The idea to organise scientific meetings for young people was born as early as the 1970s. It was then that, on the initiative of Marek Szczepański, Tomasz Dzianowicz and Zygmunt Kalisz, open-air classes began to be held in Silesia, organised by the University on Grass, under the auspices of the Katowice branch of the Polish Scouting Association.

Over the years, the University on Grass was transformed into the Youth Scientific Society. Within this organisation there were numerous groups focusing on different areas of science, and classes were taught by university staff. In the early 1980s, the Society’s activities began to wane and ended with the imposition of martial law.

Soon afterwards, however, the Student Science Movement was born, which made it possible to organise scientific meetings for young people from all over the country. In the summer of 1983, an astronomy camp organised by this movement took place in Frombork, which we consider to be the beginning of our activities.

Just two years later, a summer astronomy camp was held at the Central Scout Instructors’ School in Załęcze Wielkie, where we still meet today. The following years brought with them numerous changes in the operation of the Student Science Movement, and although many of the groups that comprised it eventually ceased their work, the astronomy group survived and was able to regularly organise meetings to educate the next generation of astronomy enthusiasts.

With the independence from other scientific groups, it was decided to give the astronomy club its own name – ‘Almukantarat’, proposed by Piotr Życki and Mirosław Kutrowski. A key step in the club’s development occurred in 1995 when it was legally registered as the “Almukantarat” Astronomical Club Association. Since then, the club has been supervised by a biennially elected Board of Directors and its members are bound by its statutes.