Organized by the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and Tribuna Fórum with financial support from the DISA Foundation, on Wednesday 20th April at 19.00h there was a new scientific outreach encounter at the Teatro Leal, in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, aimed at the general public. The date coincided with the nineth anniversary of the Starlight Declaration of La Palma in Defence of the Night Sky and the Right to Observe the Stars, which promotes, every year, the “World Night in defence of Starlight”.

The event, with the title “A SURPRISING UNIVERSE  with the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias” had no entry charge, and consisted of a series of brief presentations by researchers at the IAC, following the pattern of previous events of this kind at the Teatro Leal. The scientists presented their areas of research, as representative of the different fields of work at the IAC, and described present and future instrumentation at the Canary Island Observatories.

After a general introduction on the part of the IAC by astrophysicist Mª Antonia Varela, there followed talks by the astrophysicists Héctor Socas, about the Sun; Montserrat Armas, in the area of Stars and the Interstellar Medium; Cristina Ramos, about the Formation and Evolution of Galaxies; José Alberto Rubiño, who talked about recent progress in Cosmology, and Enric Pallé, about recent advances in the study of Exoplanets. All the talks were moderated by the astrophysicist and outreach specialist Alfred Rosenberg, also a member of the IAC.

There was also a special session during the morning for students of the Baccalaureate, already arranged previously.