Geographical Distribution of the Italian Astronomical Observatories
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Istituto Di Radioastronomia Inaf
ISTITUTO DI RADIOASTRONOMIA INAF STATUS REPORT October 2007 http://www.ira.inaf.it/ Chapter 1. STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION The Istituto di Radioastronomia (IRA) is presently the only INAF structure with divisions distributed over the national territory. Such an organization came about because IRA was originally a part of the National Council of Research (CNR), which imposed the first of its own reforms in 2001. The transition from CNR to INAF began in 2004 and was completed on January 1st , 2005. The Institute has its headquarters in Bologna in the CNR campus area, and two divisions in Firenze and Noto. The Medicina station belongs to the Bologna headquarters. A fourth division is foreseen in Cagliari at the Sardinia Radiotelescope site. The IRA operates 3 radio telescopes: the Northern Cross Radio Telescope (Medicina), and two 32-m dishes (Medicina and Noto), which are used primarily for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations. The IRA leads the construction of the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT), a 64-m dish of new design. This is one of the INAF large projects nowadays. The aims of the Institute comprise: - the pursuit of excellence in many research areas ranging from observational radio astronomy, both galactic and extragalactic, to cosmology, to geodesy and Earth studies; - the design and management of the Italian radio astronomical facilities; - the design and fabrication of instrumentation operating in bands from radio to infrared and visible. Main activities of the various sites include: Bologna: The headquarters are responsible for the institute management and act as interface with the INAF central headquarters in Roma. Much of the astronomical research is done in Bologna, with major areas in cosmology, extragalactic astrophysics, star formation and geodesy. -
Historical & Cultural Astronomy
Historical & Cultural Astronomy Series Editor: WAYNE ORCHISTON, University of Southern Queensland, Australia ([email protected]) MARC ROTHENBERG, Smithsonian Institution (retired), USA ([email protected]) CLIFFORD CUNNINGHAM, University of Southern Queensland, Australia ([email protected]) Editorial Board: JAMES EVANS, University of Puget Sound, USA MILLER GOSS, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, USA DUANE HAMACHER, Monash University, Australia JAMES LEQUEUX, Observatoire de Paris, France SIMON MITTON, St. Edmund’s College Cambridge University, UK CLIVE RUGGLES, University of Leicester, UK VIRGINIA TRIMBLE, University of California Irvine, USA GUDRUN WOLFSCHMIDT, Institute for History of Science and Technology, Germany TRUDY BELL, Sky & Telescope, USA More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15156 Ileana Chinnici • Guy Consolmagno Editors Angelo Secchi and Nineteenth Century Science The Multidisciplinary Contributions of a Pioneer and Innovator Editors Ileana Chinnici Guy Consolmagno INAF Vatican Observatory Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo Vatican City State, Holy See Palermo, Italy ISSN 2509-310X ISSN 2509-3118 (electronic) Historical & Cultural Astronomy ISBN 978-3-030-58383-5 ISBN 978-3-030-58384-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58384-2 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. -
Radio Astronomy Across Europe
Radio astronomy across Europe Wilfred Frieswijk* & ERATec Network Activity [email protected] * ASTRON Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy Abstract Europe has a long and outstanding history in radio astronomy. It currently hosts numerous of world-class facilities spread around the globe, some of which well-known, others being less familiar. The map below gives an overview of associated radio observatories accessible for the general astronomical community. Trans-national access (TNA) Capabilities The objectives of the Transnational Access portion of RadioNet3 are ERATec The receivers available on the various • to draw together all of the European radio facilities under one umbrella; The main activity of the RadioNet3 telescopes operate in the radio regime, • to enable the European user community to have easy and transparent European Radio Astronomy Technical covering frequencies from ~10 MHz access to the entire range of facilities; Forum is to organise and support to 1 THz. With dish-sizes ranging • to offer the European user community an integrated, professional and meetings and workshops that help to from ~10 to 100 meters and baselines consistent level of user support. identify synergies and develop up to >1000 kilometers, spatial complementary capabilities at the website: http://www.radionet-eu.org/transnational-access resolutions can be achieved down to observatories, to determine how the sub-arc-second scales, thus matching pooling of resources might lead to those obtained at infrared- and optical Open time common solutions -
