18. - 20.03.2016 - Lauterbach

On Saturday, the focus of this meeting, there were a number of entertaining lectures. André Knöfel stepped in at short notice and lectured about meteorite falls in Germany from the beginning of records to today. The Wächter family talked about the Perseid maximum during their summer vacation in the Eifel, followed by an analysis of the Geminids 2015 by Bernd Gährken, and Sirko Molau provided information on results of the IMO camera network 2015 in his lecture. After a delicious lunch, a big compliment also to the staff of the youth hostel in Lauterbach who took care of the well-being and all other matters, the AKM members' meeting was held. Thought was also given to the (still) non-members, and so you could join the storm chasers and discuss questions and answers about climate change. Followed by a "Best of Storm Chasing". The storm chasers brought impressive pictures from Germany and the USA and showed their best pictures of atmospheric phenomena in a second lecture. Then it was our halo observers' turn. Andreas Möller gave a report on the 14th Halo Meeting 2015 in Boži Dar, Wolfgang Hinz informed about the ice fog halos in the Ore Mountains last winter, Michael Theussner about the ice fog halos in January at the North Sea coast in Bremerhaven, and Claudia Hinz showed first results of her work on glories at different mountain heights according to her activities at the DWD. I was deeply impressed by the beauty of our nature. After dinner, we all gathered again in the hall and were captivated by Ina Rendtel as she reported on her aurora trip at New Year's Eve in Norway. Before we let the evening come to an end again, there was the annual summary of the Atmospheric Phenomena 2015 by Claudia Hinz and a wonderful video from her with all atmospheric phenomena in a small film. Sunday was just as entertaining! First, Jürgen Rendtel lectured on evaluations of various meteor showers from older AKM data and right after, Elmar Schmidt on distance and height measurement of a PSC cloud in the Zurich area. This was followed by a self-created computer simulation by Alexander Haussmann on the topic of pollen coronas. The last lecture for this weekend was about halos in divergent light by Christian Fenn. A big thanks and my respect to all speakers.

The lectures were a diverse mix and each one was a highlight, very educational and entertaining. It is truly amazing how broad our "astronomy hobby" is. What impressed me the most was the almost familial atmosphere at this AKM meeting. We will definitely see each other again in 2017 for the next AKM meeting. For those undecided, I can only advise, try out such a specialist group meeting! Until then, I wish all participants always clear skies with many interesting phenomena.