AIRA's participation to Astrofest & Space and Security for Eastern Europe Conference and Exhibition

The Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy took part recently to several cultural events: Astrofest 2022 (7 May 2022), a public science & astronomy fair and outreach event organized every year in Bucharest; and the conference and exhibition „Space and Security for Eastern Europe. Romania - 10 years in the European Space Agency” (16-19 May 2022).

During both events, the Astronomical Institute was present with a colorful, dedicated exhibition stand and a specific cultural offer in terms of information about our scientific researches on a theoretical and practical level, including the instruments and technologies we use in these processes. The constant flow of people around our exhibition stand, gave us the chance of presenting to the public, through a series of large info panels with graphics and text, the cultural and patrimonial heritage of our 3 Ha. scientific and educational park in Bucharest. Countless questions were asked and answers were given, while several group visits of our headquarters were booked as well.

For the second event, as the exhibition format allowed us, we brought in our stand additional hardware and IT support such as the two touch screen Info Points, quite popular among our visitors, and an all-sky MOROI/FRIPON scientific camera connected through a dedicated PC to a laser projector, which offered to the visitors a live demonstration of the image and optics parameters that are used by this type of AIRA equipment.

The events gathered at our exhibition stand a wide public, from kindergarten children who looked with amazed eyes and exclamations to the spaceship and astronauts models we presented as educational accessories for their age group, up to Romania’s first and only man in space, our cosmonaut and Romanian Army general, Dr. Eng. Dumitru Prunariu.

Published on: May 23, 2022