RADIO  UNIVERSE

This photo gallery gives some impressions of the work, study, rest, and life during the summer school in Ventspils

ARRIVAL & INAUGURATION

Most participants arrived through Riga airport

A first assembly for lunch in the outskirts of Riga: Esko Valtaoja (Turku), Dainis Dravins (Lund), and others

After 200 km: arriving at Ventspils College: Juris Zagars (Ventspils & Riga) and the LOC are meeting

Entering Ventspils Castle for the formal inauguration: Jocelyn Bell-Burnell (U.K.) leads the way

Inauguration hosts: Edgars Bervalds (director of Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Center); Roy Booth (director of Onsala Space Observatory, Sweden), Ramona Umblija (vice-mayor of Ventspils town, former Latvian minister of culture), and Juris Zagars (Ventspils College & University of Latvia, Riga)

Preparing for the Big Bang ... Roy Booth lights the fire... (Photo: Ardis Eliasdottir)

...and the summer school is inaugurated!

A tour through Ventspils Castle (Photo: Andris Dzenis)

Following some cocktails in the castle basement...

...the party returns to Ventspils College: Andris Pavenis (Riga); Juris Zagars, Roy & Shirley Booth, and others.

FIRST WEEK

Esko Valtaoja (Turku) starts to introduce radio astrophysics (Photo: Andris Dzenis)

...and the students seem to be listening (Photo: Andris Dzenis)

Jocelyn Bell-Burnell (The Open University, U.K.; photo by Andris Dzenis) compared pulsar sizes with Latvia

Laurits Leedjärv (Tartu/Toravere) evolved binary stars; Ene Ergma (Tartu) created millisecond binary pulsars; and Magnus Thomasson (Onsala/Gothenburg) told about the Milky Way and other galaxies

Michael Lindqvist (Onsala/Gothenburg) was the boss for the software exercises

... making sure that everyone got the same correct result.

In a lecture for also a broader audience, Esko Valtaoja (Turku) wondered about  life in the Universe, and how to find it

EXCURSION DAY

Part of the group at the VIRAC 32-meter radio antenna at Irbene

Heading north to Cape Kolka (Latvian Kolkasrags, Scandinavian Domesnäs), the northernmost tip of Courland (Kurzeme)

At Cape Kolka: Rasmus Voss (Copenhagen), Stefan Bergström (Gothenburg), Dainis Dravins (Lund);  Magnus Thomasson (Onsala/Gothenburg) shares his feet between the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Riga (Photo: Stefan Bergström); From Cape Kolka, Sääre on the Estonian island of Saaremaa (Scandinavian: Ösel) is only 38 km away; to Slite on the Swedish island of Gotland it is 225 km (Photo: Taivo Lints)

Climbing Sabile wine hill, the world's northernmost vineyard

Explaining landscape-art installations at the Pedvale open-air art museum

Venta Rapids (Ventas rumba), the widest waterfall in Europe (Photo: Ardis Eliasdottir)

SECOND WEEK

Back to school: Marcis Auzinsh (Riga) explains all about molecules

Boris Ryabov (Riga) gave a foretaste of solar radio observations; Gustaf Rydbeck (Onsala/Gothenburg) analyzed images 

Silja Pohjolainen (Turku) explained the radio Sun; Ivars Shmeld (Riga) discussed masers with  Linas Ardaravicius (Vilnius);

Merja Tornikoski (Metsähovi/Helsinki) introduced active galaxies...

... and Per Lilje (Oslo) outlined cosmological background radiation

 Several students gave presentations of their own home-institute projects, including:

Ilona Jussila (Metsähovi/Helsinki); Karlis Berzins (VIRAC/Riga); Stefan Bergström (Onsala/Gothenburg)

 Linas Ardaravicius (Vilnius); David Delgado (Stockholm); Daria Dubkova (St.Petersburg)

RADIO OBSERVATIONS AND PRACTICAL EXERCISES

Arriving to make their own radio observations: Lilya Chaliapina (St.Petersburg); Karina Kjaer (Copenhagen); Eduardas Puzeras (Vilnius); Tero Haavisto (Turku); Benita Kikuste (Riga)

