Pennar: The Asiago Observatory.
by Kajron
1938-1942: the realization of the Galileo telescope.IN 1925 Giovanni Silva became the director of the Paduan Astronomical Observatory. At that time the situation of research in astronomy in Padua, as in other Italian centres, was quite slack. The interest of the astronomers was directed to the classical astronomical studies, as the determination of the stars and of the planets positions, rather than to the investigation of the physical behaviour of celestial objects. The lack of powerful telescopes slowed down the new approach, physical rather than dynamical, to the astronomical research. In constrast to the Italian situation, such a new field, astrophysics, was becoming the driving sector in other European countiries and also in the USA.Giovanni Silva realized that the construction of the big telescope could bring a fresh air in the astrophysical Italian studies and, since the beginning...