Astronomy Week 2007 was held between the 12th and the 27th of August, 2007. It opened with an observation of the Perseids on the 12th. This year there was no moon on the 12th so it was a good occasion to see a nice shower! The next activity was a talk about the night sky by Prof. Frank Ventura and Joseph Caruana.
An observing session was held at Migra 1-Ferha on the 18th and Joseph Caruana gave a talk at Marsalforn, Gozo (after change of plans due to bad weather). Sandro Lanfranco gave a talk entitled ‘Cratering in the Solar System’ on the 23rd. The Astronomy week ended on the 27th of the month with Poezija Plus – a series of poems related to astronomy together with an observing session of the sky.
This image of a Perseid was taken by Mr. Tony Tanti on the morning of 13th August from l-Ahrax tal-Mellieha. The camera was a Nikon D80 equipped with an 18 – 70 mm zoom lens set at 24 mm (1/3.8). The sensitivity was set at ISO 1600 and the exposure was 30 s. The time of the exposure was 2:34 am local time.
The photo above shows an activity held at the Greek Theatre in Mosta on the 17th of August. A talk about the night sky was given by Prof. Frank Ventura and Joseph Caruana. Here Joseph is seen giving his talk. Vincent Zammit is seen sitting next to his 12-inch Meade SCT equipped with a CCD camera. Live images from Vince’s telescope were projected on the screen which can be seen behind. This photo was taken by Prof. Frank Ventura.
Vince Zammit is projecting a live image of M31 – the Andromeda Galaxy while Joseph talks about this galaxy. In this photo, the core of the galaxy as well as some fainter detail can be seen on the screen. Other objects which were seen that night include M57 – the Ring nebula, M27 – the Dumbbell nebula and M51 – the Whirlpool galaxy.
An observing session held at Migra I-Ferha on the 18th of August. This was a joint activity between The Astronomical Society of Malta and Nature Trust Malta. The Milky Way is slightly visible in this image. Photo taken by Martin Galea de Giovanni.
The Astronomy Week ended with Poezija Plus – an evening of poetry and astronomy held at the Upper Barrakka Gardens, Valletta. From left: Martin Galea De Giovanni, Prof. Frank Ventura, Saviour Grech and Alexei Pace.