EPSC2018-1115-2, 2018 European Planetary Science Congress 2018 Eeuropeapn Planetarsy Science Ccongress C Author(S) 2018
EPSC Abstracts Vol. 12, EPSC2018-1115-2, 2018 European Planetary Science Congress 2018 EEuropeaPn PlanetarSy Science CCongress c Author(s) 2018 Ultra-short Period Rocky Super-Earths Luca Malavolta (1,2) , Andrew W. Mayo (3,4) , Tom Louden (5) , Vinesh M. Rajpaul (6) , Aldo S. Bonomo (7) , Lars A. Buchhave (4) , Laura Kreidberg (3,8) , Martti H. Kristiansen (9,10), Mercedes Lopez-Morales (3) , Annelies Mortier (11) , Andrew Vanderburg (3,12) , Adrien Coffinet (13), David Ehrenreich (13) , Christophe Lovis (13), Francois Bouchy (13), David Charbonneau (3) , David R. Ciardi (14), Andrew Collier Cameron (11) , Rosario Cosentino (15), Ian J. M. Crossfield (16,17), Mario Damasso (7) , Courtney D. Dressing (18) , Xavier Dumusque(13) , Mark E. Everett (19) , Pedro Figueira (20), Aldo F. M. Fiorenzano (15), Erica J. Gonzales (16,28), Raphaëlle D. Haywood (3,27) , Avet Harutyunyan (15), Lea Hirsch (18) , Steve B. Howell (21) , John Asher Johnson (3) , David W. Latham (3) , Eric Lopez (22), Michel Mayor (13), Giusi Micela (23), Emilio Molinari (15,24) , Valerio Nascimbeni (1,2) , Francesco Pepe (13), David F. Phillips (3) , Giampaolo Piotto (1,2) , Ken Rice (25), Dimitar Sasselov (3) , Damien Ségransan (13) , Alessandro Sozzetti (7) , Stéphane Udry (13), and Chris Watson (26) (1) Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “Galileo Galilei,” Università di Padova, Italy ([email protected]) (2) INAF— Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Italy (3) Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA (4) Centre for Star and Planet Formation, Denmark (5) Department -
EPSC2018-234, 2018 European Planetary Science Congress 2018 Eeuropeapn Planetarsy Science Ccongress C Author(S) 2018
EPSC Abstracts Vol. 12, EPSC2018-234, 2018 European Planetary Science Congress 2018 EEuropeaPn PlanetarSy Science CCongress c Author(s) 2018 GAPS: Results from 5 years of observations R. Claudi(1), S. Benatti (1), C. Boccato (1), E. Covino (2), S. Desidera (1), R. Gratton (1), A.F. Lanza (3), A. Maggio (4), G.Micela (4), E. Molinari (5), I. Pagano (3), G. Piotto (6), E. Poretti (7,8), R. Smareglia (9), A. Sozzetti (10), and the GAPS Team (1) INAF - Astronomical Observatory of Padova ([email protected]), (2) INAF - Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, (3) INAF - Astrophysical Observatory of Catania, (4) INAF - Astronomical Observatory of Palermo, (5) INAF - Astronomical Observatory of Cagliari, (6) University of Padova, Dep. of Physics and Astronomy, (7) INAF - TNG, Fundación Galileo Galilei, (8) INAF Astronomical Observatory of Brera, Italy, (9) INAF - Astronomical Observatory of Trieste; (10) INAF - Astronomical Observatory of Torino The "Global Architecture of Planetary Systems" the APACHE (Astronomical Observatory of the Au- (GAPS) Project is the result of a collaboration among tonomous Region of the Aosta Valley, [2]) and EXO- part of the Italian exoplanetary community that ex- RAP1 (Serra la Nave Observatory) surveys, from the ploited the great capabilities of the HARPS–N instru- INAF–Astrophysical Observatory of Asiago and by a ment. It gathers more than 60 astronomers from sev- number of amateur astronomers. Thanks to the wide eral institutes of the Italian National Institute for As- expertise of the GAPS members (high-resolution spec- trophysics (INAF) and Italian Universities (Padova, troscopy, stellar activity and pulsations, crowded stel- Torino and Milano). -
NEWS RELEASE Array
