Canary Islands, La Palma, signed up to the Gyula telescope during the observation and made successfully some pictures from sunspots! The system works perfectly!


Janos Temesváry - Admission at Kandó!

It is our great pleasure to accounce that our chief engineer, Mr Janos Temesvary, has just been admitted with flying colours to the Electrical Engineering MSc programme at Faculty of Kalman Kando Electric Engineering (Obuda University). This is an excellent achievement and news, congratulations Jani!


Europe join forces for construction of largest ever European Solar Telescope

Nine European countries have today (25 July 2023) joined forces to commit to the construction of the European Solar Telescope (EST). The EST will be the biggest solar telescope ever constructed in Europe and aims to provide unparalleled new insights into the phenomena of space weather.The first light of the EST is planned for 2028-2029! Construction of the largest ever solar telescope built in Europe, designed to provide unparalleled insight into the phenomena of space weather, will also be supported by the GSO of the Hungarian Solar Physics Foundation.

Launched in 2008, the European Solar Telescope (EST) project aims to provide valuable insights into the mechanisms underlying solar flares and coronal mass ejections. These events determine so-called ‘space weather’, which can lead to geomagnetic storms on earth - seen as the northern lights - and have a strong influence on our technological society.

Professor Robertus von Fay-Siebenburgen, from HSPF and from the University of Sheffield’s School of Mathematics and Statistics, will be a principal investigator for the UKUC project. He said: “The EST will be the biggest ground-based solar telescope constructed in Europe and will keep its European partners at the forefront of solar physics research, so it's fantastic that so many UK partners have been able to come together to join the EST Canary Foundation today.

“This kind of unrivalled research infrastructure will provide European astronomers and plasma-astrophysicists with an extraordinary tool for observing the Sun and its space weather, one that will pave the way for scientific advancements in some of the world’s biggest and most important challenges, such as the development of green fusion energy.

“By being able to study the physical processes happening in the solar chromosphere in such detail for the first time, we will gain new insight into how the heating mechanisms occur that underpin the plasma heating processes. Learning from how nature does it will help us explore how to replicate the process for the benefit of humankind.”

The optical configuration and instrumentation of EST have been meticulously designed to study the magnetic and dynamic coupling of the solar atmosphere, and capture the interactions between the different atmospheric layers of the Sun.

Additionally, a comprehensive set of instruments will be installed to enable simultaneous observations across multiple wavelengths. This unique capability will give the EST a higher efficiency compared to existing or future telescopes, whether ground-based or space-borne.


VI Békés County Meeting of Disabled Youth

We are pleased to report that the VI Békés County Meeting of Disabled Youth has just finished with great success! The event was attended by many hundreds of young people in the city of Gyula. The Foundation's planetarium programme was very successful, according to feedback received. None of the participants had ever attended such a programme before. After the planetarium shows, they were very happy to tell us how good and interesting the films presented were. It is a great joy and pride that the youths rewarded all our performances with sparkling eyes and huge applause!

Special thanks go to Utazó Planetárium Kft. for their contribution to the success of event and for making their 7m dome available to us, which made it much more comfortable for folks to participate in the programme! Also, a huge thank goes to the organizers for taking care of escorting the groups to the venue! Finally, we thank Gyula Council for providing the venue and for the open, highly professionaly organisedl and very pleasent atmosphere throughout the entire event!


May 25, Gyula - VI Békés County Meeting of Disabled Youth

The "VI Békés County Meeting of Disabled Youth" event series looks back on many years of tradition. Like so many things, this was postponed because the COVID epidemic in 2019, but after a long hiatus, we are waiting for the young people again! In this year, the Hungarian Solar Physics Foundation and Utazó Planetarium Kft. will jointly ensure that young people - in addition to other programs - get to know the world of the planetarium.

Organized groups will come to the Kohán Gallery from 9 a.m. on May 25 to take part in a journey through the solar system or marvel at why the universe is so amazing! The presentations take place in Utazó Planetárium Kft.'s mobile dome with a diameter of 7 meters, which, due to its dimensions, allows the children to be as comfortable as possible and to provide them with the maximum experience! Our colleague Dr Belucz Bernadett gives the presentations to the youths.


Phoenix rising of a solar observatory

Click here Meteor, vol. 53, for the article by Dr Marianna B Korsós.

Marianna has taken on the hat of a historian and reports about the traces of an old astronomy observatory. This observatory once existed in the beautilful and picturesque village of Balatonrendes, on the northern banks of lake Balaton. Our foundation, HPSF, follows suit of this local tradition and is now in the process of building a new, state-of-the-arts solar observatory in the same location. Hopefully the opening of the Balatonrendes Schenk Jakab Solar Observatory (BSO) for the wide public will take place during the summer of 2024. Note, the original article is in Hungarian.


