1. UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani1 Venus Transit in Italy UAI – Unione Astrofili Italiani (Italian Astro Amateur Union) Contribution to VT2004 Amateur Meeting Brandys nad Labem may, 7-9 2004

2. UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani2 UAI – Unione Astrofili Italiani (Italian Astro Amateur Union) UAI members are about 2000 Over 200 local associations and 100 observatories are in activity in Italy

3. UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani3 COMMISSIONS UAI on-line www.uai.it UAI website in made up of several different sections, representative of amateur astronomers’ fields of activity RESEARCH GROUPS Didactic activities Popularization of Astronomy Public Relations-Press releases Light Pollution Observatories Network Asteroids Astroculture (History, Arts) Deep Sky Comets Moon Meteors Occultations Planets Sundials Sun Variable Stars

4. UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani4 All UAI members receive: “Astronomia” UAI – Magazine Astronomical Almanac

5. UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani5 VENUS TRANSIT "Venus eclipses the Sun" Public Observations in Italy UAI will organize public activities related to the observation of Venus transit through a network of observation sites all over Italy. Every year UAI is the promoter of several national events as reported on web pages: http://divulgazione.uai.it/

6. UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani6 The event will be named : "Venere eclissa il Sole" ("Venus eclipses the Sun") UAI will cooperate as well in activities concerning information through web pages and press releases. “Il Cielo in diretta" ("Sky-live") is aimed to permit the observation of the transit on the web, through webcams connected to telescopes. A special webpage dedicated to the event will be early on line: http://www.venere2004.it Some more informations are avaiable here : http://divulgazione.uai.it/venus/venus2004.htm this webpage is mainly dedicated to the collaboration with ESO and UAI partnership to “Venus Transit 2004” project.

7. UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani7 A special information service is “Astroiniziative” Please, visit our webpage: http://divulgazione.uai.it/ and clic on : “Astroiniziative” You will find a map of Italy. Clic a Region with your mouse. It will be possible to read the list of public observation in the choosen Region!

8. UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani8 UAI will cooperate as well with the italian node of Venus Transit 2004 project: INAF (Istituto Nazionale di AstroFisica – National Institute of AstroPhysics). INAF website dedicated to Venus Transit is: www.transitodivenere.it

9. UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani9 Conclusions: UAI wishes everybody the clearest sky on june, 8 And let’s hope the VT2004 meeting will be the first of many more collaborations among european amateur astronomers. A few years ago UAI started a collaboration with french organization “AFA” (Association Francaise d’Astronomie”. So the original “Nuits des Etoiles” (public observations of Perseid meteor shower) became an international event: in Italy, “Le Notti delle Stelle”.

10. UAI - Unione Astrofili Italiani10 In 2003 edition UAI proposed the following logo, aiming to an “European Night of the Stars”. Let’s hope all the participants to VT2004 meeting will join next “Night of the Stars” !