SOS Esteve Duran Observatory

Esteve Duran Observatory Foundation is an astronomical research center... ...that houses one of the largest telescopes in Catalonia.. It has succeeded in research at top international level... ...with scarce resources thanks to the enthusiasm of people involved,... ...we have beeing doing scientific contributions for more than 20 years: ...we have explored, from the atmospheres of the Solar System giant planets... ...to the existence of exoplanets in distant stars. Many of these findings have been released through high impact international journals... ...such as Nature, Nature Geoscience, etc. An example of the good work done in the observatory is the study of Saturn's 2010 Great Storm. Thanks to the information supplied by missions like Cassini... ...or the Hubble Space Telescope,... ...we used and developed computer models that explained the storm behaviour. The results had an international impact,... ...they were presented at specialized conferences,... ...and published in prestigious magazines such as Nature Geoscience. There are other examples of good work, for instance in the field of exoplanets, with relevant findings,... ...or about Jupiter storms, a work which was the cover of the prestigious journal Nature. However, this echonomical crisis has affected our Institution,... ...and our research work may come to and end in the next months... ...if we do not get 80.000 euros to survive for another year... ...which would allow us to search for long term funding. We believe that the end of a center which such a background after the good research job done for so many years... ...is a loss that should not be allowed,... ...and we believe too that such an initiative example sprung from society should not go away. So, we ask you to help us to preserve the activity of the Observatory for another year. Help us to continue exploring other planets. Thank you.