As you may have read, the Covid-19 outbreak had a very big hit in Italy and severely impacted all kinds of activities. All Italian planetariums have been forced to close down since mid-February. As far as the current restrictions anticipate, activities won’t be resumed for another month, at least.

Many venues in Italy are facing severe economic challenges due to the connected lost revenue. While I totally endorse these restrictions to contain the virus and keep hospitals below saturation, planetariums are currently not included among those organizations that can benefit from recently approved emergency funds.

I and the other members of the board of the Italian Planetarium Association are connecting with the Italian authorities to help it become aware of the bad situation that is affecting our colleagues and associates. We are living an unexpected crisis and we will do whatever we can to highlight the role and value of planetariums.  

I am sharing this because I believe it's extremely important to share what Italy is going through and encourage the worldwide planetarium community to not underestimate how much the Covid-19 outbreak could impact on your own activities.

We – as planetarians – are familiar with the math behind the exponential function. We love to talk about the Power of Ten. Please do use your knowledge to help your local community become aware of this invisible threat.

The image above was created on March 10, 2020 by German astrophysicist Andreas Burkert who holds the chair for computational astrophysics at the university of Munich since 2003.