Franz Caruso: “We are studying, with a group of experts, a plan to restart the structure”
Mayor Franz Caruso carried out an inspection of the “Giovan Battista Amico” Planetarium to verify, together with the computer engineers-planetarists Angelo Mendicelli and Vincenzo Ragusa and Dr. Angela Zavaglia, researcher in astronomy and scientific director of the “Lilio” astronomical park in Savelli, in the province of Crotone, land condition of the facility e of the optical and mechanical equipment, after the acts of vandalism perpetrated inside the Planetary on several occasions, the last of which in the first week of May. A summary survey of the damage suffered by the structure and optical instrumentation was carried out. However, a new inspection will be necessary with the experts and technicians of Zeiss, the German company supplying the instrumentation. Please note that the “Giovan Battista Amico” Planetarium is equipped with a Zeiss Starmaster ZMP, unique in Italy and among the best in Europe, capable of projecting up to 4000 stars into the dome.
Mayor Franz Caruso, in thanking the experts who supported him during the inspection, firmly underlined that “the will of the municipal administration is not only to restart the “Giovan Battista Amico” Planetarium, but also to make it a excellence for its structural and technical/instrumental characteristics at national and European level. We had already registered the availability of the University of Calabria, to which we look with interest, with a view to the institutional synergy already experienced on other occasions, such as for the arrival in the historic center of the nursing science courses, also for the restart of the Planetarium as attractor pole of science and knowledge. And precisely by virtue of these considerations, we will not give up on ensuring that the University of Calabria plays a role as a scientific guide for the territory, proposing itself once again for the design and implementation of an innovative plan for the scientific activities of the Cosenza Planetarium .
Regarding the episodes of vandalism to which the structure was subjected, Franz Caruso harshly condemned them, defining them as “a very deplorable obstinacy towards a public good that needed to be respected and safeguarded, but human incivility has no boundaries and often proves of its boundless ferocity.” At the end of the inspection it was found that the structure also needs external interventions and in this regard the Mayor Franz Caruso did not exclude carefully evaluating the execution of the works and – he said – “if any discrepancies were to emerge with respect to the foreseen realizations, which may have been carried out incorrectly, the Administration could take action against the executing companies”. “The Planetarium – added the Mayor – operated from October 2019 until February 2020. The experimental management model that had been advertised was interrupted by the arrival of Covid and the pandemic. Before the advent of Covid, a series of lecture-shows were held for schools with doctoral students from the Physics Department of the University of Calabria. While, in the evening, teachers from the same department took turns, together with professionals, both internal and external. A working group, which also included the engineers Mendicelli and Ragusa and Dr. Zavaglia, whose activities were also concentrated on the weekend. The Planetarium was a candidate to become a precious tool of attraction for schools and even today, despite the closure, requests continue to arrive from school groups wishing to book guided tours. The hope – concluded Franz Caruso – is that after checking the conditions of the instruments, we can study, with the help of those who came with me today to understand the state of the art of the Planetarium, a restart plan that restores its dignity, making it truly a flagship of the city and of the entire vast area of Cosenza, as well as of Calabria and the entire South of Italy”.
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