Portugal Puts Telescopes to the Sun
(in Science Today)
It’s been the time of drying clothes in the Algarve terraces. This end-of-week, the Life Science Center (LCC) of Faro will give the body a new type of sun exposure. And telescopes are the stars.
Tradition is not what it was in the terraces typical of the Algarve. Faro CCV starts this weekend, week to another astronomical observations marathon in a ‘sui generis’.
On Sunday, the International Day of the Sun, the organization of the International Year of Astronomy (AIA 2009) challenges the curious to join the roof terrace of the Algarve center to observe the sun through special telescopes. The initiative will take place from 11h30 to 12h30.
Faro brand so the start of yet another cycle of observations of the Sun and Saturn and its rings, trying to recreate the observations that the famous astronomer Galileo Galilei made for exactly four centuries. The initiative is part of the mega-project of the International Year of Astronomy “And now I’m Galileo”.
After Faro, the Portuguese eyes turn to focus on the Sun on May 13th at 11am, this time in Madeira Shopping in Funchal, courtesy of the University of Madeira. On 17 May at 16 h, will be the turn of the Interactive Center of Astronomy, pointing telescopes to the nearest star to Earth, the Environmental Interpretation Center of Ponta do Sal, in Cascais.
Saturn and its rings
After the Sun, Saturn and its rings also will parade before the national telescopes. The 16, 29 and 30 May, the second largest planet in the solar system is the star of the observations of the ‘And now I’m Galileo’, taking place in Lisbon, at the Empire Square, opposite the Planetarium Calouste Gulbenkian (always to 21h, an organization of the Portuguese Amateur Astronomers Association), and Tapada Help (16 and 30 May, at 20.30, the Astronomical Observatory of responsibility Lisbon).
On the same days, Saturn and its rings will still be under the night sights of Mira telescopes, the Viscount garden (except the 29th), and Coimbra, in the Mondego Green Park. Both initiatives will be respectively in charge of the Astronomical Observatory of Mira and the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra.
Island lenses will also be looking to the giant planet. The University of Madeira organizes a Saturn observing session on 29 May at 22 hours in the parish of Prazeres, Calheta.
The South, the roof terrace from Faro CCV back also being invaded by telescopes on 23 May. This time, Saturn will be the main protagonist of the night observation.
