21st - 23rd March 2014 - Dessau

This year's AKM seminar took place in the youth hostel in Dessau-Roßlau. The youth hostel was a wonderful place for holding the seminar. Arrival on the 21st was scheduled from around 6:00 p.m. Over 30 participants found their way to Dessau. Since it was my first seminar and I hardly knew anyone, I was excited to meet everyone personally. I also hoped for interesting lectures and was curious about what else would happen. Around seven o'clock there was dinner before the seminar was opened by Sirko Molau. The first lecture of the conference was given by Wolfgang Hinz. He reported on the magnificent ice fog halo phenomena he observed together with Claudia in the Fichtelberg/Keilberg area. He showed many wonderful images taken on January 25th and 30th, as well as on February 4th, 2014. This lecture and the images certainly impressed not only me. After that, there was a cheerful atmosphere in the seminar room. Lots of talking and laughing ensued.

The next day, the first lecture of the day started punctually at nine o'clock. Sirko Molau reported on the meteor streams of the southern sky. The result is that there are only four streams that are exclusively observable in the southern hemisphere. The next lecture, given by Jürgen Rendtel, was about the September Perseids 2013. The lecture was well presented and I liked it. The next presentation was given by Mr. Csismadia. He reported on meteor astronomy in Hungary. Even though he was not very proficient in German, he was still quite understandable and now we have a deeper insight into the activities of Hungarian meteor observers. After these three lectures, there was a short coffee break. At 11:00 a.m., the program continued with two lectures on the comet ISON. Frank Wächter talked about the search for the comet, which he conducted together with his wife. The lecture was well illustrated, which I found very appealing. Uwe Pilz explained various model calculations about the possible occurrence of meteors associated with the ISON comet. The result was that there were no meteors or will be none. After this nice lecture, Ulrich Sperberg took us back in time to June 3, 1883. He reported on historic reports of a fireball that was described by several people with different data. For Salzwedel, he reconstructed the possible trajectory of the bolide from the data.

After lunch, the day continued with the annual general meeting and a new board was elected this time. There were no changes to the board members. However, Sirko Molau stepped down as chairman after 15 years. The new chairwoman is now Claudia Hinz. Congratulations once again on that. But from me also a big thank you to Sirko Molau, who successfully led the AKM for such a long time. Afterwards, there was a break with various cake offerings and, of course, coffee. Then Thomas Grau's presentation was about fireballs and meteorite falls in 2013. The Chelyabinsk meteorite fall was, of course, not to be missed. The videos he showed of the meteorite were very exciting. With a corresponding sound system, the noise was fantastic. Next, Jürg Strunk talked about his experiences with fireball photography using a Canon EOS 350D. The technical possibilities that you have with such a camera were interesting to me. Before dinner, Sirko Molau described a method for determining the population index from video meteor observations. The presentation was very theoretical and, for me, who doesn’t know much about it, rather incomprehensible. However, it was still exciting to see the thoughts behind the theory and the work involved.

After dinner followed the part for relaxation. First, one could admire a small part of the Chelyabinsk meteorite that Thomas Grau had with him. He additionally explained very nicely important things around such a find. Afterwards, Michael Großmann showed us the best pictures from his collection of atmospheric phenomena from 2013. I could only marvel at the pictures shown in a film. The pictures in the AKM annual review 2013 by Claudia Hinz were certainly a highlight of the day not only for me. The video compiled from photos by many AKM members and from the Atmosphere Forum at the end of her presentation showed many "heavenly" phenomena. The day ended with the presentation of the most beautiful atmospheric phenomena 2013 by A. Hamann and Manfred Heinrich. Afterwards, during the cozy get-together, one could reflect on the day or admire the Halomator by Michael Großmann, who also gave a live demonstration of the halos producible by the machine.

The next day began with two lectures on the topic of rainbows. Alexander Haußmann reported on rainbow simulations with realistic droplet shapes. He clearly demonstrated that they are on a good path to closely simulating reality. However, there are still some things that need attention. Subsequently, Michael Großmann talked about his first sighting of a tertiary rainbow. This prompted me to also watch for a rainbow of the 3rd order during a rainbow sighting from now on. After that, Elmar Schmidt explained interesting facts about the opposition effect of the moon. After the coffee break, Claudia Hinz impressed us with very unusual atmospheric phenomena on mountains. I found it very interesting when she talked about light pillars on two levels, since I had seen something similar myself once. For many of these phenomena, she also provided a possible explanation. The last lecture was given by Daniel Fischer. The lecture on the "Exotic Aurora Hunt the Second" was partly very amusing and concluded the seminar wonderfully. After lunch, the participants gradually said their goodbyes and set off on a more or less long journey home. Thus the 33rd AKM seminar was over. For me, it was the first seminar and I found most of the lectures interesting and all the participants were likable to me. Thus my expectations were fully met. In any case, I am looking forward to the 34th AKM seminar, which will probably take place in Waren an der Müritz.