Climbing onto; ... and into the big VIRAC antenna (photo: Ardis Eliasdottir)

Aiming for the Sun... ; VIRAC engineer Dmitry Bezrukov views the result at 2.7 cm radio wavelength (11 GHz)

Meanwhile, back at the college, Susanne Huettemeister (Bochum) took control of the practical exercises

Boris Ryabov (Riga) led the observations, explaining what to do with solar radio maps

At the end of the school, all student groups presented their observational results, and their interpretations: Ilona Jussila (Helsinki); Annika Ennok (Tartu); Ardis Eliasdottir (Reykjavik)

LIFE AT VENTSPILS COLLEGE

The sun was shining most of the time (it turned out to be one of the warmest July months on record)

The daily food  in the college cafeteria; Front table: Juris Zagars (Ventspils & Riga) & Arnold Benz (Zurich)

The next-door shopping center, a place for late-night snacks and beverages 

With the beach and the Baltic Sea only minutes away, that was a frequent goal for cooling off

Evening falls in the college park (Photo: Stefan Bergström)

Looking for sails in the sunset (Photo: Stefan Bergström) 

Closing dinner in the Ventspils open-air ethnography museum; Edgars Bervalds (VIRAC/Riga) tests the beer barrel; others are boarding a narrow-gauge steam train

Dainis Dravins (Lund) with a memorial radio telescope created and presented by the students (Photo: Ardis Eliasdottir)

Last night at Ventspils College

Departure day: Summer-school secretary Krista Sulberga (otherwise translation-faculty student at Ventspils College) and Edgars Bervalds (VIRAC/Riga) in deep waters

Homeward bound ... 

SOME AMONG THE ABOUT 60 SUMMER-SCHOOL FACES (Most photos: Ardis Eliasdottir)

Rene Michelsen (Copenhagen); Ville Saarinen (Helsinki); Lolita Grunska (Daugavpils)

Karlis Berzins (Riga); Michael Lindqvist (Onsala/Gothenburg); Lilya Chaliapina (St.Petersburg); 

Erik Zachrisson (Uppsala); Ardis Eliasdottir (Reykjavik); Ilona Jussila (Helsinki)

Aki Kärnä (Oulu); Benita Kikuste (Riga);  Taavi Tuvikene (Tartu)

Stefan Bergström (Gothenburg);  Annika Ennok (Tartu); Rasmus Voss  (Copenhagen);

Solveig Witting (Copenhagen); Boris Ryabov (Riga); Rima Stonkute (Vilnius)

Andris Pavenis (Riga); Silja Pohjolainen (Turku); David Delgado (Stockholm)

Frank Johannessen (Tromso); Elena Kouprianova (St.Petersburg); Gustaf Rydbeck (Onsala/Gothenburg)

Dainis Dravins (Lund); Taivo Lints (Tallinn); Karina Kjaer (Copenhagen)

Susanne Huettemeister (Bochum); Tero Haavisto (Turku); Daria Dubkova (St.Petersburg)

Fredrik Blomqvist (Gothenburg); ... and one of the locals

PHOTOS IN HIGHER RESOLUTION

The images above have generally been both cropped from larger ones, and strongly compressed.  Most of them are available in larger size and/or in higher resolution.   If you would like to receive any of them, please specify it in an e-mail to radio2001@astro.lu.se

MORE SUMMER-SCHOOL PHOTOS!

Several summer-school participants have photos (and even movies!) from Ventspils at their own sites: 

* Ardis Eliasdottir (Reykjavik): http://www.raunvis.hi.is/~ardise/digicam/ or follow links in http://www.ardise.com for the dates of July 13-29

* Taivo Lints (Tallinn): http://my.tele2.ee/tl/Radio2001/summer.html

* Stefan Bergström (Gothenburg): http://www.oso.chalmers.se/~stefan/Ventspils/

* Rasmus Voss (Copenhagen): http://www.fys.ku.dk/~voss/summer/index.html

* Daria Dubkova (St.Petersburg): Click Pictures on http://www.astro.spbu.ru/staff/dasha

* Ilona Jussila (Helsinki): http://www.hut.fi/~ijussila/red.htm 

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Updated October 24, 2001