cherenkov telescope NEWS RELEASE array FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 14 June 2017 CTA Prototype Telescope, ASTRI, Achieves First Light Serra La Nave, Italy – During the nights of 25 and 26 May, the camera of the ASTRI telescope prototype (pictured to the right) recorded its first ever Cherenkov light while undergoing testing at the astronomical site of Serra La Nave (Mount Etna) in Sicily managed by INAF-Catania. This comes not long after its optical validation was achieved in November 2016 (read story here). This accomplishment was the first optical demonstration for astronomical telescopes using the novel Schwarzschild Couder dual-mirror design. The ASTRI telescope is a proposed Small- Sized Telescope design for the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). Although the camera was not fully configured, the ASTRI team was still able to capture its first Cherenkov light and produce beautiful images of the showers generated by cosmic rays in the Earth’s atmosphere. The image to the right shows one of the events captured by the team. This information will allow scientists to reconstruct the direction of gamma-ray photons emitted from celestial sources (indicated by the yellow line on the image on the left). The camera is based on novel SiPM small pixel sensors (7 mm x 7 mm) and CITIROC ASICS peak-finder front-end electronics. The camera was specifically designed to fit on the dual mirror ASTRI telescopes for covering a large field of view of 10O x 10O. “The results gathered from the images are very much in line with the performance expectations established in the lab, proving the functionality of the camera for the ASTRI telescopes,” said Osvaldo Catalano, astronomer at the INAF-Palermo Institute and leader of the ASTRI camera development program. -
A Review of Front-End Receivers for the INAF Radio Telescopes
2nd URSI AT-RASC, Gran Canaria, 28 May – 1 June 2018 A Review of Front-End Receivers for the INAF Radio Telescopes P. Bolli(1), M. Beltrán(1), M. Burgay(2), C. Contavalle(3), P. Marongiu(2), A. Orfei(3), T. Pisanu(2), C. Stanghellini(3), S.J. Tingay(4), G. Zacchiroli(3), and A. Zanichelli(3) (1) INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo Enrico Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy (2) INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, via della Scienza 5, 09047 Selargius (CA), Italy (3) INAF – Istituto di Radioastronomia, via Piero Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy (4) Curtin University – Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy, 1 Turner Ave, Technology Park, Bentley 6102, Western Australia Abstract facilities was charged to conduct this review. The group provides the authorship for this paper. This paper describes a rigorous process started within the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) to The working group interacted with many Italian and review existing and future radio astronomical front-end foreign astronomers and technologists. The two most receivers for the INAF radio telescopes. The main goal of significant examples of this approach have been: i) the the review was to increase the level of coordination in survey of the characteristics of some of the major receiver development, improving at the same time the International radio telescopes to benchmark the scientific impact from the national facilities. The working performance of Italian telescopes against recognized top- group in charge of the review collected information on the class worldwide radio astronomy facilities; ii) the call for front-ends in operation and under development at the INAF ideas addressed to the whole Italian astronomical radio telescopes and new ideas for future receivers from the community to survey scientific interest in the development Italian astronomical community. -
1 the Founding of Arcetri Observatory in Florence
THE FOUNDING OF ARCETRI OBSERVATORY IN FLORENCE Simone Bianchi INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi, 5, 50125, Florence, Italy [email protected] Abstract: The first idea of establishing a public astronomical observatory in Florence, Capital of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, dates to the mid of the 18th century. Initially, the use of a low building on a high ground was proposed, and the hill of Arcetri suggested as a proper location. At the end of the century, the Florence Observatory - or Specola - was built instead on a tower at the same level as the city’s centre. As soon as astronomers started to use this observatory, they