USAAAO

Today is the last day to register for the First Round! We are excited to have students from 27 states and 10 countries already registered. After the registration closes we will send each student a Zoom link. Please let us know if you do not receive a link by Friday evening, as some emails might bounce or go to spam.

Students must be present at the specified exam time that depends on the time zone of a student. First Round is on Saturday, February 5th. 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.

Slot 1: If you reside between time zones of GMT-8 (e.g. California) and GMT+4, you will take the test at 9am West Coast time ( same as 12pm East Coast Time, 2pm Brazil time, 7pm Romanian time, etc.)

Slot 2: If you reside in other time zones, like GMT-10 (e.g. Hawaii), GMT-9 (e.g. Alaska), or any other time zones, you will take the test at 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.

Registration for the first round of USAAAO is now 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, 2022.

The first round exam will take place on February 5th, 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.

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 (2022)-Jan 31st (2022): Registration

February 5th: First Round Exam

March 26th: National Astronomy Competition

Sometime in August: IOAA*

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!

* Currently IOAA is scheduled to take place in Ukraine, mid August

We’re excited to kick off the Summer with two free training camps this year. We have selected 25 students across the USA to learn and train with our coaches. Students will go over the same topics as the team. If you want to join us and study at your own pace, we will be posting the readings and problems weekly on our website here.

Over the summer we will share more about the team and the coaches so stay tuned!

IOAA will be hosted by Colombia virtually between November 14th and 21st. USA Astronomy and Astrophysics team will travel to Boston and will compete from there.

If you have questions about USAAAO please email us at info@usaaao.org.

We are excited to announce the 2021 team. Again, we hope we are able to bring two teams to the International Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad.

Main team:

William Huang

Alexander Hu

Erez Israeli Miller

Abhay Narasima Bestrapalli

Harsh Deep

Guest team*:

Orion Foo

Aarush Gupta

Joshua Jones

Geoffrey Wu

Justin Chen

*in August we will know whether the guest team can participate

This year’s team leaders are Evan Tey and Katarine Emanuela Klitzke. Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, the team will not be traveling to Colombia. Instead, they will meet with the team leaders in Boston in November. Stay tuned for updates!

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 took place on March 20th. We want to thank all the participants and volunteers for making this event a success!

You can find question and solutions here. We apologize for the delay in grading. 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 online in November. We will announce the team shortly.

*guest team participation will be known in August

National Astronomy Competition will take place on March 20th. Top scorers will be invited to participate at the International Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad.

All students taking part in the competition received instructions.

NAC is a 2.5h long written exam and will be proctored by our volunteers.

Slot 1: If you reside between time zones of GMT-8 (e.g. California) and GMT+4, you will take the test at 9am West Coast time ( same as 12pm East Coast Time, 2pm Brazil time, 7pm Romanian time, etc.)

Slot 2: If you reside in other time zones, like GMT-10 (e.g. Hawaii), GMT-9 (e.g. Alaska), or any other time zones, you will take the test at 9pm East Coast time, which translates to 5pm Alaskan time, and 4pm Hawaiian time.

Note: students are responsible for double checking the time difference.

Students from the same school should coordinate to take the exam at the same time slot. If you haven’t received an email from us and you qualified for the National Astronomy Competition, please email us at info@usaaao.org! 

All the exams that have been to submitted have been graded and students should be able to review their score on Gradescope! This year the cutoff is 13 and up. Currently there are 110 students that qualified for the National Astronomy Competition (NAC).

Unfortunately we discovered some typos in problem 27 and had to cancel it. We also accepted 2 answers in problem 17. Exam and the solutions can be found at https://usaaao.org/resources/.

Thank you all for participating and being interested in Astronomy and Astrophysics!

For all the students that qualified for the National Astronomy Competition, we will be emailing further instructions closer to the exam time.

Today is the last day to register for the First Round! We are excited to have students from 25 states and 8 countries already registered. After the registration closes we will send each student a Zoom link. Please let us know if you do not receive a link by Friday evening, as some emails might bounce or go to spam.

Students must be present at the specified exam time that depends on the time zone of a student. First Round is on Saturday, January 30th. Second Round time slots will be the same.

To register, please use this link. Registration this year is 25$ 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.

Slot 1: If you reside between time zones of GMT-8 (e.g. California) and GMT+4, you will take the test at 9am West Coast time ( same as 12pm East Coast Time, 2pm Brazil time, 7pm Romanian time, etc.)

Slot 2: If you reside in other time zones, like GMT-10 (e.g. Hawaii), GMT-9 (e.g. Alaska), or any other time zones, you will take the test at 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.