GALILEO · A night Among stars and lapillus

2009 will be the world year of Astronomy with a special dedication to Galileo to celebrate the astronomic discoveries of Galileo Galilei. We decided to anticipate this event in our researchers’ night focusing it on the astronomy field. For this reason the main partners will be INAF (National Institute for Astrophysics) Capodimonte Observatory, without excluding our traditional partners Vesuvian Observatory, INOA and San Pietro a Majella Conservatory. The activities will set in Piazza Dante and in the beautiful cloister and auditorium of Conservatory, to guarantee the necessary in-door and out- door spaces. Piazza Dante will host the researchers stands, aimed to show the researchers’ activities, interactive experiments, videos, instruments and to talk and make acquaintance with researchers; a portable planetarium, the running music of Contrabbanda and the children dedicated shows of “Le Nuvole” (see their web site at www.lenuvole.com ): their stars related street-art performances with jugglers playing as researchers and a piece on Galileo’s life. A digital photographic challenge: “shot the researchers’ night”, open to researchers and public, will also take place between 18,00 and 21,00 and the winner of both categories will be awarded with a diploma and a dinner for four people. As contraposition to the planetarium a special area will host a simulation of heartquakes. A chorus of researchers leaded by maestro Lo Gatto and his wife Donatella (researcher in chemistry) will re-interpret ancient villanelle of Galileo’s time with modern rhythms of jazz, rock pop music. The cloister of Conservatorio will host the photographic exhibition “portrait of a researcher” with an extra section for Italian Flickr bloggers (Flickr is the most famous photo-blog, to have an idea see www.flickr.com ) while the awarding ceremony will be held in the auditorium followed by a performance of videos on Galileo’s discoveries and music composed by students of Music Apllied to Multimedia corse.