My history with astronomy
Ever since I was a child, I have had a passion for astronomy. In 2014, I joined the observatory in Bülach as a junior member. Each Saturday, the teenagers and young adults meet and learn something about astronomy and its related fields in physics and sciences in general.
In 2018, I decided to start leading tours at the observatory. Every Friday evening, there is a public tour open for everybody. If the weather plays along, we mainly show the visitors the various interesting objects in the night sky through our telescopes and answer questions. If we cannot use our instruments due to bad weather or other conditions, there will always be some kind of presentation to still try to excite the visitors for the wonders of the cosmos.
Since 2024, I am also one of the leaders for the young members' saturday evenings and try to get across some of my (predominantly physics-related) knowledge connected to astronomy.
Some material
This is a really incomplete list of some material I've created, mostly (even exclusively until now) for Saturday evenings with the junior members (in German). Be inspired if you feel like it, but don't assume that everything is correct :)
- An introductory presentation on cosmology: the history of the universe, dark matter and dark energy (slides)
- A presentation on dark matter and dark energy: discovery, reasoning and alternative theories (slides and handout)
- A short presentation on dark energy, the geometry of the universe and the Hubble tension (slides and handout)
- A short presentation on gravitational waves: theory, origin and observation (slides and handout)