Representing the Universe. A hands-on challenge

Talking about radio astronomy to the public involves explaining how radio telescopes work and how images (or any other type of representation) are created from radio data. We present two activities designed to share this way of observing the Universe with as broad an audience as possible.
The first is a multisensory map of the invisible Universe obtained from radio and spectroscopic data, which can be explored simultaneously with three senses: sight, touch, and hearing. The exhibit, titled “Sense the Universe“, was selected as part of the “Inspiring Stars” exhibition.
The second activity is an educational workshop that uses pegs and pegboards (a game well-known to children) to experiment with and explore the concept of digital image resolution. The image to be reproduced with the pegs is placed under the board, which is used as a color sampler. When the pegs are too large, fine sampling is not possible, resulting in low-resolution images. Try it yourself!

Today Astro Chiacchiere! is an informal meeting among the staff of the Cagliari Astronomical Observatory (staff, postdocs, and students), aimed at discussing topics mainly of a scientific, technological, and informative nature about the Observatory’s activities. The meeting is usually held on Tuesdays at 11:30 AM in the Auditorium of the Cagliari Astronomical Observatory. For information and/or contributions, contact valentina.vacca@inaf.it and gabriele.surcis@inaf.it