An accessible tourist destination in Naples almost unknown but certainly very suggestive is the Capodimonte Astronomical Observatory. The Observatory, located in a splendid position on the Gulf of Naples, was founded in 1812 by the King of Naples Gioacchino Murat and is the largest scientific facility of the National Institute of Astrophysics in southern Italy. For decades it has been carrying out constant action for the dissemination of astronomical culture which takes the form of a conspicuous offer of educational and dissemination initiatives. The visit to the Observatory must always be organized by booking (for contacts, refer to the website www.oacn.inaf.it). Our meeting with the structure took place within the ConosciAmo Napoli tour organized by Cosy for You (which we will talk about in a future post) and a group of friends in wheelchairs participated. In particular, we want to thank Dr. Liana De Filippis who welcomed us and encouraged the carrying out of this visit dedicated to people with motion disabilities, reassuring us that she will work to further improve the accessibility of the Observatory. We also thank the engineer who accompanied us and provided us with the appropriate scientific explanations in a very effective and not at all academic way. Let's start with some pictures of the structure:
here we see how Ferdinand I of Bourbon wanted to erase the traces of Gioacchino Murat:
Let's take a look at the instruments exhibited in the Observatory museum:
The highlight for visitors is undoubtedly the planetarium; we show the interior and some of the images of planets that have been projected on the sky of the building:
We close with a photo of the panorama that can be seen from the Observatory and with another picture that portrays a small "obelisk" dedicated to a man that reminds us of our childhood, the first cosmonaut in the world, the Soviet Juri Gagarin:
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