Hands-on learning at a world-class telescope

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Elisabeta Lusso1,2, Lapo Casetti1,2,3, Maurizio Pancrazzi4, Marco Romoli1,2

1Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Firenze, via G. Sansone 1, 50019 Sesto

Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy, 2INAF–Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo Enrico Fermi 5,

I-50125 Firenze, Italy, 3INFN–Sezione di Firenze, via G. Sansone 1, I-50019 Sesto

Fiorentino, Italy.4INAF–Astrophysical Observatory of Torino, Torino, Italy.

Abstract

For the first time, an Italian University has the possibility to perform a multi-

year observing campaign at a world-class telescope. This hands-on experience

had a significant impact on the students' university path: from learning specific

observing techniques on-site to teamwork and collaboration. In this paper we

present the results of an observing campaign carried out at the Telescopio

Nazionale Galileo (TNG) located in La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) by

undergraduate students of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, at the

University of Firenze.

Keywords: astrophysics; telescope observing; galaxies; hands-on learning;

students' motivation; teamwork.

8th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd’22)

Universitat Polit`

ecnica de Val`

encia, Val`

encia, 2022

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/HEAd22.2022.14440

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Editorial Universitat Polit`

ecnica de Val`

encia 1101

Hands-on learning at a world-class telescope

1. Introduction

The hill of Arcetri in the outskirts of the city of Firenze, where Galileo spent his last years,

has represented the pivotal site of research in physics and astronomy in Firenze, hosting both

the Institute of Physics of the local University and the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory,

and being for this reason promoted to a historical site of the European Physical Society.

During the 1980s, the Department of Astronomy and Space Science of the University was

constituted, based in Arcetri alongside with the Physics Department, heir to the Institute of

Physics (Mazzoni 2014). The two university departments eventually merged into the

Department of Physics and Astronomy in 2010. The astrophysics researchers of the

university departments have maintained a close collaboration with the Arcetri Observatory

throughout the years. Within this collaboration, in 2017, a private donation to the Arcetri

Observatory was partly devolved to the University. This private funding allowed university

students, for the first time, to perform an observing campaign at a world-class telescope

within a part of the teaching course Complementi di Astronomia, which is the subject of the

present manuscript. Complementi di Astronomia is offered to bachelor and master students

and gives a first introduction to experimental astronomy. Specifically, the course presents the

relevant instruments, detectors, and telescope techniques, primarily for observations at

optical wavelengths. A substantial part of the course is dedicated to hands-on observing

sessions. The main scientific aim of the latter is to determine the angular diameter and the

redshift of a sample of local spiral galaxies to provide an estimate of their distances and,

possibly, of the Hubble parameter, H0, which describes the current expansion rate of the

Universe. Until 2017, observations had been performed at the 152 cm Cassini telescope

located in Loiano (Bologna), Italy. In 2017, the students carried out the first international

observing campaign at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) located at the Roche de los

Muchachos in La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain). Such a campaign requires not only a

significant budget (not affordable without external funding given the overall reduction in

funding from the Italian State to the Universities), but also a considerable logistic effort

between the teachers and the staff at the TNG. During the trip, we take the opportunity to

visit most of the astronomical telescopes at the Roque.

In this manuscript, we critically discuss our outside the classroom experience from different

perspectives (e.g., students teamwork on-site and in the lab) and how everything changed

after the COVID-19 outbreak. We note that the discussion of the practical part of the lecture

will be mostly qualitative. We did not carry out much literature research in first place for two

main reasons. First and foremost, the experience we describe is virtually a unicum in Italy

and, since it is subject to external funding, we did not have the perspective of a more

structured teaching path related to on-site observations. This may change in the following

years if we can secure funding that allows us to schedule several observing runs during the

academic year. Second, we can only now begin to study the statistics of the students attending

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摘要：

Hands-onlearningataworld-classtelescopeElisabetaLusso1,2,LapoCasetti1,2,3,MaurizioPancrazzi4,MarcoRomoli1,21DipartimentodiFisicaeAstronomia,UniversitàdiFirenze,viaG.Sansone1,50019SestoFiorentino,Firenze,Italy,2INAF–OsservatorioAstrofisicodiArcetri,LargoEnricoFermi5,I-50125Firenze,Italy,3INFN–Sezione...

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