Radio Telescope and "M.Ceccarelli" visit centre

“Why don’t you build a radio telescope?”, Prof. Giampiero Puppi once asked Marcello Ceccarelli. And out of that simple question came Italy’s first radio astronomy facility, located not far from Bologna. It was built in May 1959.

The Medicina Radio Observatory is now home to one of the largest radio telescopes in the world, managed by INAF (National Institute of Astrophysics). It has two main instruments (radio telescopes): the large Northern Cross (owned by the University of Bologna and first used in 1967) and a 32-meter dish inaugurated in 1983. A team of engineers and technicians at the facility deal with the design and development of every aspect of these advanced observational instruments.

Near the telescopes themselves stands the M. Ceccarelli visitor centre, which receives members of the public and schoolchildren so they can learn more about radio astronomy - a vital tool for investigating the Universe - and Italian research projects.