History of Astronomy and Outreach

Specola Museum, sundial room. On the left the large mural semicircle created by Domenico Lusverg. With this instrument the first director of the Specola, Eustachio Manfredi, measured a shift of the "fixed stars" to which he gave the name, still used today, of aberration. SMA courtesy, Courtesy SMA, picture by Marco Ravenna

As scientific responsible of the "Museo della Specola" which is part of the SMA (Sistema Museale d' Ateneo) of the Bologna University, P. Focardi is currently taking care of the historical instrumental heritage hosted in the Museum. She is also active in the context of the several outreach activities  aimed at making astronomy and astrophysics better known to the vast public.

DIFA-Astrophysics group is also the main organiser (coordinated by M. Brusa in collaboration with INAF-OAS and SMA), of the public lectures “Conference alla Specola” on topics of interest in the general framework of Astronomy and Astrophysics. These are regular, monthly outreach events, ongoing since 2001, and very well received by the community (average presence of ~60 persons).