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On Thursday, December 12, astronomer Tõnu Viik celebrated his 80th birthday. At his birthday event in Tõravere, Viik was awarded the University of Tartu Medal for his successful long-term work at Tartu Observatory. Viik has worked at the observatory for 56 years. Currently, he works as a counsellor at the observatory. The main focus of his research has been the theoretical questions of radiation transfer in the atmospheres of stars and planets. His work of teaching young physicists and astronomers at the University of Tartu can be considered invaluable.

On December 12, astronomer Tõnu Viik, counsellor or Tartu Observatory, celebrates his 80th birthday. Dear Tõnu! You are joining the club of the 80-year-olds. As per now, it does not have many members from Tõravere. The club mostly consists of the ones who, after graduating from university in the beginning of 1960s, came to work at the new observatory that was soon to be fully constructed.

This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to James Peebles, Michel G. E. Mayor and Didier Queloz, whose work in cosmology and stellar physics has also built the foundation for a large part of the University of Tartu Tartu Observatory’s research.

The Copernicus ‘Eyes on Earth’ Roadshow made it to Tallinn, allowing students and young entrepreneurs to explore the creative ways of using the free satellite data of the European Union's Copernicus programme to create jobs and business opportunities as well as help us understand our planet better. The event was held on October 3 to 4 at the National Library of Estonia and welcomed 226 participants from 20 countries, most of which were students and young professionals.

Next Monday and Tuesday, the inland water remote sensing community working on the Horizon 2020 project EOMORES (Earth Observation-based Services for Monitoring and Reporting of Ecological Status of waterbodies) will gather at the UT Tartu Observatory to discuss future collaboration. The EOMORES project is based on cooperation between companies, European scientific institutes and end-users. The aim of the project is to develop services for monitoring inland and coastal waters based on Earth Observation (EO) data.

At the international remote sensing training school in Kubija, Võru County, young researchers and renowned experts from around the world meet to discuss making the life of the Baltic Sea area better by using remote sensing.

This weekend, 25 summer interns from Estonia and Latvia gaher to the UT Tartu Observatory to present the results of their summer internships in the field of high technology.

From August 2 to 10, the 13th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics took place in Keszthely, Hungary. Estonian student Kaarel Kivisalu was awarded the silver medal of the competition. More than 47 countries were represented at the olympiad with more than 50 teams competing.

This summer, the UT Tartu Observatory launched board games, computer games and a fairytale book, which will help to explain the exciting world of space to the smallest members of the family as well as children who already go to school. The book and the games are in Estonian.

The University of Tartu among with the Earth science network Baltic Earth expect MA and PhD students as well as Junior Research Fellows to participate in the Remote Sensing Advanced Training School, which is held on September 15–20, 2019 in Võru County at the Kubija SPA center.

In the end of July, the UT Tartu Observatory's interns and employees with their families went on a two-day barge trip, which has evolved to be a traditional summer event for the observatory. The observatory's intern Aditya Savio Paul wrote about the trip as well as the feelings and thoughts it brought up.

Last Monday, this summer’s Science Task Force was opened at the UT Tartu Observatory. Youngsters of the Science Task Force will be developing the ESTCube-2 satellite. In the main building, one can also meet summer interns of different departments, some of whom have come with the Estonian-Latvian space project SpaceTEM.

Researchers from the University of Tartu are participating in an international space mission with the European Space Agency to intercept a comet. The mission was picked from more than 20 mission proposals.

Last week, from June 4 to 6, the UT Tartu Observatory got to be part of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) CubeSat Industry Days for the very first time. The conference took place in the Netherlands at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC).

On Tuesday, March 19 at 4 p.m., exhibition "Rarities of Astronomy" will be opened at the UT Library. The most valuable pieces of the materials that were taken from UT Tartu Observatory to the library at the end of last year will be displayed. The authors of the exhibited pieces are many prominent astronomers from 16th to 19th century, e.g. Kepler, Brahe, Newton, Struve, Knorre, Pfaff, and Mädler. The most attractive part visually is made up from 17th to 19th century star atlases created by researchers Bayer, Hevelius, Flamsteed, Bode, Reissig, and Braun.

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The latest research from Tartu Observatory has been mentioned in The Earth Observer, NASA’s official bi-monthly newsletter that consolidates NASA Earth Science news. Last September, Jan Pisek from UT Tartu Observatory was invited to present at the Science Team Meeting of the DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) instruments EPIC and NISTAR at the NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, USA. He discussed the future applications of the photon recollision probability concept for global and local monitoring of vegetation using Earth observation data.

On Friday, January 25, astronaut Christer Fuglesang was welcomed at the observatory. The first Swedish astronaut got to know the opportunities and work at the observatory, among others the laboratories and our satellite programme ESTCube.

In the publication ”The Ever Growing Use of Copernicus across Europe’s Regions” published at the end of last year, 99 success stories that have come true due to the Copernicus programme are stated.

The opening assembly of the University of Tartu of the Republic of Estonia on 1 December 1919 marked the establishment of an Estonian-language university that was above all designed for Estonian students and to serve Estonian society. The centenary of the national university is celebrated throughout the year with a nation-wide cultural programme, an opinion festival and the largest gathering of alumni to date. The anniversary year draws to a close in December.