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“Il cielo in salotto” (in English, “The sky in your living room”) is a format for live streaming events of astronomical phenomena devised in 2020 by EduINAF (the official online magazine for education and public outreach of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, INAF), with the aim of engaging the general public and students with astronomy and space science remotely in the various waves and isolation periods of the pandemic. 

Originally designed to broadcast live telescope observations from the INAF network of observatories, the format evolved in the last year to include 3D models of celestial objects and virtual tours of the INAF institutes, museum and observatories. These events are enriched with live interviews and discussion with INAF researchers and supported by large-scale public engagement campaigns conducted together with space enthusiasts, amateur astronomy associations and other partners. On the occasion of a partial solar eclipse, we also involved telescopes from other European countries (that were better located to observe the event) in partnership with Europlanet.

In this talk, we will present some of the technical and logistical solutions we adopted for the broadcast. Moreover, we will look in detail at the results of a focus group conducted on the latest event (the “SuperMoon” of 13 July 2021) of this format, comparing with results from the very first live event (during the “SuperMoon” of 26 May 2021) and present lessons learnt from two years of experience, that could be of interest to colleagues organising similar events in other countries.

How to cite: Duras, F., Mantovani, G., Mignone, C., Giacomini, L., Bardelli, S., Di Giacomo, F., and Filippelli, G.: Il cielo in salotto: lessons learnt from livestreaming astronomical events in Italy, Europlanet Science Congress 2022, Granada, Spain, 18–23 Sep 2022, EPSC2022-907, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2022-907, 2022.

CESAR (Cooperation through Education in Science and Astronomy Research) is an educational ESA (European Space Agency) initiative whose main objective is to engage school students with the wonders of astronomy and, more generally, science and technology. Through CESAR, students (supported by their teachers) have access to telescopes, tools, and the expertise of ESA scientists to make real astronomical observations, collect scientific data and analyze the results, applying the same methodology used in real life by professional scientists.

As part of CESAR educational activities, the project has been covering since 2012 special astronomical events related to space objects transits (Venus transit 2012, live Sun transmissions, Total Solar Eclipses 2017 and 2019, Mercury Transit 2016, and ISS transits). Solar transits are rare astronomical events of profound historical importance and with an enormous potential to engage nowadays students and general public into Planetary Sciences and Space. Mercury transits occur only about every 13-14 times per century. Total solar eclipses occur around 18 months apart somewhere on Earth, but they reoccur only every 3-4 centuries on the same location. Although its historic scientific relevance (examples, to measure the distances in the solar system, to observe the solar corona) has diminished since humanity roams our solar system with robotic spacecrafts, transits remain a spectacular astronomical event that is used very effectively to engage general public and students to Science and Space in general.

The driving activity during these engaging educational and outreach events is a live interactive hangout, connecting students and general public around the globe (Europe, Chile, USA, …), with the remote observing teams and the scientists/engineers at ESAC (European Space Astronomy Center). Presentations and lectures by experts in the field are scheduled with live connections to the observing sites. Questions and answers sessions allow world-wide audience to interact with the scientists and engineers. Live images are acquired with CESAR instrumentation and broadcast live in streaming, and archived for offline access. CESAR has collaborated for these activities with multiple institutions: Spanish schools/universities, ESA Education and ESA Communications offices, worl-class observatories (Teide, Cerro Paranal, La Silla) and ESA projects (Venus Express, Bepicolombo and Solar Orbiter).

In this paper we explain how these public educational and outreach events are planned, created and executed, what activities they comprise, and the follow up activities expected for future events.

How to cite: Pérez-Ayúcar, M., Benitez Herrera, S., Gonzalez, D., and Zender, J.: The CESAR educational special events: live coverage of solar events for public engagement, Europlanet Science Congress 2022, Granada, Spain, 18–23 Sep 2022, EPSC2022-49, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2022-49, 2022.

Introduction: ISTEK Belde Schools Science center consists of an astronomy museum, a planetarium and an observatory. The center is an extention of ISTEK Foundation dedicated to serving over 12million residents of Istanbul. Since it’s conception in 2015 over 100 000 visitors have been enjoyed the astronomy museum, wathced planetarium shows and observed the celestial objects through telescopes. In the first 5 years the center provided support for the local schools  and free public lectures. In the beginning of 2020 the strict quarantine regulations put the science centers activities on hold. This period saw a major change in the methods for engaging the public. The museum is photographed 360 degree lenses and carried into virtual medium. Online visits, lectures and planetarium shows took the place of classic museum activities when no physical visits were possible.

Method: In the past 20 years virtual tours became more and more sophisticated and popular by providing value visual information from the comfort of home. The technology used to photograph and stitch the images together enabled wide range of providers whether they are curators, educators or realtors to present their materiel online. By the covid outbreak ISTEK Science Center closed it’s doors for up to then an unknown amount of time. The displays and models are photographed and the entire museum inventory is carried into an online portal. The virtual visits were scheduled in the usual fashion; school groups connected a main computer operated by the curator and by using GoogleMeet the curator gave the tour in the virtual medium. This way much more people were able to hear the information and watch the planetarium shows.

Three main software are used in online presentations: StarryNight, Layered Earth, SanalVR software. StarryNight and Layered Earth are licenced presentation tools purchased in 2014; SanalVR is the virtual tour environment.

Figure 1- Images of virtual presentation and lecture.

Figure 2- Images of virtual museum tool SanalVR.

Reception: During the covid outbreak the intense pressure to satify the curriculum requirements put a hold on extracirrucular activities. The trafic was less than regular seasons yet some groups were able to enjoy online activities.

Figure 3- Number of visitors by years. 

Project Sustainiblity: The online museum provides an opportunity to reach out of city school groups. Beginning from 2022-2023 academic year the museum will reserve ¼ of time for school groups from all around the country. The online tools and experience acquired will be used in the coming years as long as the interest is alive.

How to cite: Acar, M. and Ateş, A.: A museum carried into virtual medium: ISTEK Belde Schools Science Center, Europlanet Science Congress 2022, Granada, Spain, 18–23 Sep 2022, EPSC2022-798, https://doi.org/10.5194/epsc2022-798, 2022.