Latvian Open Olympiad in Astronomy

The Open Olympiads in Astronomy have been organised by the Latvian Astronomical Society since 1973. The Olympiad is open to any student from 8th to 12th grade, regardless of their level of astronomy knowledge. The Olympiad takes place in two rounds, usually in April. Since 2015, the Latvian Astronomical Society, in collaboration with the Department of Physics of the faculty of Physics, Mathematics and Optometry, organises the first round of the Olympiad online, similarly to the Physics and other subject Olympiads.

Number of participants in the 1st stage since it is organised online.

The first stage of the Olympiad lasts for 3 hours, when participants solve the Olympiad problems using a variety of information resources, either at school or on a computer at home. The Olympiad offers a set of five tasks, the first of which is a multiple-choice test, the second a practical exercise to be solved using the open-access planetarium software Stellarium, as well as three calculation tasks.

The best 30 participants after the first stage are invited to take part in the second stage. Since 2017, the second stage of the Astronomy Olympiad has been organised in a similar way to the TV game "Smart, even smarter" – participants have to answer questions of increasing difficulty in a sufficiently short time. The winner of the Olympiad as a prize, with the support of sponsors, usually receives an optical instrument (binoculars or telescope) that can be used to observe celestial objects. The best participants in the Olympiad are invited to take part in a selection stage to represent Latvia in the International Olympiad of Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA). Latvia has been participating in the International Olympiad since 2021.

Previous years' online tasks are also available as practice tasks in preparation for the Olympiad, as the system displays the number of points scored; which tasks were solved correctly and which were not; the solution and explanation of the task, as well as the correct answer. The tasks are available on website of Astronomy Olympiads. 

The history of the Astronomy Olympiads from 1973 to 2022 can be found in the popular astronomy magazine "Zvaigžņotā Debess (The Starry Sky)": I. Vilks. Half a century of the Astronomy Olympiad. Zvaigžņotā Debess 2022. gada vasara (The Starry Sky Summer 2022) (256), UL, pages 34–40.