The Sardinia Radio Telescope in the cover-page of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine

With a big ceremony, the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) was inaugurated on September 30, 2013. The official inauguration was held in the presence of the Parliament Secretary of the Minister of Education, University and Research, Marco Rossi Doria, and of the highest local and national authorities. International representatives of the radio-astronomical community joined the event: the Director of JIVE, Hub Van Langevelde, and the EVN Chair and Radionet coordinator, Anton Zensus. The ceremony was also open to normal citizens: approximately 2000 people from the neighboring municipalities attended the inauguration. The opening welcome was given by the Director of the Sardinia Radio Telescope project, Nichi D’Amico, and by the President of the Italian Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), Giovanni Bignami, who also read a message from the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano. After the discourses of the invited speakers, the ribbon cutting formally inaugurated the radio telescope. In the afternoon, hundreds of people visited the equipment rooms of the antenna, guided by the antenna team.

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6735457

Ribbon cutting ceremony of SRT. The ribbon was cut jointly by the Parliament Secretary of the Minister of Education, University and Research, Marco Rossi Doria, the President of the Sardinia Regional Government, Ugo Cappellacci, and the Mayor of the Municipality of San Basilio, Maria Rita Rosas.