Gianluca Masi

Gianluca Masi (born 1972 ) is an Italian amateur astronomer and asteroid explorer.

He is since 1988 assistant at the Astronomical Observatory of Campo Catino. His current observations he makes on the Osservatorio Astronomico Bellatrix was founded in 1997 in Ceccano.

On 1 August 1997 Masi discovered a variable star near the dumbbell nebula (M 27).

Between 1998 and 2003 he discovered a total of 23 asteroids, some of them together with Franco Mallia and R. Michelsen.

In 2006, he launched the " Virtual Telescope project", the use of more than 120,000 people a year to consider the events and objects in the sky virtually. The system consists of several automated telescopes that are available in real time on the Internet.

In September 2007, he succeeded in the days between the 20th and 30 September 1888 determined by comparing the star constellations as the time the Vincent van Gogh had held in his painting Starry Night over the Rhone.

The asteroid ( 21795 ) Masi was named after him.