Planetarium Day 2023

The first modern planetarium opened on May 7, 1925, let's celebrate the operation of planetariums together! There are several planetariums nationwide this weekend planetarium performances for the general public! Come in and watch planetarium shows!

According to the plan, the Foundation will also join the event!

Participation in the event is free!


A planetarium is also coming to the meeting in Gyula (source: BEOL)

On Thursday, May 25, from 9 a.m., the County Meeting of Injured Youth will be held for the sixth time in Gyula, in the Zsolt Prohászka City Gymnasium.

In the photo (from left) Zoltán Kovács, head of institution, president Zsuzsanna Papp, deputy mayor Norbert Alt, president Balázs Fenesi

Support the Hungarian solar physics!

SWATNet Annual Meeting in Sheffield

Bernadett Belucz, Marianna Korsós, Noémi Zsámberger and Robertus Erdélyi participated on SWATNet Annual Meeting.

The SWATNet students reported on their annual progress, and the Network management determined what to do next step, how the project should progress over the coming year. There were also reports by the participating research partners. Bernadett gave an presentation about last year's summer training completed so far by 8 students at Gyula Solar Observatory. The meeting was also attended by Kristóf Petrovay from ELTE and Tibor Hegedűs from AstroTech, with whom we have some close cooperations in Hungary.

Isradynamics 2023 Dynamical Processes in Space Plasmas in Israel

Prof Robertus Erdelyi just delivered an excellent talk about "Solar spicule and their connection to solar corona - Can the tail wag the dog?" at Isradynamics 2023 Dynamical Processes in Space Plasmas in Israel

Isradynamics 2023 Dynamical Processes in Space Plasmas in Israel

Dr Marianna Korsós gave an invited talk about "Application of different flare predictor proxies in 3D to increase the prediction time windows" at Isradynamics 2023.

The meeting brings together scientists working in solar physics, space physics, plasma physics, and astrophysics, in theory, simulations, and experiment. The objective is to report and discuss recent progress in our understanding of the fundamental processes in solar, space, and astrophysical plasmas, in view of heliospheric in-situ and remote sensing measurements (Van Allen Probe, THEMIS, Cluster, STEREO, SDO, Messenger, Cassini, Venus-Express, MMS, Artemis, WIND) and remote sensing astrophysical observations (Chandra, XMM-Newton, SWIFT, Fermi).



Wavelength-tuneable magneto-optical filters for the Solar Activity Monitoring Network project

We are pleased to report that our project “Wavelength-tuneable magneto-optical filters for the Solar Activity Monitoring Network” submitted with Durham Univeristy to the UK Space Agency’s Enabling Technologies Programme - Call 2 – Technology for Space Science is going to be funded!

This is excellent news as the concept of tuneable MOF has got great potential not just for science (as a totally brand-new instrument concept) but also there is a number of potential industrial applications.

the new instrument will be installed and tested at GSO (Gyula, Hungary), at our solar observatory.

Schematic representation of the optical system showing the magneto-optical filters (MOF), the polarisation control elements and transmission of light to two CMOS detectors imaging the solar disk.Adapted from Erdélyi et al., 2022..


NEAO-KP-1-2023/2-002259 tender is supported!

We are pleased to inform you that the call for tenders, code number NEAO-KP-1-2023/2-002259, entitled "Combined support 2023 that can be used to ensure the operation of civil organizations or to implement their professional program and ensure their operation." published by the Community Environment Board of the National Cooperation Fund on 04.10.2021, the Hungarian Solar Physics Foundation's application entitled "Astronomical educational activity aimed at involving children and young people in the cultural and public education of the Viharsarok region" receives a grant of HUF 150.000 in the form of a non-refundable, 100% grant advance.

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Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)

Our colleague, first amateur and now professional astronomer, Balazs Asztalos spent the yesterday night with his lovely telescope in the cold weather to catch the comet. Now, I would like to share his photo with you.

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NEAG-KP-1-2022/1-001190 tender is supported!

We are pleased to inform you that the call for tenders, code number NEAG-KP-1- 2022/1-001190, entitled "Simplified support for local and regional NGOs 2022," published by the Community Environment Board of the National Cooperation Fund on 04.10.2021, the Hungarian Solar Physics Foundation's application entitled "Operating costs of the Bay Zoltán Solar Physics Observatory" receives a grant of HUF 300,000 in the form of a non-refundable, 100% grant advance.

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Magyar Napfizikai Alapítvány

Hungarian Solar Physics Fundation

Last update: 2023 Mar © Copyright HSPF 2017