Nichi D'Amico - Outreach

UNIVERSITY OF CAGLIARI
Physics Department
Complesso universitario di Monserrato
SP Sestu-Monserrato km 0.7
I-09042 Monserrato (CA), Italy

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ASTROPHYSICS
Cagliari Astronomical Observatory
Località Poggio dei Pini
Strada 54
I-09012 Capoterra(CA), Italy

Home

Publications

Nichi D'Amico - Outreach activity

In Sardinia, the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) is building a major international facility, the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT). This project was lunched by the Ministry of Research (MUR) under a scheme of scientific development of the less favoured regions of the Country and so represents a challenge for Sardinia. In order to improve the awareness of the project among the academic and scholastic institution, and the public, as a Director of the Project I have promoted a variety of outreach activities, related to SRT and to astronomy in general, which are listed below.

	Il Cielo in Galleria. "Il Cielo in Galleria" (Sky in the Gallery) is the name of an exibition which was sponsored by the Municipalty of Cagliari and took place in May 2009 in the Bastion of Saint Remy, in the earth of the city of Cagliari. The exibition was dedicated to the Sardinia Radio Telescope project, and in general to astronomy. The Cagliari Astronomical Observatory presented a scale model (1:64) of the radiotelescope, a movie showing a virtual tour into the antenna, and a poster session.
	Studentown 2008. In December 2008, an exhibit was presented by the Cagliari Astronomical Observatory at "Studentown 2008", a public event organized by the Cagliari District for the local schools, which included conferences, exhibits, round tables, etc... The event was conceived to improve the awareness of students, teachers, and the public, of the opportunity offered by the recent Government reorganization of the Italian scholastic system.
	Open Day 2007. In April 2007, in the context of the "XVII Week of the Scientific Culture", dedicated by the Ministry to "Nature and the machine civilization", we organized an Open Day a the SRT site, where major works were in progress. We entitled this Day "Nature and High Tech in the Gerrei territory". We organised a huge open space stand, including an exhibition on radio astronomy. More than 1000 people attended.
	SRT construction kick-off. In September 2006, the SRT site, including the SRT basement, was formally taken in charge by MT-Mechatronics, in order to initiate the construction of the mechanical structure of the large dish. A public ceremony was organized at site for this event.
	Sun eclipse 2006. On the occasion of the Sun eclipse, occurred in 2006, we organised a public event, at the University campus in Cagliari, for the public and the schools. Solar scopes and other equipments were made available in that occasion.
	Venus Transit. In 2004, on he occasion of the Venus transit, we organised a public event in town, in the "Cittadella dei Musei". A real time view of the event was available, both outside with a solar scope, both inside a hall, in which the event was projected on a large screen.