UAI – Unione Astrofili Italiani (Italian Astro Amateur Union) Venus Transit in Italy Contribution to VT2004 Amateur Meeting Brandys nad Labem may, 7-9 2004 UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani 1 UAI – Unione Astrofili Italiani (Italian Astro Amateur Union) UAI members are about 2000 Over 200 local associations and 100 observatories are in activity in Italy UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani 2 UAI on-line www.uai.it UAI website in made up of several different sections, representative of amateur astronomers’ fields of activity COMMISSIONS •Didactic activities •Popularization of Astronomy •Public Relations-Press releases •Light Pollution •Observatories Network UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani RESEARCH GROUPS •Asteroids •Astroculture (History, Arts) •Deep Sky •Comets •Moon •Meteors •Occultations •Planets •Sundials •Sun •Variable Stars 3 All UAI members receive: Astronomical Almanac “Astronomia” UAI – Magazine UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani 4 VENUS TRANSIT "Venus eclipses the Sun" Public Observations in Italy UAI will organize public activities related to the observation of Venus transit through a network of observation sites all over Italy. Every year UAI is the promoter of several national events as reported on web pages: http://divulgazione.uai.it/ UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani 5 The event will be named : "Venere eclissa il Sole" ("Venus eclipses the Sun") UAI will cooperate as well in activities concerning information through web pages and press releases. “Il Cielo in diretta" ("Sky-live") is aimed to permit the observation of the transit on the web, through webcams connected to telescopes. A special webpage dedicated to the event will be early on line: http://www.venere2004.it Some more informations are avaiable here : http://divulgazione.uai.it/venus/venus2004.htm this webpage is mainly dedicated to the collaboration with ESO and UAI partnership to “Venus Transit 2004” project. UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani 6 A special information service is “Astroiniziative” Please, visit our webpage: http://divulgazione.uai.it/ and clic on : “Astroiniziative” You will find a map of Italy. Clic a Region with your mouse. It will be possible to read the list of public observation in the choosen Region! UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani 7 UAI will cooperate as well with the italian node of Venus Transit 2004 project: INAF (Istituto Nazionale di AstroFisica – National Institute of AstroPhysics). INAF website dedicated to Venus Transit is: www.transitodivenere.it UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani 8 • Conclusions: UAI wishes everybody the clearest sky on june, 8 And let’s hope the VT2004 meeting will be the first of many more collaborations among european amateur astronomers. A few years ago UAI started a collaboration with french organization “AFA” (Association Francaise d’Astronomie”. So the original “Nuits des Etoiles” (public observations of Perseid meteor shower) became an international event: in Italy, “Le Notti delle Stelle”. UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani 9 In 2003 edition UAI proposed the following logo, aiming to an “European Night of the Stars”. Let’s hope all the participants to VT2004 meeting will join next “Night of the Stars” ! UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani 10