Second Announcement
Thank you for preregistering for the 16th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics to be held in Chorzów, Poland! It is now time to complete the final registration process and share some other information.
Final Registration forms
All pre-registered countries should have received links to the final registration forms by email. The registration form (officially) must be completed separately by each participant as, for legal reasons, they must individually consent to the data protection clauses. The transportation form is filled in once per team. If there are any things which you need to tell us which are not included in the form, please contact us by email.
Please complete the individual registration forms by 4 June 2023 if possible. If you do not yet have all the team members selected, complete the form for the ones you have (e.g., team leaders) and send us an email confirming the number of participants and an estimated date when you will be able to give us the remaining names. Please complete the transportation form as soon as you have your travel details, so we can start arranging transportation.
Very important: if you pre-registered but already know that you will be unable to participate, or unable to participate with a full team, please tell us immediately. There is a short waiting list of participants who were unable to pre-register, and we would like to re-allocate those places to them.
Travel and accommodation
Arrival/check-in is planned for 10 August and check-out/departure is on 20 August, we will provide full accommodation for all participants in the event hotels from 10 to 20 August. The opening ceremony will be on the morning of 11 August, and the closing ceremony will be on the afternoon/early evening of 19 August. We will arrange transport from and to Katowice airport (KTW/EPKT), Kraków airport (KRK/EPKK) and Katowice and Kraków main train/coach stations appropriately for your arrival/departure times. For teams travelling by car or minibus, we will arrange with you individually where to arrive or leave your vehicles. For departure we will take you to the airport/station at the appropriate time. Please contact us if you need accommodation before 10 August or after 20 August: we can arrange an extension with the hotel, you will only need to pay for the extra nights.
Poster competition
Teams should prepare a poster (in English, one poster per team) highlighting the observations, astronomical research or local astronomical history or folklore based on the work of some or all members of the team during the last 2 years. We will print the posters and arrange their display for the other participants and the public, and two winners will be selected in a vote by the other teams and separately by the public. Please prepare your posters to fit within 49cm (width) x 74cm (height) and save it as a PDF, PNG or CorelDraw file and send it to us. We will print it locally (no need to bring a paper version). The size is ISO A1 minus 10cm and will allow us to print A1 posters with a border for logos and information.
Calculators, stopwatches and telescopes
We will provide standard scientific calculators and stopwatches for all participants. The manuals for the calculators and stopwatches, and for the telescopes for the observing round, have been available on the ioaa2023.pl webpage for some time, here are the specific links:
https://ioaa2023.pl/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/cassio-manual.pdf
https://ioaa2023.pl/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/x361_-_eng-manual_digitalni_stopky_extech_stw515.pdf
https://ioaa2023.pl/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/dobson.pdf
No special software or other equipment will be required.
Geometrical instruments
Participants should understand the use of geometrical instruments (compasses, protractors), these will be provided where necessary for the tasks. Dim red lights will also be provided for the observational and planetarium tasks.
IBM question discussions and translations
We will be using the OlyExams workflow developed for IPhO and used by IOAA in Colombia in 2021, IChO 2022 and other Olympiads. This will centralise translation and printing of the tasks. Hopefully with everyone on-site (including representatives from OlyExams) we will avoid some of the issues with connectivity which we had in Colombia. OlyExams uses basic LaTeX formatting so please be familiar with how that works. Team leaders will need to have at least one laptop with them for translation tasks.
https://oly-exams.org/
Student devices
In accordance with the statutes, the students will be asked to hand over their internet-connectable devices (laptops, phones etc.) to their team leaders after the opening ceremony and will get them
back after the last exam session. Students found with an unauthorised device, or found in any other way to be attempting to communicate about the tasks with team leaders or third parties, will be liable to be disqualified
pending a decision by the LOC and IOAA EC.
Please inform us in advance if a participant requires any electronic medical devices.
Health insurance
All participants should have their own travel health insurance. European / UK participants should also have a valid European Health Insurance Card (UK: GHIC) in addition to travel insurance:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Health_Insurance_Card
There are currently no restrictions related to COVID-19 for travelers to Poland. However please check for any restrictions for your return.
Visas
We will be providing a list of participating countries to our Foreign Ministry to simplify the visa process. Please begin applications as soon as possible if you have not already done so. We can provide customized invitation letters tailored to your needs on request.
Opening and closing ceremonies
The opening and closing ceremonies will be live streamed, links will be provided closer to the event.
Planetarium shows of diverse cultures
Thank you to those who registered an interest in presenting their “sky” in our planetarium. We will be contacting you individually to arrange further details.
Further information will be updated on the 16th IOAA website www.ioaa2023.pl. The contact address for enquiries is ioaa2023@planetarium.edu.pl
We’re looking forward to seeing you in Poland!