The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the Faculty of Natural & Applied Sciences (FNAS), Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU - Main Campus) hosted from July 26 till August 1, 2017, a group of senior Jordanian students from the University of Jordan in Amman as part of their Cambridge-Amman Seminar Project for Astrophysics Research (CASPAR) where they received training at NDU in monitoring the planets outside the solar system under the supervision of Dr. Roger Hajjar, a faculty member and astronomer at NDU and Dr. Ala’a Azzam, a faculty member of Amman’s University.
During their three-day visit, Dr. Hajjar gave the students an enriching experience in observational astronomy and observational measurements of these two planets in NDU’s very own Farid & Moussa Raphael Observatory (FMR) which is highly equipped for this type of study.
Azzam stated, “I decided to bring my team to learn firsthand the art and science of astronomical observations for scientific research and learn how to observe a special class of astronomical phenomena important for the detection and confirmation of the presence of planets around other stars.”
“The sense of discovery and the intellectual challenge was great,” said one of the students; “It stretched my mind and changed my outlook.”
To learn more about the Faculty of Natural & Applied Sciences at NDU, kindly visit the following page:
http://www.ndu.edu.lb/academics/faculty-of-natural-applied-sciences