Christmas Star

One of the star astronomers from Glenlola Collegiate School, Amy Palmer, is heading to the Italian Alps on Boxing Day to participate in a European Astronomy Camp organised by the European Southern Observatory (ESO).  The camp will be held at Saint-Barthélemy in the Aosta Valley and ESO will be responsible for the final scientific programme providing support with lecturers and material together with the Astronomical Observatory of the Autonomous Region of the Aosta Valley, the University of Heidelberg, the University of Valencia and the University of Cag.

Amy is the only pupil from Northern Ireland selected to participate in this prestigious Astronomy Camp and will spend a week with other students from across the EU studying the night sky and improving her knowledge of stellar photometry and spectroscopy.  She already has an A grade in GCSE Astronomy, which she achieved when she was just 14 years old.  Amy will build on her GCSE work by working alongside ESO astronomers to measure distances to stars and star clusters in the Milky Way galaxy.

She will certainly be a star pupil this Christmas!