Congratulations to all participants in the 2023 NAC! Below is the list of gold, silver, and bronze medalists, awarded to the top 10%, 15%, and 20% of participants, respectively. The exam and solution will be released shortly under Resources.
2023 NAC Complete!
Congratulations to all students who took the NAC exam yesterday! We hope you enjoyed the problems. Problems, solutions, and scores will be released within the next few weeks.
2023 USAAAO First Round Exam Complete!
We would like to thank all of the students who took part in the first round exam on Saturday. We are also especially grateful to teachers and all of the USAAAO volunteers for their hard work in putting together and proctoring the exam.
Exams and solutions can be found here. The cutoff to qualify for the National Astronomy Competition was 13. Scores for the first round exam are posted on Gradescope, with a representative histogram of scores shown below.
Thank you for supporting us in our efforts to expand access to astronomy and astrophysics!

Last Day to Register!
You have until January 31st to register for the First Round of USA Astronomy and Astrophysics Competition. We already have students from 25 states and 12 countries registered.
Students must be present at the specified exam time that depends on the time zone of a student. First Round is on Saturday, February 11th. Second Round time slots will be the same.
To register, please use this link. Registration this year is $30 per student. If you’re unable to pay, please register by using this form. You don’t need to fill out both forms. We want to make sure that everyone that wants to participate has the opportunity to do so.
The slots are:
Slot 1: 9am West Coast time (same as 12pm East Coast Time, 2pm Brazil time, 7pm Romanian time, etc.)
Slot 2: 9pm East Coast time, which translates to 5pm Alaskan time and 4pm Hawaiian time.
Note: students are responsible for double checking the time difference
For more information about the selection process visit our Selection Process page. If you’d like to receive notifications about future opportunities, join our mailing list here.
USAAAO Registration is Open!
Registration for the first round of USAAAO is open!
The registration forms are on this page. There is a fee of $30 to register, but we have a financial aid application for those who need it.
Registration will close on January 31st, 2023.
The first round exam will take place on February 11th, and there will be two time slots available to accommodate students in different time zones. The competition will be online, and students will be proctored by USAAAO volunteers through video calls.
You can read more about the tests on our selection process page, and you can find study materials on our resource page. If you have any questions, email us at info@usaaao.org! For more frequent updates about USAAAO, visit our Instagram page.
Schedule for USAAAO 2023!
We’re excited to announce the schedule of USAAAO for the upcoming year!
The whole competition will be online. USAAAO volunteers will be proctoring the exams. In order to accommodate different time zones, we will be offering 2 time slots. More details to follow.
Jan 3rd (2023)-Jan 31st (2023): Registration
February 11th: First Round Exam
April 1st: National Astronomy Competition
August 10th-20th: IOAA in Poland
Registration will open on our registration page, so get ready and spread the word! If you want an email announcement, join our mailing list here. The registration fee this year will be $30, however we will accept financial aid requests.
You can read more about the tests on our selection process page, and you can find study materials on our resource page. If you have any questions, email us at info@usaaao.org!
15th IOAA has ended!
Around three hundred students from forty-five countries competed in the 15th International Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad in Georgia the country between August 14th and August 22nd. The American team achieved an amazing result with ten medals (3 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze).
Main team:
Samvit Das – gold medal
David Zhang – gold medal
Erez Israeli Miller – silver medal
Justin Chen – silver medal
Abhay Narasima Bestrapalli – bronze medal
Guest team:
Evan Kim – gold medal
Andrew Liu – silver medal
Orion Foo – bronze medal
Austin Chen – bronze medal
Arjun Patel –bronze medal
Team Leaders: Natasa Dragovic (Tufts University) and Lucas Pinheiro (Notre Dame)
Training was conducted by volunteer mentors through video calls with the team members.
The USA team was selected by volunteer members of the USAAAO (USA Astronomy and Astrophysics Organization) based on candidates’ results in a selection exam. The next IOAA will take place in Poland in August 2023.
The USAAAO team is extremely grateful to the “The Masson Family Fund” for their generosity. Because of the support of the Mason Family, USAAAO could cover the team’s travel, accommodation and food expenses. We’re also thankful to law firm Prince Lobel for legal representation.
For more IOAA moments, follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Applications for the USAAAO Astronomy & Astrophysics Camp 2022 are now open!
This is a free online summer camp to help students learn astronomy and astrophysics. It is intended for students* who may not otherwise have the resources to begin studying on their own, and to increase awareness at the high school level of how exactly professional scientific research is conducted.
Students who choose to participate in the camp are expected to attend weekly online meetings and do the required readings and problem sets.
Weekly classes will be held on Tuesday evenings between June 14th and August 2nd
Applications will be open until May 29th at 11:59 pm Eastern Time.
Link for the applications: https://forms.gle/xTWufTTEj8hgyU72A
For any questions, email us at info@usaaao.org!
* camp is currently limited to U.S. Citizens and Permanent Residents.
2022 USA Astronomy and Astrophysics Team
We are excited to announce the 2022 team. We will bring two teams to the International Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad in Georgia in August.
Main team:
Abhay Narasima Bestrapalli
Justin Chen
Samvit Das
David Zhang
Erez Israeli Miller
Guest team:
Andrew Liu
Orion Foo
Austin Chen
Evan Kim
Arjun Patel
You can see the score breakdown here. Team leaders this year will be Natasa Dragovic and Lucas Pinheiro. Stay tuned to learn more about the team!
Team travel is possible due to the generous donation from the Masson Family Fund.
We will also post all the scores on the website later today.
If you have questions about the competition, feel free to email us at info@usaaao.org.
We thank all the volunteers and participants that have made this year possible!
National Astronomy Competition is Complete
National Astronomy Competition took place on March 26th. We want to thank all the participants and volunteers for making this event a success!
You can find question and solutions here. We will take some time to grade the exams. All the contestants will be notified of their score and scores are published on the website as well.
Top 5 students will be invited to represent the US at the International Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad. Next top 5 students will be invited to be part of the guest team.
This year IOAA will be held in August in Georgia. We will announce the team shortly.