Trainer: Denis Denisenko(Russia)

(born 16.01.1971 in Moscow), scientist at the High Energy Astrophysics Department of Russian Space Research Institute (IKI). Master of Science in Astrophysics (MIPT, 1993). Author of 30 scientific articles, 40 electronic circulars and 5 popular articles in Earth and Universe magazine. Presented talks at 6 international conferences. Discovered more than two dozen variable stars and four asteroids. Teaching experience: International Computer School - 1992 (Pushchino), International Research School - 2008 (Zvenigorod), lectures at Astrofest - 2005 and 2006 (Pushkino). Member of Moscow Astronomical Club.

Assistant trainer: Salomé Pereira de Matos (Portugal)

Born 13th February 1989, in Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal - I'm an undergraduate student of Physics Astronomy & Astrophysics in Sciences Faculty of Lisbon University.

In 2006 I begun my international scientific activity by participating in European Space Camp and since then I am also an organizer of the event. I joined the Portuguese Science Youth Association at the age of 12 and I've participated, organized and collaborated in some of their meetings and activities. In 2008 I was part of the team organizing the 3rd edition of the International Summer Science Camp.

I'm currently a scholar of the Science and Technology Foundation and the Lisbon Astronomical Observatory where I'm studying distant galaxies.

Title of the Project: Living Sky

The goal of the project is to teach pupils the basics of astronomical data processing, to show them how astronomers work and how discoveries are made. Plan of work: A group of 4-6 schoolchildren will be given a set of real astronomical data from the real telescope. Using astronomical software for photometry, they will discover new variable stars, plot the light curves and see what physical parameters can be derived from a set of plain digits. And even more, they will follow the path of a real researcher up to publishing an article in one of the electronic journals on variable stars! The main idea of the project is to show the exciting nature of the scientific research, to let the students work in a team like professional astronomers do and to give them a chance to enjoy a scientific discovery. The trainers will try to show that Astronomy is an incredibly interesting and multi-disciplinary science which makes use of the classical Physics and Maths while quickly developing with the modern technologies in computer era. A Bonus: The Astronomy group will visit Zvenigorod observatory with Zeiss-600 telescope and 400-mm astrograph and see the Photographic Plate Collection which preserves the decades of History of Sky on glass. Compared with the much more powerful CCD techniques this will show the huge progress made by Astronomy in last twenty years. And one more wonderful bonus is that from 9.30 till 12.30 a. m. we will have an access to a two meters telescope in Hawaii, where it is night at the time.

 The Level: Although the proposed project is aimed at the publication in the professional scientific journal, it will not require extra knowledge beyond the school curriculum. All the necessary concepts will be introduced by the teachers during the work, and the necessary computer software is self-explaining and easy to use. However, the interest to Astronomy beyond the average level is definitely welcome!