Along with running our own Awesome nights here in Newcastle, we love to check in with different Awesome Foundation events around the globe. We love this out-of-this-world project that won back in October for Awesome Minas Gerais in Brazil! Read more below from a professor who teaches the undergraduate course in Physics at the Federal University of Triângulo Mineiro (UFTM), in Uberaba – MG.

Astronomy has always aroused people’s curiosity. The starry sky in a place of low lighting is dazzling. The full moon illuminating the night can draw attention even from the most inattentive individual. In the past in more remote civilizations, knowing aspects of astronomy required tools which enabled individuals to survive. Man needed to understand the universe to determine the cycle of the seasons, to orient themselves from one place to another and to establish a chronology for time.

Although astronomy permeates the entire history of civilization, it is noted that a significant portion of the population is on the margins of this knowledge or knows only erroneous versions or based on myths. Postmodernity with its technological devices hypnotize individuals with their easy communication and entertainment. The pleasure of a walk to reflect on life and the observation of nature have completely lost their values.

The project aims to disseminate Astronomy in Uberaba and region. We would help show citizens the basic concepts on Astronomy, improving the astronomical culture of the population and stimulating the critical spirit. With the project we are using the exquisite sky of Peirópolis (rural district of Uberaba that has a paleontological site) to the visualization of diverse types of structures in the sky, from the planets of the Solar System, to nebulae and binary stellar systems. As we look at the sky, we see a kind of “fossil” of the stars, since electromagnetic radiation may have traveled for years, even thousands of years, until we find an observer on Earth.

To learn more about different Awesome projects happening worldwide, check out the Awesome Foundation, linked above!