The XXXI European Symposium on Occultation Projects will be celebrated in ICRANet center of Pescara from 24 to 27 August 2012 (www.icranet.org/clavius2012). The occasion is the fourth centennial of the Jesuit astronomer Christopher Clavius (Bamberg 1538- Napoli 1612). The hybrid eclipse witnessed by Clavius in Rome (1567) and published on his Commentarius on the Sphere (1581 edition) was the first account of an annular eclipse ever published in a scientific book. To account of this eclipse a larger solar diameter for 1567 has to be considered, and the scientific debate is still open. This is the trait-d'union between Clavius and ESOP annual meeting. The city of Pescara and the region of Abruzzo are presented with an historical, climatic, religious and gastronomical outline.
The XXXI European Symposium on Occultation Projects will be celebrated in ICRANet center of Pescara from 24 to 27 August 2012 (www.icranet.org/clavius2012). The occasion is the fourth centennial of the Jesuit astronomer Christopher Clavius (Bamberg 1538-Napoli 1612). The hybrid eclipse witnessed by Clavius in Rome (1567) and published on his Commentarius on the Sphere (1581 edition) was the first account of an annular eclipse ever published in a scientific book. To account of this eclipse a larger solar diameter for 1567 has to be considered, and the scientific debate is still open. This is the trait-d'union between Clavius and ESOP annual meeting. The city of Pescara and the region of Abruzzo are presented with an historical, climatic, religious and gastronomical outline.
Christopher Clavius (Bamberg 1538-Napoli 1612) was one of the greatest astronomers working at the dawn of telescopic age and contributing to the Copernican revolution. He taught mathematics and astronomy at the Collegio Romano for four decades, earning the title of “The second Euclid” and gave a contribution to the Gregorian reformation of the Calendar (1582) of paramount importance. The hybrid eclipse witnessed by Clavius in Rome (1567) and published on his Commentarius on the Sphere (1581 edition) was the first account of an annular eclipse ever published in a scientific book. According to Ptolemy’s parameters such an eclipse was impossible because the angular solar diameter would never be larger than the lunar one. This eclipse was considered by J. Eddy in 1978 in order to demonstrate a larger physical diameter of the Sun before the Maunder minimum (1645-1715). The eclipse project has been carried out by several fellows of the European Section of International Occultation Timing Association (IOTA/ES), and by timing the Baily’s beads the solar angular diameter is recovered up to a few hundredths of arcsecond of accuracy. This is the trait-d’union between Clavius, IOTA and solar diameter measurements: a project to monitor the solar diameter with driftscan methods from ground is named Clavius. A section dedicated to Clavius will have prominent scientists and historians, ready to present this figure of very high level at the dawn of telescopic era in astronomy.
Occultation astronomy, among all classical astronomy, provides the more accurate measurements of positional and physical parameters of asteroids, TNO and stars, paving the way to all relativistic measurements. That’s why the International Center for Relativistic Astrophysics Network coordinating center of Pescara welcomes this meeting. Since more three decades ESOP gathered professional and amateur astronomers to share projects and observations based on the accurate timing of the occultations (asteroidal, lunar and Baily’s beads).
Among the works relating Occultation Astronomy and General Relativity I can refer to the references of the following papers: Astrometry and Relativity [1]; Relativistic Implications of Solar Astrometry [2] where the topic of the solar oblateness, a possible issue of eclipse measurements, is strictly related with the Dicke’s experiments on quadrupole moment of the Sun in order to explain the anomalous precession of Mercury’s perihelion. Also the paper dealing with the occultation of 161 Rhodope over Regulus of 19 october 2005 [3] showed the possibility to observe the relativistic light bending in the gravitational field of the Sun even 48° apart.
The hospitality of ICRANet, an international organism dedicated to General Relativity studies, for the ESOP meeting is therefore grounded also over solid scientific basis.
The yearly meetings, started before the fall of the Berlin’s wall, were organized with the alternance of Eastern and Western Europe. Pescara, on the Adriatic Sea, is also a natural gate open to the Eastern Countries, and welcomes eagerly the XXXI ESOP in 2012.
Pescara is facing Albania, and the harbor of Split, in the former Jugoslavia. So the influence of Eastern Countries in this city is strong, and the presence of foreign people is normal.
Pescara is a young city, having celebrated its 85 years of foundation on January 2, 2012. But this city is the merge of two former villages, Castellamare and Pescara.
The geographical position allowed to this city to develop rapidly. With about 300000 people leaving in its surroundings Pescara become the most populated urban area of Abruzzo, the region immediately to the East of Lazio, were Rome is. In the years 70s an highway has been realized between Rome and Pescara, the A25 branch of the national highway network, and this allows in 1 hour and half to go from the capital to that pearl of the Adriatic sea.
Abruzzo is called the Green Region of Europe, because agriculture is still the major source of its economy, and was under subventions from EU in the previous decade. It maintained its medieval traditions rather unchanged until the very last years, thanks to the geographical insulation due to the
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