The Vihorlat Observatory in Humenné organized the traditional Kolos conference from October 24th to 26th, 2024. Co-organizers were, as usual, the Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the Faculty of Science of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, the Slovak Astronomical Society at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the Slovak Union of Astronomers, and the Slovak Central Observatory in Hurbanovo. The conference was held as part of the APVV-20-0148 project “From Interacting Binaries to Exoplanets”. Similar to last year, most of the speakers were astronomers from the co-organizing institutions of the aforementioned grant from the Slovak Research and Development Agency. These were the Astronomical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (AI SAS), the Faculty of Science of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice (UPJŠ), and the Vihorlat Observatory in Humenné (VH). The total number of participants was 24. In terms of nationality, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, and Russia were represented. There were 13 oral presentations and 8 posters presented. The program took place at the Kamei Hotel in Snina. In short, the meeting was brief but intense.
At the beginning of the conference, the participants were addressed by the director of the Vihorlat Observatory in Humenné, Mrs. Mária Kulanová. The conference was also greeted by a coordinator of Secretariat of the Partnership Council for region Horný Zemplín, Ing. Pavol Zajac. This was followed by the traditional report by Pavol A. Dubovský (VH) about what has happened at the Astronomical Observatory on Kolonica Saddle in the past year. Essential information in the report included new observation pavilions and the instruments within them.
In the scientific talks, individual researchers presented what they are currently working on. Emil Kundra (AI SAS) presented the results of the Dwarf project, which searches for exoplanets on circumbinary orbits. A new target selection system has been launched, making observation more efficient. Zoltán Garai (AI SAS) spoke about the search for a third body orbiting a star with a known exoplanet. Martin Vaňko (AI SAS) deals with the identification of fine effects on the light curves of chemically peculiar stars using data from the TESS satellite.
Satellite data and artificial intelligence were elements that appeared in almost all contributions. Ľubomír Hambálek (AI SAS) and Štefan Parimucha (UPJŠ) use machine learning to determine the parameters of close binary stars, each in a slightly different way. Theodor Pribulla (AI SAS) presented a software tool called RMF designed for modeling the light curves of exoplanet transits. Karolina Jarošik (Jagiellonian University) is at the beginning of her research. So far, she has prepared a statistically significant sample of white dwarfs, on which she wants to determine the luminosity function.
On the first day of the conference, short poster presentations also took place. The evening was dedicated to a social program, during which passionate discussions took place about the direction of Slovak stellar astronomy, but also about non-astronomical topics, including nature tourism, which is a great opportunity for the Poloniny region.
The second day of the conference began with a trip to the Starina water reservoir and a visit to the Astronomical Observatory on Kolonica Saddle. In addition to a presentation of the new equipment, a meeting of the present investigators involved in the APVV-20-0148 grant also took place. The project is in the final phase of implementation. The principal investigator, T. Pribulla, expects a positive evaluation. The discussion was more about preparing another project proposal within the new general APVV call.
In the afternoon program, some contributions did not directly concern variable stars. Albert Kotvytskiy (UPJŠ) presented his algorithm for constructing images created by gravitational lenses. Jiří Šilha (Comenius University) and Marek Jurčík (Astros Solutions) talked about monitoring space debris in low Earth orbits. We were pleased to learn that measurements from the sensor hosted at the AO on Kolonica Saddle are also useful. However, the final contributions returned to the stars. Pavol A. Dubovský (VH) introduced a new long-term observation campaign. Its goal is to reveal so-called Nova super-remnants, i.e., remnants of repeated Nova explosions. The instruments of advanced astrophotographers can be used for this. Matúš Kamenec (UPJŠ) demonstrated in practice how his software for downloading and primary analysis of data from the TESS satellite works.
All presentations are publicly available in the form of links in the conference program.
At the end of the conference, the date of the Kolos conference was discussed. The October date apparently prevents several interested parties from participating due to a clash of dates with other astronomical events. The organizers will therefore consider returning to the traditional first weekend of December, or a compromise will be reached in November. However, the Kolos conference fulfills its role in coordinating variable star research in Slovakia, and it would be appropriate to continue organizing it in the future.
Group photo at the Starina dam.
Autor fotografií: R. Adam
More photos in the gallery.