The traditional Workshop of Observational Techniques took place at the Ondřejov Observatory in the Stellar Department of the Astronomical Institute of the CAS during the first two weeks of September 2025. This year marked the sixth edition of the workshop. Participants were students from five universities: Charles University in Prague; Masaryk University in Brno; the University of Potsdam; Leibniz University in Germany; and Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland.
Brankica Kubátová, the Head of the Stellar Department, organized and coordinated the workshop with Petr Kabáth and Jiří Kubát. Several colleagues from the Stellar Department gave lectures: Martin Jelínek, Marek Skarka, Jiří Žák, Olga Maryeva, and Petr Škoda. Together with colleagues from the University of Potsdam and the Thuringian State Observatory (TLS) in Tautenburg, Germany, they taught students how to analyze spectroscopic and photometric observations taken with the Perek 2-m Telescope in Ondřejov, as well as remote observations with the E152 telescope at La Silla in Chile. Our observers Miroslav Šlechta and Jiří Srba taught students how to observe with the Perek telescope, while Jiří Žák and Zuzana Balkoová taught them how to conduct remote observations with the E152 telescope at La Silla in Chile. Jiří Srba also gave an observatory tour to all workshop participants.
We use the largest telescope in the country, the Perek 2-m telescope, not only for observations within our scientific programs, but also for teaching students. We involve students in our scientific programs and prepare them for future observations with the Perek 2-m and E152 telescopes. This experience will benefit them in their future work, even with the world’s largest telescopes.
This year, for the first time, we offered students and lecturers short yoga sessions. To our surprise, most participants took part in these sessions with great interest and enthusiasm. The message for all of us is that in order to be productive, we need to balance sitting in front of computers for long periods of time with movement and fresh air!
