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ING Annual Report 1997
Previous: Chapter 4 - Telescope Performance | Up: Table of Contents | Next: Appendix A - The Isaac Newton Group of TelescopesChapter 5
Public RelationsThe most auspicious public event this year was the visit to the observatory of His Royal Highness Crown Prins Willem Alexander of the Netherlands on 30 and 31 October for the First Light Celebration of the Dutch Open Telescope. During his visit the Prins of Orange, accompanied by the Dutch Minister for science and education J Ritzen, visited the WHT to experience night-time observing. The following day they returned to the WHT to view the telescope and ancillary installations.
During 1997 the observatory had one hundred and fifty visits from schools, universities, astronomical associations, congresses, local institutions, etc, giving a grand total of 2700 visitors of different nationalities. At the same time we attended a large number of requests for information, amongst them over 50 from communication media, including press, radio and TV. Of particular interest were the contacts made by the BBC, CNN, Nature and the Financial Times.
1997's public open days were very successful. During the three days for the general public, and the one open day specially for the people from the observatory hosting district of Garafía, a total of over 3200 visitors visited the observatory. One hundred tours were organised to view the WHT and the INT. Approximately half of the visitors were Spanish nationals, and one out of four visitors came from La Palma.
A total of nine ING press releases covering scientific highlights achieved with our telescopes and other astronomical events were sent out. A series of full-page articles describing research carried out at ING for the general public was published in the local newspapers.
As we were well aware that the arrival of the comet Hale-Bopp was going to be the event of the year, ING organised a series of activities orientated towards the public in general. Of particular interest were the CCD images obtained from the CoCAM camera that were offered daily on the Internet.
On 29-30 October 1997 the "Site Properties of the Canarian Observatories" workshop took place in Los Cancajos, near Santa Cruz de La Palma. This collaborative effort between the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, the ING, and the Nordic Optical Telescope, under the auspices of the Site Characterisation Sub-committee to the CCI, proved to be a success. There was a total of 70 registered delegates at the workshop, and a wide variety of topics was covered, including many results from ING. The proceedings were published in New Astronomy Reviews, 42, 395.
A workshop on "Site Properties of the Canarian Observatories" was held at La Palma on 29-30 October. A press conference took place during the workshop to supply information to journalists [ JPEG | TIFF ]Over 1000 people visited the observatory on each open day, being able to visit both the William Herschel and the Isaac Newton telescopes, guided by ING staff. For this activity we also received collaboration from the amateur astronomers of La Palma [ JPEG | TIFF ] His Royal Highness Crown Prins Willem Alexander (on the left) during the First Light Celebration of the Dutch Open Telescope [ JPEG | TIFF ].
Previous: Chapter 4 - Telescope Performance | Up: Table of Contents | Next: Appendix A - The Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes
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