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

Marcella Brusa is a professor of the History of Astronomy course, of the three-year degree in Astronomy, which aims to retrace the main stages of the development of Astronomy as a science from the  megalithic age to the  new discoveries of the 20th and 21st centuries. M. Brusa is the scientific director of the "Museo della Specola" of the University Museum System, housed in the rooms of the Torre della Specola erected on Palazzo Poggi and which represents a tangible link between the past and the future, and a heritage to be preserved. The recent (2025) re-installation  of the Museo della Specola is aimed above all at valorizing the figure of the astronomer Guido Horn D’Arturo, a distinguished professor of the Alma Mater. 
The astrophysics sector of the DIFA is also the main organizer (coordinated by A. Mucciarelli in collaboration with INAF-OAS and SMA), of the monthly public conferences "Conferenze alla Specola" on topics of interest in the general framework of Astronomy and Astrophysics. 
Alessio Mucciarelli and Marcella Brusa are also active in the context of  activities aimed at making astronomy and astrophysics better known to the general public, and of  schools and Public engagement initiatives.

FUNDING

• European Union—Next Generation EU. PNRR project IR0000012— CTA+ (CUP C53C22000430006).  Local repsonsible: A. Cimatti (2022-2025)
• ArtBonus: Supportare il Museo della Specola attraverso donazioni dal sito Unimpatto
• UNIBO funding for  "Public Engagement" 2023, project "Ri(e)voluzioni", co-PI: Marcella Brusa
• UNIBO funding for  "Public Engagement" 2024, project "Narr[A]zioni", PI: Alessio Mucciarelli