Orsoula Avgouli

Publications

• Total Solar Eclipse 2010 in Mangaia

  Orsoula Avgouli, George Xystouris, Costas Emmanouilides

  Totality. 01/2010; 11:3.

  Mangaia, in the Cook Islands, subtends 9 kilometers diagonally, and was the first land in the path of totality shortly after sunrise. A number of observers were faced with cloudy skies on this small island, but a few luckily placed individuals and groups happened to be in just the right location, an... [more] Mangaia, in the Cook Islands, subtends 9 kilometers diagonally, and was the first land in the path of totality shortly after sunrise. A number of observers were faced with cloudy skies on this small island, but a few luckily placed individuals and groups happened to be in just the right location, and managed to see much or even all of totality. Even though most did not get to see totality, eclipse chasers had only good words about their hosts and their choice of location. However one success story comes from a group that traveled half way around the globe from Greece, taking 2½ days to arrive on Mangaia, with stops in Dubai, Sydney, Aukland and Rarotonga. They call their group HELIOS, the Hellenic Eclipse Laboratory for Imaging and Observing the Sun. They stayed at the Ara Moana bungalows, and from a location on the beachfront would be positioned where they would have a potential to see 3m 13.4s of totality. In their group were Orsoula Avgouli, and George Xystouris, both of the Physics Department of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and Constantinos Emmanouilidis, an amateur astronomer from Thessaloniki, Greece. http://www.eclipse-chasers.com/TotalityNewzine/TOTALITY!%20-%20ISSUE%2011.pdf

• THE GEARS OF THE ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM: AN EDUCATIONAL PATHFINDER TO THE SOLAR SYSTEM

  X. Moussas, G. Bampasidis, P. Preka-Papadema, A. Ramsey, M. T. Wright, O. Avgouli, G. Xystouris, A. Kouloumvakos, M. Nifadopoulou, (i hope i had space for more names to add, 92 authors in total)

  the inauguration of the International Astronomy Year 2009; 01/2010

  The Antikythera Mechanism is the most sophisticated ancient astronomical instrument and analogue calculating machine known to the scientific realm. It is the most sophisticated device from the ancient Hellenic world constructed somewhere between 150 and 100 B.C., almost a century after the death of ... [more] The Antikythera Mechanism is the most sophisticated ancient astronomical instrument and analogue calculating machine known to the scientific realm. It is the most sophisticated device from the ancient Hellenic world constructed somewhere between 150 and 100 B.C., almost a century after the death of Archimedes. The Mechanism has great educational potential; it appeals to inquiring minds as an astonishing artefact of science and technology. The latest research findings reveal significant cultural and social function in its operation (Freeth et al. 2006; Freeth et al. 2008). This astonishing astronomical instrument possesses an interdisciplinary value. It has recently been proposed that this ancient device, known as the world’s first computer, may be used as an educational medium, to engage the general public, and especially to attract students to both the exact sciences and to the humanities. The astronomical and technical knowledge embedded in the Mechanism could also be used to approach some aspects of modern science through the unknown technological achievements of Hellenic antiquity.

• At the dawn of Greek Astronomy: The Temple of Zagora on Andros

  Alexandra Coucouzeli, Avgouli Orsoula

  Cosmology across cultures, Granada, Spain; 09/2008

  An archaeoastronomical examination of the temple of Zagora on Andros and its immediate surroundings has shown that the building was oriented to the heliacal rising of the star Alpha Centauri in the mid-eighth century B.C. Furthermore, various architectural features of the temple, including its altar... [more] An archaeoastronomical examination of the temple of Zagora on Andros and its immediate surroundings has shown that the building was oriented to the heliacal rising of the star Alpha Centauri in the mid-eighth century B.C. Furthermore, various architectural features of the temple, including its altar, which is equipped with special sighting stones, present important solar, lunar and stellar alignments. Some of these alignments relate to the stars Alpha and Beta Centauri, as well as to the constellation Crux. Other alignments pertain to the cult of the Dioskouroi --indeed, the temple appears to have been the stage of a dramatic spectacle involving, among other things, the epiphany of the Dioskouroi as the constellation Gemini in the framework of the well-known festival of Theoxenia or Banquet of the Gods. Yet other alignments point to the general use of the temple as an early form of astronomical observatory, which constitutes an unparalleled evidence of the existence of such structures in ancient Greece, no doubt for the main purposes of timekeeping and calendric regulation. Finally, the remains of small cairns built around the temple may be identified as astronomical markers, which would have served initially for the observation of the sun, moon and stars and, subsequently, for the setting up of the temple itself. The Zagora temple reveals an advanced knowledge of practical astronomy, such as is hinted at in the eighth-century B.C. writings of Homer and Hesiod, and which implies a long tradition of direct and accurate observation of celestial phenomena in Greece. This tradition could be said to form the groundwork on which the ancient Greek rational thought, starting with the Presocratics, was slowly built. Thus, Zagora provides us with the hitherto missing physical, archaeological correlate to the text-bound approach that has long dominated the study of the origins of Greek astronomy.