With the project Night Under the Stars in Dubrovnik, the Ruđer Bošković Institute launches the celebration of the year of the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Josip Ruđer Bošković
On January 12 and 13, 2011, the RBI, in cooperation with the Ruđer Bošković Diocesan Classics Secondary School of Dubrovnik, the city of Dubrovnik and the Hrvatskim astrofizičkim društvom, will organize a two-day popular-scientific project entitled Night Under the Stars in Dubrovnik.
On January 12, 2011, at 7 p.m., a popular scientific program will begin with an astronomical observation of the sky that will afford the people of Dubrovnik an opportunity to observe the night sky through telescopes set up on Brsalje Street in the western part of town and the Trg od Oružja (Weapons Square) in the Old Town. A full day of activities on January 13 will begin at 11 a.m. with telescopic observation of the sun on Stradun. At 6 p.m. in the Pope John Paul II Auditorium (premises of the former monastery) in the Old Town, Danko Bosanac, Ph.D., a scientific advisor at the RBI, will conduct a popular scientific presentation open to the public entitled Imagination and Science in the Universe. With this lecture, he will attempt to explain the connection between imagination and myths about the universe and actual scientific knowledge. Since the entire event is in honor of Ruđer Bošković, who was an ardent observer of the stars, particular attention will devoted to the work of this scientist and the connection between space motion and Bošković's atomic theory.
Night Under the Stars in Dubrovnik is the first in a series of activities in commemoration of the three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Ruđer Bošković, which the RBI is organizing in cooperation with the city of Dubrovnik, the Ruđer Bošković Diocesan Classics Secondary School of Dubrovnik and the Order of the Society of Jesus. The central event in the Institute's commemoration of this jubilee is the scientific symposium From Ruđer Bošković to Today: Contribution by Croatian Scientists to the World Scientific Heritage to be held in Dubrovnik, at which approximately thirty members of the world scientific elite and Nobel laureates will deliver scientific lectures in honor of Ruđer Bošković from May 24 to 29, 2011.