Cerro Navia: inaugurate the first Municipal Astronomical Club in the country

The mayor of Cerro Navia, Mauro Tamayo, in the company of the Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, Flavio Salazar, and the astronomer representing the European Southern Observatory in Chile, Luis Chavarría, presented the Barrancas Astronomical Club, the first of its kind nationwide, which seeks to motivate children to explore curiosity and learn about the wonders of space.
The club will have the participation of 45 children who come from the communes of Cerro Navia, Pudahuel and Lo Prado, and with activities that will be dictated by important astronomers and astronomers from different universities and study centers.
“Knowledge is distributed in all the communes of the country, it is not exclusively in two or three, that is why the duty of all public authority, especially at the local level, is to stimulate that knowledge and that they do not fall by the wayside. That the children do not feel that they did not have a chance. Here they will have astronomers of the highest level doing classes, that is something that fills us with motivation because we are sure that the only way to get out of the caves is based on knowledge, “said Mayor Mauro Tamayo.
For three months, the members will learn about astronomy, meteorology, astrophotography, and worldview of indigenous peoples, among other subjects. All of the above, they will be able to study and also put into practice thanks to the fact that they will have at their disposal a robotic telescope, a camera for taking astronomical images and a meteorological station.
Minister Flavio Salazar, said that “I think the work they have done from the municipality, and with all the teachers and the enthusiasm of the children, mark a path that I think is super important to deepen and expand in other localities of the country. Bringing science, knowledge in an entertaining way and with a certain infrastructure and organization, is a way that I believe will have a long-term impact.”
For his part, the astronomer, Luis Chavarría, who will also participate in some of the activities of the Astronomical Club, said that “I am happy to see how this type of activities inspires, especially children, to be able to introduce themselves in some way to science. We want to contribute to bringing the science and the work we do since the confinement, to the general public and especially to the children who are listening everywhere. We see that there is a hunger to know science and we have to be willing, as an observatory, to be able to satisfy that hunger.”
The Barrancas Astronomical Club and all its activities were organized by the Department of Sciences of the Municipality of Cerro Navia in partnership with the Planetarium of the University of Santiago de Chile, the European Southern Observatory, the Chilean Astronomy Foundation and PAR Explora Sur Poniente.

Original source in Spanish