29.9. – 02.10.2025, Paris, France
The students arrived in Paris on the 29th of September in the afternoon.
The first day of the retreat was dedicated to meet with researchers from the Meudon observatory. It was founded in 1890, but was the former royal and imperial domain of Meudon from the XVIIth century. We met the professor in charge of our visit at 9:00 and started with a presentation of the history of the different astrophysics facilities in Paris and its area. Then, the students were separated in groups to discover the Great Refractor of Meudon, built in 1893 (3rd greatest in the world, and the largest in Europe), which was specially shown to us before being available to the public in the following months. While the other group visited the Space Technology Complex (CTS), lead by an engineer part of the CTS. We explored the clean room facility, inaugurated in 2018, which aims on building nanosat as well as equipping ESA missions. The visit was followed by the presentation of the Spectroheliogram of the Sun operating since 1909, making Meudon collection of Sun observation the most important in the world. Finally, another professor of the Meudon observatory showed us one of the antenna prototype of the new Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO). These antennas are built to detect cascade emission of gamma rays decomposed by the atmosphere.
The visit of the Meudon observatory was a rewarding experience for the students to meet and interact with experts from various astrophysics areas, from space engineering, instrumentation, observation to theory. It was also a great opportunity to understand more about the history of astrophysics as well as the brand new research improvements happening everyday. It was a travel between the past and future of astrophysics. The scientific discussions and tours empowered the students to find opportunities in similar research areas which could lead to future collaborations.
The 2nd day was dedicated to the visit of “le musée de l’air et de l’espace” where the students could learn more about the origin and creation of the first planes and space shuttles. They could contemplate a large collection of plane models and space shuttles. After the visits, the students had the opportunity discover the immense cultural heritage of Paris, by visiting the Louvre, the Cathédrale Notre Dame, the Sacré-Cœur or the large number of museums, la galerie paléantologique, le musée d’Orsay and so much more.
This retreat was rich in scientific discussion during the different visits but also during dinner at the restaurant, the discussions were quite lively and informational as the students from different project areas discussed about their work and had the chance to learn from others. In particular, it was a great opportunity for the new PhD students in the SFB to meet their peers. The student retreat in Paris was a perfect opportunity to absorb not only the scientific but also the cultural heritage of the beautiful city of Paris.
The students came back to Cologne on the 2nd of October during the night.
23-26.9.2024, Leiden, Netherlands
The first student retreat of the SFB 1601 took place from the 23rd to 26th September 2024. This was an opportunity for different working groups to get to know each other better, as well as learning from and mingling with other institutes. This inaugural retreat took place in Leiden, our group of 18 staying in a number of villas just outside the city close to Noordwijk, from which we undertook a busy schedule of scientific endeavors, cultural exploration, and social interaction.
Our first day centered around actually arriving in Leiden, as we took a bus from Cologne/Bonn Airport to Amsterdam. After a slightly grueling journey to Amsterdam Sloterdijk, we decided to venture towards the central station in order to appreciate the world-renowned city (and to grab some lunch)! Once we had grabbed some food, we took a train towards Leiden and spent some time walking amongst its picturesque canals, before heading to the villas and retiring for the night.
After all this excitement, Day 3 was somewhat more relaxed, to the relief of all. Following a relaxed morning we first headed to Space Expo Noordwijk via bus, a museum focusing on satellites and space missions, including several exhibits showing remains of spacecraft. Following a further exploration of Leiden Centraal and lunch, the group split in two, with one half heading to the botanical gardens and the others heading to the beach. Both groups had a good time despite the inclement weather, and before long we were reunited in the villas, where the group had a great final evening of food and games.
The second day was another early start as we left for the Old Observatory in Leiden, where we were welcomed by some students who gave a tour of the institute and its eventful history. Some highlights included the tour of the old library (we found a book that used to belong to Argelander!), using two of the historic telescopes as well as seeing the chair that Einstein used as he was discussing with Willem de Sitter. After a short lunch break, we headed to the Leiden Universiteit Faculty of Science, a brand new building in the center of Leiden University campus. Here we had a number of events courtesy of our hosts – two lab tours from Sebastiaan Haffert and Ko-Ju Chuang, then some talks by the postdocs Lukazc Tychoniec, Zephyr Penoyre, and Xuanchuan Liu on a variety of topics associated with star formation and stellar evolution. As this afternoon of productive conversation wound down, the group headed back to central Leiden for Astronomy on Tap Leiden, where we shared some good food, better beer, and listened to two excellent talks about dynamics in the context of orbital mechanics. This late evening concluded with talking to the hosts of this event (including some contributions from our own Astronomy on Tap hosts) and Leiden astrophysics students, before returning home.
The final day was another busy time as we had to plan around our journey back to Cologne/Bonn Airport in the early afternoon. However, we still had time to visit the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden before heading back to Amsterdam. This massive, state-of-the-art museum was full to the brim of exhibits on the entire life cycle, from dinosaurs, evolution to the prospect of our death, with the information being presented in very interesting ways (including some… unusual videos). We had time for a quick lunch (which was more often than not Kibbeling for many of us) and then continued on to the bus stop, only suffering one egg-related mishap, before boarding a bus for an extremely grueling journey to our home destination.
Overall this trip was a great start to the student retreats of this SFB – the group benefited greatly from the scientific discussion and the shared journey – and hopefully the next trips are just as productive!
(text: Jonathan Clarke; photos: Simon Dannhauer)