recognized all its flaws and struggled to search for a better location. Giovanni Battista Donati, director of the Specola of Florence from the eve of the Italian Unification in 1859, finally succeeded in creating a new observatory: first, he obtained funds from the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy to build an equatorial mount for the Amici 28-cm refractor, which could not be installed conveniently in the tower of the Specola; then, he went through the process of selecting a proper site, seeking funds and finally building Arcetri Observatory. Although Donati was a pioneer of spectroscopy and astrophysics, his intent was to establish a modern observatory for classical astronomy, as the Italian peninsula did not have a national observatory like those located in many foreign capitals – Florence was the capital of the Kingdom of Italy from 1865 to 1871. To promote the project, Donati made use of writings by one of the most authoritative European astronomers, Otto Wilhelm Struve. -
ANDREA FERRARA Curriculum Vitae and Publication List Scuola
ANDREA FERRARA Curriculum Vitae and Publication List Scuola Normale Superiore Pisa, Italy Cosmology Professor HIGHLIGHTS • Cosmology Professor at Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy • Dean of the Class of Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy • Former Prorector for Education, Internationalization and Placement at Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy • INAF Board of Governors Member (2014 – 2015) • Joint Professor at the Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, Tokyo, Japan • European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant Award (2017) • Honorary Blaauw Professorship, Groningen University, The Netherlands • Beatrice Tinsley Centennial Professorship, University of Texas at Austin, USA • Severo Ochoa Prize, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Spain • Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Humboldt Research Award • Top Italian Scientist #52 • 174 among Invited, Review and Summary talks at International Conferences • 102 Colloquia in top scientific/academic institutes of 11 major countries • Expert evaluator of EU, European Science Foundation and National Research Grants Programs of USA, Germany, Portugal, Holland, Israel, France, Ireland, Switzerland, Norway, Austria • 50 among Master, PhD students and Post Docs supervised; 10 have received awards for their Thesis work • Astronomy & Astrophysics Journal and Dataset Papers in Physics: Editorial Board Member • 270 refereed papers in international Journals, 140 in conference proceedings (Scopus ID: 7201825167) • From the Google Scholar database, the H-index is 68; his i10-index is 224 • The total number of citations to his papers is 17,417 (6798 since 2013) • His top five most cited papers have more than 2,731 citations. EDUCATION 1986 National Research Council / CNR Pisa, Scientific Programming Course reg.# 5458 1988 University of Pisa, Pisa, Laurea in Physics; Thesis: Dust Expulsion from the Disk of Spiral Galaxies Advisor: Prof. -
(Physical Geographical Historical Dictionary of Tuscany, 1833) Written
In the Dizionario geografico fisico storico della Toscana (Physical geographical historical dictionary of Tuscany , 1833) written by Emanuele Repetti, Arcetri is described as a hill on the southern outskirts of Florence comprising a group of small villages, beautiful villas and country houses between San Miniato and the Villa of Poggio Imperiale, continuing towards Costa di San Giorgio, Belvedere and Boboli. The countryside around Arcetri is known for its beau - tiful panorama and for its historical and scientific back - ground. The Villa “Il Gioiello” where Galileo Galilei spent the last years of his life and the convent of San Matteo where his daughter Suor Maria Celeste resided, are all lo - cated near the Observatory. But above all, Arcetri is known for its scientific insti - Plan of the new Observatory to be tutes: the Observatory, the National Institute of Applied built on the “Podere Optics, the Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical della Capella” on the top of the Arcetri hill, Physics, and the Department of Astronomy and Space Sci - [before 1872] ence of the University of Florence. 