204
with attractive news items. For example, in 1987, to mark the inauguration of
the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope at Roque de los Muchachos
Observatory, special workshops were organized for the benefit of science journalists. We repeated this format in 1989, when we invited science journalists
to the inauguration of the 2.5-m Nordic Optical Telescope at the same
observatory.
The IAC has always tried to cater for the information-hungry news media,
in the case of television by offering betacam-format images and computergenerated graphics expressly created to illustrate the scientific concepts underlying each news item.
We have always offered future journalists and communicators the possibility of making direct contact with the science and technology being done at
the IAC. Students and graduates in journalism, and graduates finishing their
master’s degree in science communication at Spanish universities, for example, may do their practicals in science journalism at the IAC. Also available are
grants and temporary contracts to work at the Institute.
In 1999 Dr Alfred Rosenberg, an astrophysicist, joined the Director’s
Support Team and was set the task of attending to and clarifying queries from
the news media and organizing outreach activities. Rosenberg, as scientific
assessor, and other UC3 staff jointly tend to other collectives, such as publishers, institutions, teachers, students, amateur astronomers, and the general
public requesting information by letter, email, telephone, or in person. Alfred
is an excellent, rigorous, and personable popularizer. He has led highly successful educational projects, such as ‘SolarLab’ and ‘100 Square Moons’.
Cosmic phenomena of great repercussion always present a special opportunity, for example the collision of multiple fragments of Comet SchumakerLevy with Jupiter in June 1994 that had been predicted a year before it
occurred. Even though the event was observed with telescopes all over the
world, according to the International Astronomical Union, the images taken
at the IAC’s Teide Observatory were the first to report the collisions. With the
use of the EFE Agency, the IAC supplied the news media with daily reports—
written, pictorial, and video—during the week of impact. More than 2000
people gathered at the Museum of Science and the Cosmos with a direct link
to the Observatory to watch the collisions as they happened during a period
of four hours on screens that had been set up for the event.
With the arrival of Comet Hyakutake, the IAC suggested simultaneous
observations to amateur groups on the night of Saturday, 23 March 1996.
According to information received from some forty groups from all over
Spain, over thirty thousand people visited the sites appointed for viewing the
F. Sánchez
with attractive news items. For example, in 1987, to mark the inauguration of
the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope at Roque de los Muchachos
Observatory, special workshops were organized for the benefit of science journalists. We repeated this format in 1989, when we invited science journalists
to the inauguration of the 2.5-m Nordic Optical Telescope at the same
observatory.
The IAC has always tried to cater for the information-hungry news media,
in the case of television by offering betacam-format images and computergenerated graphics expressly created to illustrate the scientific concepts underlying each news item.
We have always offered future journalists and communicators the possibility of making direct contact with the science and technology being done at
the IAC. Students and graduates in journalism, and graduates finishing their
master’s degree in science communication at Spanish universities, for example, may do their practicals in science journalism at the IAC. Also available are
grants and temporary contracts to work at the Institute.
In 1999 Dr Alfred Rosenberg, an astrophysicist, joined the Director’s
Support Team and was set the task of attending to and clarifying queries from
the news media and organizing outreach activities. Rosenberg, as scientific
assessor, and other UC3 staff jointly tend to other collectives, such as publishers, institutions, teachers, students, amateur astronomers, and the general
public requesting information by letter, email, telephone, or in person. Alfred
is an excellent, rigorous, and personable popularizer. He has led highly successful educational projects, such as ‘SolarLab’ and ‘100 Square Moons’.
Cosmic phenomena of great repercussion always present a special opportunity, for example the collision of multiple fragments of Comet SchumakerLevy with Jupiter in June 1994 that had been predicted a year before it
occurred. Even though the event was observed with telescopes all over the
world, according to the International Astronomical Union, the images taken
at the IAC’s Teide Observatory were the first to report the collisions. With the
use of the EFE Agency, the IAC supplied the news media with daily reports—
written, pictorial, and video—during the week of impact. More than 2000
people gathered at the Museum of Science and the Cosmos with a direct link
to the Observatory to watch the collisions as they happened during a period
of four hours on screens that had been set up for the event.
With the arrival of Comet Hyakutake, the IAC suggested simultaneous
observations to amateur groups on the night of Saturday, 23 March 1996.
According to information received from some forty groups from all over
Spain, over thirty thousand people visited the sites appointed for viewing the
F. Sánchez