Young astronomers

"The second phase of the "Young Astronomers and Telescopio Nazionale Galileo" Competition has just concluded.

Launched last November in its first edition, it has just completed its second phase, which saw the six winners together with their tutors experience an astronomical internship at Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG), under the supervision of Gloria Andreuzzi, TNG staff and responsible of the competition on behalf of INAF (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica) and TNG. The six students Italo Grasso, Leonardo Karol Iaquinto, Chiara Izzo, Emanuele Morone, Fabio Pascale, and Annalisa Vitelli from Liceo Scientifico I.I.S. Telesio di Telese Terme (BN), along with their teacher Antonio Pepe, their INAF tutor Vincenzo Testa (Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma) who followed them during the preparation of the proposal and the observations and Elisa di Carlo (Osservatorio Astronomico D' Abruzzo), responsible for the competition by SAIT (Società Astronomica Italiana), reached the island of La Palma last Saturday, May 4th.

Their experience at one of the largest observatories in the world started on Sunday, May 5th. The beauty of the blooming Tajinaste endemic plants of the Canary islands, as well as the starry sky of Roque de Los Muchachos, welcomed them for the following three days. The main objective of the internship was to carry out their observational proposal titled: "Low-resolution spectroscopic characterization of Gaia DR3 lensed quasar candidates with the TNG".

The observations were carried out under the guidance of the TNG staff (G. Andreuzzi and H. Stoev), the visitor astronomer Filippo Ambrosino (Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma) and the support of V. Testa on the nights of May 5th and 6th. TNG’s instrument DOLORES (Device Optimized for the Low RESolution) was used to observe 6 lensed quasar candidates. The gathered spectra will soon be analyzed by the students supported by INAF and TNG astronomers.

Thanks to the collaboration between the TNG staff and the different facilities at the Observatory, the group could also visit some of the most important telescopes in the world, including the Gran Telescopio Canarias, the William Herschel Telescope, the Isaac Newton Telescope, and the Cherenkov telescopes for gamma-ray detection (MAGIC and LST).

To reward the great commitment of all participants at the competition and the high level of observation proposals submitted, TNG staff invited the students from all schools participating in the competition to attend a virtual tour of the TNG which will take place on Monday, May 20th, at 11:00.

The two-hour virtual tour, along with the time dedicated by students to write the observational proposal can be counted as a PCTO (Percorsi per le Competenze Trasversali e l’Orientamento) time.

The competition was born from a collaboration between SAIT, the Ministry of Education and Merit, INAF and FGG.

A special thanks to the Gran Telescopio Canarias team, Javier Mendez (Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes), Irene Burelli (MAGIC/LST team, INFN Trieste) and the staff of the Centro de Visitantes del Roque de Los Muchachos.