The Regional Secretary for Science, Technology and Infrastructures participated in a night-time observation of celestial bodies on Tuesday night to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Santana Astronomical Observatory (OASA).
The Ribeira Grande Socio-Professional and Cultural Foundation, the entity in charge of managing this Science Centre, will purchase a more modern telescope with enhanced potentialities of observation, said José Contente.
The new telescope, an Austrian model that will be the second to be installed in Portugal, will replace the telescope previously installed at the Planetarium, which was experiencing technical problems, and represents an investment of twenty thousand Euros.
The enhancement of OASA equipments is intended to reinforce and encourage “civic science,” said the Regional Secretary, because this is a good example in the Region as evidenced by the growing participation of the population in scientific dissemination actions over the last months.
In the case of OASA, First Quarter Moon Nights and the free night-time observations, held on the first Friday of the month, have registered an average of one hundred participants per session, who are interested in the observation of celestial bodies and the discovery of space.
At the anniversary ceremony of the Santana Astronomical Observatory, the Regional Secretary for Science, Technology and Infrastructures opened a retrospective exhibition on the ten years of OASA, which has witnessed several celestial phenomena, including the birth of a star.
The geographical positioning of the Azores in the middle of the Atlantic enhances the visibility conditions of the sky and, in this context, the Azores may become a region sought after for night-time observation, an activity that has grown in recent years due to the dynamism of the activities promoted by the OASA, stated José Contente.
The OASA annually receives an average of fifteen thousand visitors, including schools, amateur astronomers and the population in general.