ASTRO-OLYMPIAD IN ROMANIA

COSMIC ROMANIA 28

-photos Valentin Grigore
text Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
design Florin Alexandru Stancu-

Valentin Grigore interrupted the 22nd edition of SARM’s Perseid Event
after the astronomical camp in Mount Cindrel (2014, 21 July - 5 August)
to become a member in the commission of evaluation
for the 8th edition of the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics,
which took place in a Romanian historical zone,
Suceava County, Moldavia Province.

The Romanian organizers had the inspiration to make
a captivating logo for that event,
including the old coat of arms of Moldavia
with the Sun, a star (probably the planet Venus) and the Moon.
Since in more variants these heavenly bodies were accompanied by a cross,
the organizers added in the logo the constellation Cygnus,
which in the Romanian folk traditions was the Northern Cross
(even the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified).

The same organizers were inspired in showing Romanian traditions
through visits to historical monuments:
-the Sucevita Monastery
(made in the 16th century, with external paintings
describing the Biblical Genesis)…

-the Dragomirna Monastery (founded in the 1600s and chosen now
as headquarters for the practical tests in the IOAA)…

-and especially the Voronet Monastery (founded in the 1480s
by Stefan cel Mare / the Great,
“Athleta Christi” who defeated the armies of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II,
the conqueror of Constantinople),
famous for a unique nuance of blue painted on its walls,
for which even the sky could be envious…

The Voronet Monastery has also a fireball burning sinners painted on a wall
(a theme often met in the Romanian churches),
so a photographic poem by Valentin Grigore
with meteors caught during the Perseid camp
in Mount Cindrel
and during the Perseid maximum (soon after the IOAA)
at the Priseaca Lake near Targoviste
would be irresistible…

Perseids, Perseids,
you annually make me remember that
any desire involves losses,
a real creator is an involuntary martyr,
any dream involves sacrifices,
and any sacrifice is risky
because the light cannot be caught
in hands,
Perseids, Perseids…

The theoretical tests of the IOAA 2014 took place
in Suceava and Gura Humorului,
and the Romanian young astronomers won the biggest number of medals,
6 of gold and 4 of silver.

The International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics,
so beautiful combinations
between Olympia and its sportive spirit,
and Olympus, mount of constellations.

The IAOO participants could also admire at the Suceva Planetarium
the biggest moon sculpted by a man in Europe,
teacher Neculai D. Isaic.

And then, at the Dragomirna Monastery, as a natural continuation,
they admired the Super-Moon in the making over the field of the practical test,
and they also seemed to be greeted
by the flight of the International Space Station.

Moments of glory!
Fascination must be
to feel and see
between creation and astronomy!