1 The history of the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory is preserved in the Observatory Archives and a wide col - lection of papers and correspondence documents the de - velopment of Italian astronomical research during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. THE ARCETRI ASTROPHYSICAL OBSERVATORY AND ITS HISTORY Although astronomical studies in Tuscany go back to the times of the Accademia del Cimento (1657) and de - spite the small group of physicists formed by Pietro Leopol - do I di Lorena, who also supplied the Observatory with as - tronomical and meteorological instrumentation, a real school of astronomy only emerged on the 20 th of Febru - ary 1807 when the queen of Etruria, Maria Luisa, destined the “Real Museo” (Royal Museum) for public education. -
Iau Commission C3 Newsletter
IAU COMMISSION C3 NEWSLETTER HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY Welcome to the winter solstice edition of the newsletter We wish everyone health and happiness in the new year. of IAU Commission C3 (History of Astronomy). This The next issue of the newsletter will be in June 2021. issue features the announcement of a new Project Group Please send our Secretary any news you would like us to and reports of pre-existing Working Groups and Project include. Groups since the last newsletter in June 2020. It contains Sara Schechner, Secretary news of upcoming conferences, reports of recent Wayne Orchiston, President meetings, a list of notable publications, and tables of Christiaan Sterken, Vice-President content from a journal devoted to the history of astronomy. The newsletter also contains announcements of research and PhD opportunities in the history of TABLE OF CONTENTS astronomy as well as an introduction to a new Ourania Network. And of course, you will find news from Reports of Working Groups & Project Groups 2 members, announcements of awards, and obituaries. Making History 15 Oral History 24 We are excited to introduce some new sections to the Art & Exhibitions 26 newsletter. The “Making History” section includes Announcements 30 reports on the Astronomy Genealogy Project (AstroGen), Awards and Honors 34 analysis of the Vatican Observatory’s guest book, and the News from Members 35 rescue of a medieval manuscript by Lewis of Caerleon. In In Memoriam 37 the “Oral History” section, there is a first-hand account Notable Publications 39 of the founding of the Journal of Astronomical History and Journal Contents 41 Heritage. -
Italian Astronomers in the IAU: the Contribution and Role of Italian Astronomers from the Foundation to the Second World War
Under One Sky: The IAU Centenary Symposium Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 349, 2019 c International Astronomical Union 2019 C. Sterken, J. Hearnshaw & D. Valls-Gabaud, eds. doi:10.1017/S1743921319000383 Italian Astronomers in the IAU: the contribution and role of Italian astronomers from the foundation to the Second World War V. Zanini1,M.Gargano2 and A. Gasperini3 1INAF - Astronomical Observatory of Padova Vicolo dell’Osservatorio, 5–35122 Padova, Italy email: [email protected] 2INAF - Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte Salita Moiariello, 16–80131 Napoli, Italy email: [email protected] 3INAF - Astrophysical Observatory of Arcetri Largo Enrico Fermi, 5–50125 Firenze, Italy email: [email protected] Abstract. Even though Italy officially joined the IAU in 1921, Italian astronomers were involved in its birth as early as 1919, when Annibale Ricc`o, Director of the Astrophysical Observatory of Catania, proposed to the IAU Committee to hold its first General Assembly in Rome. This contribution will analyze the role played by Italian astronomers in the development of the IAU from its foundation to the Second World War. The recent project of reordering of the astronom- ical historical archives in Italy permits for the first time a more in-depth study of the relations between Italian astronomers and the international scientific community. Keywords. History of IAU, first General Assembly, Italian astronomers 1. Towards the 1919 Brussels Conference The International Astronomical Union was born during the Constitutive Assembly of the International Research Council (IRC) held from July 18 to 28, 1919, in Brussels, with the aim “to facilitate the relations between astronomers of different countries where international co-operation is necessary or useful”and“to promote the study of astronomy in all its departments”(Fowler 1922a,p.3).