About ASAK

What does ASAK mean??

ASAK is an abbreviation of "Astronomiska Sällskapet Aquila Kristianstad", which translates to "The Astronomical Society Aquila in Kristianstad". Aquila is means eagle in Latin; it is also the name of a prominent summer constellation.

Kristianstad is located in southern Sweden at 56° N in the province Scania. The city was founded in 1614 by the Danish king Christian IV. In 1658 it was conquered by Sweden.

History

In the mid 70's an amateur astronomy society was founded in Kristianstad. It was called ASAC - "Amatörastronomiska Sällskapet Aquila Christianstad". It continued for about ten years. In November 2002 the new ASAK was founded, in close cooperation with Högskolan Kristianstad (Kristianstad University). This cooperation goes deep. Their observatory is our head quarters and we are helping the University in public outreach. Many of the the ASAK members have also studied astronomy at Kristianstad University in their spare time.

Our Activities

Stargazing

We love to observe the night skies, preferably in the company of each other, either from the observatory or from a dark location in the woods.

Orion is a prominent winter constellation containing many interesting deep sky objects.
©Mattias Persson

Astrophotography

There are some extremely skilled astrophotographers among our members. Of course we are also encouraging newbies to pursue the difficult art of astrophotography.

The North America Nebula in the constellation Cygnus.
©Jonas Carlsson

Discussions

We discuss hard scientific topics such as dark matter and exoplanets as well as softer topics such as art, literature and music.

Documentation

History is full of amateur astronomers. That is of interest for us and we are researching our local astronomical history. The most famous professional astronomer in our area was of course Tycho Brahe.

Parties

We are also having parties like our barbecue party and our crayfish party.

The Board

Jonas Carlsson (Chairman)
E-mail: astrofotografen@gmail.com
Ola Mårtensson (Secretary)
E-mail: astroola@passagen.se
Jan Hedwall (Treasurer)
E-mail: janhedwall@harlov.net

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