Meetings

The Club’s activities focus on organizing meetings of various kinds, where members and friends of the Club exchange knowledge and experiences and spend time having fun together. These meetings take place in various corners of our country, sometimes also abroad and even on other continents. The map below shows the geographical distribution of the places where we have been so far.

Red pins denote summer camp venues, blue pins denote winter camp venues, green pins denote seminars, yellow pins denote other meetings. Multi-coloured pins indicate places where meetings of different types were held. The years (and in the case of seminars also the seasons) of the meetings are given in the descriptions of the venues, available by clicking on the relevant pin.

Summer camps

The first camps organised by the Club (which at that time was not yet formally an association) took place in Frombork. Later – with a one-year break – our permanent haven became Załęcze Wielkie, or more precisely – the Central School for Scouting Instructors (today the Training and Recreation Centre) of the Polish Scouting Association “Nadwarciański Gród”. Its convenient location in the midst of a forest, at a great distance from larger cities (whose atmospheric pollution, both by gases and scattered light, makes it impossible to conduct astronomical observations), as well as its location in the centre of Poland and close to a railway line, are undeniable advantages for us. Close to the centre are all the attractions of the Załęczański Landscape Park, visits to which are a regular feature of our camps. Chorzów and the Silesian Planetarium are also just a few hours away by bus, so camp participants regularly visit this unique facility.

In recent years, we have also been at the scout camp “Biały Brzeg” near Rączki in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship – an equally picturesque place with similar astronomical values.

Winter camps

Winter camps, or more formally ‘Winter Science Workshops’, are week-long meetings organised by the Club at a time when as many voivodships as possible are letting their pupils go for the winter holidays. Winter Science Workshops do not have such a permanent venue as summer camps; they have already been held in Załęcze (although not in tents, of course, but in hotel buildings), the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre in Warsaw, as well as in Zielona Góra and Olsztynek. We also visited the scout centre in Rogalinek near Poznan several times – the organisation of the meeting there made it possible to arrange visits to Borówiec – the Space Research Centre and Astronomical Observatory of Adam Mickiewicz University, as well as the Faculty of Physics of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan.

Seminars

Astronomy seminars are several-day meetings organised in spring and autumn each year. Their aim – apart from our statutory popularisation of astronomy and related sciences – is to encourage participants to become active hikers and learn about their own country. They have taken place in various places in Poland: apart from Załęcze, which is the most frequently visited, in the mountains (the Owl Mountains, the Beskidy Mountains, the Gorce Mountains, the Pieniny Mountains, the Bieszczady Mountains), at the seaside, in Mazury; in large cities (Wrocław, Poznań, Warsaw), tiny villages (Charzykowy, Gawrych-Ruda, Potarzyca) and outside them (mountain hostels). However, we still take care of the appropriate scientific level of the meetings – wherever possible, we cooperate with local universities and organise meetings with their academic staff.

Assembly of Members

Ordinary meetings of the General Assembly are meetings of the members of our organisation held every two years, at which, among other things, we elect a new Board of Directors and an Audit Committee, and decide on the direction of the Club. Extraordinary sessions of the General Assembly can be held in the period between two Ordinary sessions, if necessary. The reunions have been held for many years at the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre of PAN in Warsaw.

Other meetings

In addition to the regular camps, winter camps and seminars, several other meetings have taken place. We are most proud of organising expeditions abroad to observe total solar eclipses: in 1990 in Järvenpää (Finland), in 1999 in Siófok (Hungary), and in 2006 in Side (Turkey). The latter trip was only possible with the support of the EU Youth Programme. Other events organised in cooperation with this organisation include meetings with groups of young astronomers from Turkey and Macedonia in Załęcz in 2006 and in Krakow in 2007.