Stargazing telescopes in store at Turkish festival

ANTALYA, Turkey

It's fun, frolic and a lot of stargazing at an annual astronomy festival in Turkey.

The National Sky Observation Festival in the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya -- which kicked off Thursday -- will run through Aug. 4.

Aysenur Ordukaya, an amateur astronomer from central Konya province, said she was attending the festival with her team.

“We are here, contributing to the festival with our eight telescopes. We are observing the sky, deep space, nebulas and our galaxy,” she said.

Utku Doruk, an 8-year-old science enthusiast, said it is his first time at the festival.

"I like being here and staying in tents. We make simple jets and rockets. We also learn about the solar system and planets here,” he said.

Kubra Oz, a preschool teacher from capital Ankara, said she is a first-timer at the festival.

“This an intense course in space sciences," Oz said, adding she is happy with the tent arrangements.

“The discussions here have broadened my horizon, for instance, I learned that the names of the days derived from five planets that our ancestors had known. I learned that Monday is actually Moon day, while Sunday is Sun day, and Saturday is Saturn day,” she said.

Gulsum Cetin, a science student at Ege University, said the discussions held here were informative.

Murat Gokkaya, a visitor from Ankara, said he participated in the festival with his wife and children.

“It is a great experience especially for my children,” Gokkaya said. “We can observe the sky here with telescopes in the night.”

Light pollution hinders stargazing in the city, Gokkaya stressed, adding that the dark nights of Saklikent Ski Center, the venue of the festival at an altitude of 2,000 meters (6,560 feet), is the perfect place.

“There are various astronomy groups here with their electronic telescopes,” Gokkaya said. “They showed us last night their amazing space photographs.

Among the attendees were Mesut Yilmaz, an astrophysicist at Ankara University, and Umut Yildiz, an astrophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab.

The festival is organized by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) and sponsored by the Sports and Youth Ministry, the Eastern Mediterranean Development Agency (DOGAKA), mobile network giant Turkcell and satellite operator Turksat.