ann1709 — Announcement

Our Place in Space — Chiavenna Astro Day

27 June 2017

To celebrate the display of the Hubble travelling exhibition Our Place in Space, an Astro Day was organised in the city of Chiavenna, Italy. Held on 24 June 2017 at the Teatro Società Operaia di Chiavenna, invited guests from the European Space Agency (ESA), the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) spoke to the public about Hubble’s achievements, their work with Hubble, how Hubble images are made and about the upcoming NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Among the speakers were Danny Lennon and Antonella Nota (ESA), Hussein Jirdeh and Carol Christian (STScI), and Lars Lindberg Christensen (ESO & ESA/Hubble).

Despite the soaring summer heat, more than 100 people attended the talks and took the opportunity to ask questions about Hubble and other work done at NASA, ESA and ESO. After the talks, the Astro Day finished in Montespluga, in Madesimo, with observations of the night sky, carried out by the Association Astrofili Valtellinesi in collaboration with Consorzio Alpe Montespluga.

The Chiavenna Astro Day was sponsored and supported by the city of Chiavenna, the Comunità Montana della Valchiavenna, the province of Sondrio, the Consorzio Turistico of the Valchiavenna, Bellati Editore, ESA, ESA/Hubble and the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Our Place in Space is sponsored and organised by the European Space Agency in collaboration with NASA. The exhibition features iconic Hubble images and videos — such as Jupiter’s auroras, the star formation region Westerlund 2, the largest image ever taken of the Andromeda Galaxy, and the new Frontier Fields — alongside imaginative artworks and installations from contemporary Italian artists who have been inspired by Hubble’s view of the cosmos. The artworks range from alabaster-sculpted nebulae to planetary spheres encrusted with glass mosaics, to a spacecraft built from recycled wood, plastic, and toys. This fusion of art and astronomy encourages visitors to think about humanity’s place in the grand scheme of the Universe.

Our Place in Space was initially located at the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti in Venice, earlier this year (ann1702). It is now on display from 13 May 2017 until 22 October 2017 at the Convento dei Cappuccini, Piazza Bertacchi, in Chiavenna. The exhibition is open six days per week, from Tuesday to Sunday. The opening hours are 10:30 to 12:30 in the morning and 16:00 to 19:00 in the afternoon. The entrance to the exhibition is free.

More Information

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.

Our Place in Space is coordinated by ESA/Hubble, in partnership with the Space Telescope Science Institute.

The exhibition is curated by Antonella Nota and Anna Caterina Bellati.

Participating artists in Chiavenna are Antonio Abbatepaolo, Marco Bolognesi, Paola Giordano, Ettore Greco, Mario Paschetta, Alessandro Spadari, Marialuisa Tadei, Sara Teresano, Mario Vespasiani, Dania Zanotto and Alberto Salvetti.

The exhibition executive committee consists of Ken Carpenter (NASA HST), Lars Lindberg Christensen (ESO), Carol Christian (STScI), Roger Davies (University of Oxford, UK), Mathias Jäger (ESA/Hubble) and Hussein Jirdeh (STScI).