Report of events related with the Venus transit observation involving EAAE Italian members.
In Milano Laura Corazza and Bruno Manelli, teachers in the Scientific Lyceum “Vittorio Veneto” (the lyceum where the Nobel prize, Giacconi, studied !) observed the transit in the Brera Observatory in the center of Milano. The activity has been prepared with a meeting at school in May in which Cristina Palici di Suni presented some material available in the ESO web site.
The observation in the 8th June was co-ordinated by Davide Cenadelli, astronomer of Brera observatory, and involved about 25 students (16-18 y.o.) and 5 teachers. The results of transit timing is on the web, Brera site : www.brera.unimi.it/venere/archivio.html
From 7 a.m. till 2 p.m. the group of students were involved in an interesting activity in the last day of school!
In Torino in the main square in front of the Royal Castle, the Observatory of Torino organized an event in co-operation with the public administration, the amateurs group Astrofili Herschel and the EAAE Italian section. About 3000 people attended the event: pupils of primary schools, teachers and a lot of interested persons. Cristina Palici di Suni, presented the mission in India in 1874,co-ordinated by Pietro Tacchini, but attended by Alessandro Dorna, director of the Observatory of Torino in 1874. The instrument used by Dorna and kept in the Observatory museum was exposed in Piazza Castello. The Dorna family gave to Cristina material from the familiar archive. Activities for schools were organized using didactic material from the EAAE proposals available on the web. TV passages and newspapers gave a good covering to the initiative. A video of the event is going to be prepared.
In Cuneo , Giuseppe Rolfo, teacher in the primary school of Dogliani, observed the phenomenon with a group of pupils. To be precise the site was a sport club in Lequio Tanaro where, under the shadow of big trees, the pupils were waiting to observe the phenomenon with the refractor telescope of the teacher.An 18 y.old student helped the teacher in the activity prepared in advance using the French version of didactic material in the ESO web site. The pupils coloured a mithological maquette during the long exiting morning.
Cuneo :the image of Venus from the telescope of the teacher Giuseppe Rolfo.
In Rome in the square in front of the S. Angel Castle, (Vatican area) the Municipality of Rome organized a public event in co-operation with the schools and the amateurs group “Galassie”.
Leonarda Fucili joined the event involving her 13 years old students (Scuola Media “G.G.Belli”) in the activities she presented in the web http://www.vt-2004.org/Education/EduSheet1.html: in the square, students performed a human model to understand the cycle of Venus, the periodical appearance of Venus in the morning and evening time, the pentagram of the positions of Venus in the Zodiac area, the rarity of the transits. At the same time the transit could be observed with telescopes. A lot of people participated, also a group of children with handicap with a good involvement.
In the school “G.G.Belli” an exhibition was organised, with activities and didactical materials about the transit.
Roma The activity in Castel Sant'Angelo Rome.The photo is taken by a young student.