News

Geographic Pocket Atlas of Mars

"Mars 36", published for Mars Year 36 and supported by the Europlanet Central Europe Hub, is the first Mars atlas with a geographic approach. It shows a planetary surface with physical geographic thematic layers. The forms created by lava, wind, water, and ice are shown separately on a topographic base map. It also includes the first Martian climate charts and climate maps. The structure and themes of the Atlas follows that of 20th-century school atlases. At the same time, the atlas also follows in the footsteps of the planetary mapping school in MIIGAiK, Moscow, which was in its heyday in the 1980s and was founded by Kira Shingareva.

The map editor, Henrik Hargitai graduated from the Department of Geography at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. He began his planetary mapping carreer in an intership at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, and then in the Cosmic Materials Space Research Group of Szaniszló Bérczi at ELTE, Budapest. Mapping works began in 2016 at NASA's Ames Research Center where he worked as postdoctoral fellow.

The atlas was distributed in Hungarian astronomical clubs free of charge: in January, groups of children, explorers of the future, could apply for the publication, in connection with the Perseverance landing. The students also received a transparent Hungary outline as a scale for the maps and fun activites via a QR code.

The Atlas is published in three languages: English, Hungarian and Czech.

It will be first presented to the scientific community at the March 2021 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

Online: https://www.etsy.com/listing/955444239/mars-36-pocket-atlas

Europlanet Telescope Network

Since this summer, professionals and amateur astronomers have the possibility to apply for observations on the so-called Europlanet Telescope Network. It currently provides acces to 16 different telescope facilities distributed all over the world, ranging from small scale telescopes up to mid-class dishes with 2 meters in diameter. While the situation around COVID-19 still results in severe travel restrictions, this does not exclude observations to be performed at the network: A total of 14 out of 16 facilities are either robotic or provide service observations for the successful applicant, which allows the remote performance of granted projects without visiting the respective telescope.

Interested observers are strongly encouraged to apply for funding to the "NA2 Call for Observations at the Europlanet Telescope Network" and to make use of the remotely available facilities. The application process is kept simple with proposals not exceeding 2-3 pages. Decisions on these proposals will be made bi-mothly and are based on their scientific value but also on socio-economic measures. We, therefore, particularly encourage early career scientists, amateur astronomers, and professionals from under-represented countries to apply to our call.

Further details on the call and on how to apply can be found on the call website. All of the involved telescope facilities are further comprehensively summarized in our publicly accessible telescope table which holds a broad range of information and contact data on all the facilities in the network. If you have further questions on the Call or if you are interested in observing at the Europlanet Telescope Network, please feel free to contact us via na2@europlanet-society.org