The Olympiad by Correspondence had confirmed that it is the important part of the system of astronomical competitions inside and outside Russia. Difficult multilevel problems requiring the large amount of time (that is impossible during the internal olympiads) were successfully solved by the number of participants. Inclusion of astrophysical problems that are usually avoided at other olympiads was also not a big difficulty. There is no doubt that Olympiad had helped many participants to use the literature, search for the information needed and expand the knowledge level in the topics of the problems. And if it is than the main goal of the Olympiad is reached.

As for the problems, we can say that they were a little bit easier than in previous Olympiad - 2005, but the topics of physical base of astronomy were paid more attention to. The topics started from celestial sphere and objects visibility conditions and went to astrophysics. Of course, we had to pay the attention to the upcoming solar eclipse of March, 29th, 2006. The special set of three problems about total solar eclipses was completing the Olympiad program. Being connected by the same topic, these problems differed by the solution methods and factors required to review. The solutions of these problems were taken into account in basic competition, but there is a special diploma for the best solution of the special problems.

Checking the solutions, the Jury members paid more attention not to the answers, but to the completion and logical connections of solution, account of all possible effects, proves of uniqueness of the answer (correspondent format of the Olympiad gave them this possibility). As professional astronomers, the jury members understood that many of the participants will be their colleagues in the future, and to state their thoughts clearly and completely is very important for them. In this scope we have to note the excellent paper of Moscow student Andrey Popov, the gold medal holder of this Olympiad. The style of this paper can be compared with the good scientific paper one.

The solution of each problem was marked by traditional 8-point system. Additional points were possible but were rarely used (the mark above 8 was given just to one participant for one of the problems). At the first session of Jury work all papers were checked by two Jury members. Based on the results, the list of 18 leading students were created. Their papers were checked by four more Jury members. The resulting mark for each problem was the average over six marks of the Jury members, and the maximal and the minimal from these six marks were accounted with the half-weight. This way the marks had got more stable and the mark accuracy was equal to 0.1 points. For other 28 participants the mark accuracy was equal to 0.5 points.

The final distribution of the total points had shown that the number of participants successfully solved the most part of the problems was quite high. The Jury had decided to use the same diploma criteria as for the previous Olympiad - 2005, when 60, 50 and 40 points were necessary to win I, II, and III diplomas, respectively. This criteria was in good agreement with the distribution of total points in 2006 too. Finally, the Jury stated to give three diplomas of I degree, two diplomas of II degree and nine diplomas of III degree. Ten more students are awarded by incentive diplomas for successful participation in the Olympiad. The total number of awarded participants is about one half of the total number of participants, as it was last year. The authors of three best papers are also awarded by medals.

We also have to note one special diploma of the Olympiad. There is no age distribution, and to solve the problems for elder participants is easier than for younger ones. But to get the solutions from young participants is important and pleasant for jury members. It was the reason to award the special diploma for the best paper of young participant, who is below 16 and not studying in two final forms of the school. In 2006 this diploma is awarded to Bulgarian student Alexander Kurtenkov, who is just 14 years old, but his paper made a conquest with the elder students, winners of different olympiads. Alexander had also win the diploma of III degree in the general competition. Such a success gives us the hope that the high level of participant from different countries will be also in the future.

The checking of the most part of the papers was quite pleasant for the Jury. It always happen when we see that there are many talented schoolchildren are studying astronomy inside and outside Russia. We wish to thank the participants from all seven countries for their interest. We want to note specially the Romanian students, whose number is 15, which is insufficiently less that the number of Russian participants. It is a pity that some of Romanian papers were almost the same. The Astronomical Olympiad is personal, not team competition.

Jury member of Russian Open School Astronomical Olympiad by Correspondence, Oleg Ugolnikov