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Guido Horn d’Arturo and the Technological Roots of Modern Astrophysics
Tue, July 14, 11:00am to 12:30pm, Edinburgh International Conference Centre, Floor: Level 1, Ochil Suite 3English Abstract
Guido Horn d’Arturo (1879-1967) served as Director of the Astronomical Observatory of Bologna from the 1920s to the 1950s. A central figure in Italian astronomy, he combined scientific innovation with a strong commitment to public outreach—founding Coelum, the first Italian journal for astronomical dissemination—and to the preservation of Bologna’s astronomical heritage through the modernization of the Observatory’s instruments and library.
Horn d’Arturo is best remembered for constructing the first segmented-mirror reflecting telescope in history. This pioneering fixed-zenith instrument, still preserved at the Specola Museum of Astronomy in Bologna (University Museum Network, SMA), anticipated the multi-mirror techniques employed in major contemporary astrophysical projects such as the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO), attesting to the enduring significance of his work within both the scientific and cultural contexts of our time. Yet recognition of his contribution has remained largely local. The existing secondary literature—almost entirely in Italian—rarely addresses the broader dimensions of his life and work, leaving the narrative of this forerunner of modern astrophysical technology fragmented and incomplete.
This paper seeks to shift perspectives on Horn d’Arturo by examining both the continuity between his invention and contemporary astrophysics, and the reasons for his limited international recognition—considering how his ideas were received by his contemporaries and in subsequent international contexts. Drawing on largely unpublished primary sources from the Guido Horn d’Arturo Collection—part of the Historical Archive of Astronomy (AABo), currently housed at the Department of Physics and Astronomy “Augusto Righi” (DIFA), University of Bologna—the study re-evaluates this legacy and restores Horn d’Arturo’s rightful place within the broader history of astrophysics.