On 17 March 2026, Anahí Granada (UNRN), with the support of her colleague Nicolás Maffione, organized a public talk by Olga Maryeva (ASU) for amateur astronomers in Bariloche, as well as for UNRN staff and students. Olga presented the final stages of the evolution of massive stars, with a particular focus on Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs). All attendees received OCEANS informational flyers.

As part of their outreach and educational activities, OCEANS member Sergio Simón-Díaz, from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (Spain), spent one week in March 2026 in Madrid delivering talks on stellar astrophysics to around 500 students in several high schools. The main purpose of these talks was to introduce stellar astrophysics to students who will soon need to make decisions about their future, whether pursuing university studies or vocational training.

The high schools where Sergio delivered his talks were Colegio Brains International School Arturo Soria, Lycée Français International Molière, Colegio Nuestra Señora del Pilar (Marianistas), Centro Educativo Salesianos Carabanchel, and IES Joaquín Rodrigo de Vicálvaro.

It was a highly rewarding experience in which Sergio engaged students aged between 15 and 18, explaining topics such as the difference between astronomy, astrophysics, and astrology; key milestones in the history of astronomy and astrophysics, including important contributions by women such as Hypatia, Henrietta Swan Leavitt, and Cecilia Payne; the tools used by astrophysicists; what stellar astrophysics is; and how to enjoy the journey toward becoming a stellar astrophysicist.

The plan is to repeat this initiative once or twice per year in different high schools across Spain.

On March 9, 2026, Michalis Kourniotis from ASU gave a dissemination talk at the Department of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics of the Masaryk University, in Brno. His talk, titled as "Variability in massive stars as a diagnostic of their evolutionary stage", described the challenges in refining the physics of massive stars beyond the main sequence, and highlighted the potential of variability studies in constraining parameters from the stellar interior, atmosphere and wind for assessing the evolutionary status of these objects. Michalis further discussed his current project in collaboration with colleagues from the OCEANS consortium on applying machine-learning methods over extended star samples, as a means of revealing variability patterns that are associated with the different evolutionary scenarios.

Team members from the IAC are involved in the organization and implementation of the XXXVII Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics that will take place 16-27 November 2026 in San Cristóbal de La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain). For more information visit the school webpage.