Still two more weeks April 20, 2006
Posted by dorigo in astronomy, personal, science.6 comments
Darn… Just called the maker of my new toy, Romano Zen. The dob telescope he is constructing is not going to be ready next week as I had hoped.
Two more weeks of suffering…
In the meantime, however, Mauro da Lio will probably invite me tomorrow evening to observe with his telescope. He also has a 40cm dobsonian…
I have never looked through a 40 cm reflector. I am sure I will be delighted… I did look through Lick's observatory 90cm refractor twice, but I could observe only for half a minute or so before being kicked by the next in line… Tomorrow, if weather allows, it will be a more relaxed viewing.
Space for a library April 20, 2006
Posted by dorigo in books, news, personal.3 comments
Today I met Davide Zoggia, president of the Province of Venice. He used to be an acquaintance of mine fifteen years ago (I remember a nice spring Sunday spent with common friends at his villa in the Venice lagoon, eating fresh grilled cefali), but we lost touch - he went into politics, I went into research. It was nice seeing him again - and he was very helpful.
We discussed the possible organization of a permanent setting for my father's large library, which he wants to donate at his death and make available to researchers and students of the Venice University. His working library includes more than 10,000 books, plus a large mass of documents from his lifelong investigation on the history of Venice - transcriptions from antique documents, maps, photographs.
It transpires that it would be possible to arrange a setting of the whole archive on the last floor of a very nice palace on the Canal Grande, in a conference room. The archive would be accessible to scholars of the Venice University.
Davide will have his technicians prepare a project for the library, and in two weeks we will discuss more details. A productive morning.
