The occultation of Arcturus in the Vatican

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica can simulate a stellar occultation of Arcturus, providing an accessible educational activity for students to learn about occultation astronomy.

Contribution

It introduces a simple, practical method to simulate stellar occultations using a church dome, making astronomy education more engaging and accessible.

Findings

Effective demonstration of occultation using a church dome

Educational activity suitable for students up to university level

Video resource available for instructional use

Abstract

The dome of Saint Peter's Basilica plays the role of the Moon during a stellar occultation and Arcturus is the target star. This occultation-like phenomenon is useful for introducing to occultation astronomy a class of student up to university level. It can be organized very easily at the convenience of the audience. Techical and didactical aspects are discussed; the video is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIfsj7t-u-c and has been realized with an ordinary camcorder.