ARCturus

Heart Beats of the Sun and Blazing of the Northern Lights – the 6th International Summer School of Astronomy in Enontekiö 8.-13.7.2002

 

Rush to Lapland

 

On the second week in July more than a hundred teachers interested in astronomy and coming from different parts of Europe gathered in Enontekiö to an International summer school. In 1998 I participated in a farewell dinner at the 2^nd summer school in Fregene, Italy. There, on a dark and hot southern night, I suggested a kind of a playful idea of “a winter school under Northern Lights”.  The idea which was meant to be extremely opposite to the present situation was at once received with enthusiasm. It soon started to gain support and spread to the other tables.  The EAAE (European Association for Astronomy Education) team, which I am a member of, arranges the summer schools. This team never abandoned the idea. Although the winter school could not be arranged, after all, because of some practical problems (such as leaves of the southern European teachers and the winter clothing), the team did not want to give up the idea of a summer school in Finland.

 

The original topic, Northern Lights, was replaced with the topic ”Midnight Sun” – a wonderful phenomenon to experience for southern Europeans used to dark nights. They think it is quite odd and even ”impossible” that the Sun could shine at night and there would be no dark at all. What about the stars? They could not be seen at all for many months! This phenomenon is a must!

 

The amount of participants in five previous summer schools has been between 40 and 60. Although we in the team knew that the Northern Lights and Midnight Sun would interest people immensely, we were afraid that the amount of the participants would remain low because the travel costs and costs of living would be high. We noticed quite early in the spring that our fear was in vain. The five first participants signed up for the meeting as early as in November, and the signing up piled evenly during the spring. We had to exceed our agreed maximum capacity three times and we still had to say “no” to tens of those who would have wanted to attend. The total amount of participants was finally 105, only 3 of whom were avecs.

 

To us, the Finnish arranging team (Sakari Ekko, Päivi Laurila and Irma Hannula), it was a great pleasure to learn that our course was given a status of a LUMA-course by the Finnish National Board of Education. It meant that we were allocated finances for 25 Finnish teachers’ participation in the summer school. We were also happy to find out how interested the Finnish teachers were in astronomy and to notice how active they were to take part in course activities. It was a great opportunity to reach simultaneously such a big group of teachers from various parts of Finland interested in teaching astronomy. We now have mailing lists and by using the Internet we all have from now on the possibility to discuss issues connected with astronomy teaching with each other and also with our foreign contacts. We can change experiences and new ideas and plan a uniform curriculum for astronomy teaching. During these six summer schools I myself have had the pleasure of making plenty of European friends, a group that grows all the time.

 

About the Sun and Northern Lights

 

The Summer School program consisted traditionally of two general lectures, practical workshops and observations. Topics of the lectures were ”Listening Heart Beats of the Sun” and ”Teaching the Sun and the Stars in the Classroom”. All topics of the workshops were connected with the Sun in some way. The workshops dealt with topics like the construction of various kinds of sundial, physical characteristics of the Sun, motions of the Sun and the Earth, development of the stars, the path of the Sun in various seasons and especially on the regions of the Midnight Sun. Only one workshop dealt with Northern Lights and their impact on the Earth. In addition to these, a representative of Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory lectured on Northern Lights. He visualized the lecture by displaying wonderful pictures from dancing Aurora Borealis.

 

Seeing the Midnight Sun was an event most eagerly awaited. We had informed everyone at the very beginning of the course that we would make an observational excursion to Pallas fell at the first cloudless night. Monday’s weather was promising although some clouds were gathering in the sky and made it difficult to decide whether to leave or stay. But we decided to take a risk. We were comforting ourselves with the thought that if the Sun cannot be seen once we reach the top of the fell, we shall at least experience a wonderful summer excursion by wandering in nature and enjoying the magnificent sceneries of Pallas. Seeing the Sun would be an extra bonus!

 

It was fun to watch the preparations for the excursion. One hundred participants squeezed in two buses so that all seats were taken. There was no hint of anyone being sleepy or tired. That is no wonder since the evening was too light to be a night for the southern Europeans. The Sun was shining bright like it does in the middle of the day. It was also quite amusing to watch some careful participants get ready for the mosquitoes although – to our great surprise - there were almost no flying insects during the entire week. Soon the courtyard of the hotel was emptied as if with a magic wand. A continuous colourful queue like an army of ants was climbing upwards the first slope and disappeared into the heights of the fell. However, on the top of the slope everyone realized that the word ‘top’ need not be used for a very long time. When the last and slowest climbers at last reached the highest point those who had come first were already using a pinhole camera. They were observing under a dark cloth an upside down tracing paper picture of the horizon lit by the Sun. We still had time until midnight, and we used it to marvel the wide and open fell scenery with remote lakes and marshes in all directions. Light breezes increased the coolness of the night. The Sun was at its lowest at half past one a.m. The participants were eager to continue the observation a little while, even afterwards as if to make sure that the Sun would start rising instead of disappearing under the horizon. Everyone seemed to be very happy and joyous because their long-term dream had come true in such a perfect way.

 

A text of the same topic, written by Irma Hannula, is published in the magazine Dimensio 07/2002.

 

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