This year’s edition of Calar Alto Academy represents the consolidation of this innovative effort to bring astronomy students to Calar Alto to perform practical observational work. The number of participants this year has been of 61, from a total of 6 Spanish universities. More universities and students may be added in future editions...

As in the recent past, one of the winner teams of the international contest Catch a Star visits Calar Alto Observatory. Marta Kotarba, with her teacher Grzegorz Sęk, from Poland, shared with us three nights during which they were able to get close to Calar Alto facilities and the daily work at a modern astronomical observatory...

 

Stars similar to the Sun end their lives as white dwarfs. But, before becoming those dense stellar corpses, they expel their outer gaseous layers and they ornate the sky for some thousands of years with the most beautiful objects in the universe: planetary nebulae. M97, better known as Owl Nebula, belongs to this category. We present one of the best images ever obtained of this celestial wonder...