Newsletter to SPoCs: Resources, projects and events

20 October 2008

Dear Friends,

The IYA2009 newsletter for this week:

Organisational Matters

IYA2009 is still growing! We would like to welcome Albania and Afghanistan, our latest National Nodes who bring the total to an impressive 129.

Resources

Official IYA2009 On-line Forum

Cloudy Nights Forums are the official forums of the IYA2009. Keep in touch: http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?Cat=

IYA2009 Brochure available in Arabic

The IYA 2009 Brochure v.3 is now available in Arabic: http://www.astronomy2009.org/resources/brochures/detail/brochure03_ara/

Kindly translated by Abdelkader Oueslati (Abdelkader.Oueslati@cst.rnu.tn)

Media Partners

In order to promote our activities, the IYA2009 Secretariat is establishing a network of media partners that will write and report on IYA2009 activities around the world. Please check our current media partners: http://www.astronomy2009.org/organisation/structure/partners/media/

Projects/Activities

The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is a project that will publish one podcast per day, 5 to 10 minutes in duration, for all 365 days of 2009. The podcast will be made available through an RSS feed. The podcast episodes will be written, recorded and produced by people around the world. http://365daysofastronomy.org/

A message from Helen Sim (SPoC in Australia and Chair of I the YA2009 New Year's Eve Events):

Dear all,

In Australia, we intend to mark the beginning of IYA using a pulsar as a clock to count down to the moment of midnight on 31 December.

I'm writing to ask for expressions of interest in receiving a video feed of this event, as described below.

Sydney Observatory is an old historical observatory, now a museum of astronomy, situated on the edge of Sydney Harbour, Australia.

About 300 km inland is the Parkes radio telescope. We now have a regular program in which high-school students can control the telescope over the internet and take meaningful data.

On 9 December, we will start a symbolic countdown to midnight 31 December at Sydney Observatory, using a display of a specific pulsar's pulse train. (The pulsar has been chosen.)

On the 31 December, we will have students who have previously used the Parkes telescope control it from Sydney Observatory. They will observe the pulsar that has been "counting down" through December.

From Parkes we would send an audio and video feed of the astronomers in the control room and the pulsar's signal. This would go to Sydney Observatory, where it would be combined with a feed from Sydney Observatory.

At the moment of midnight, following the pulsar countdown, the time ball at Sydney Observatory will be dropped.

At the same time, the fireworks on Sydney Harbour will start.

We expect to be able to make the video signal of the countdown and the timeball dropping available at standard videoconferencing resolution, to up to ten other countries: to access it, you would dial into an mcu unit as if you were running a videoconference.

We would also be able to provide access for foreign media organisations at both Sydney Observatory and the Parkes Observatory.

If you are interested in either of those possibilities, could you let me know within days?

Because the videoconferencing is limited to ten countries, we'll be able to give access only to the first ten countries that reply.

Best wishes for your respective plans for IYA -

Helen

Public Relations and Media Liaison

CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility (email: Helen.Sim@csiro.au)

and

Anglo-Australian Observatory (email: hsim@aao.gov.au)

Tel: +61-2-9372-4251

Mob: +61-419-635-905

IYA2009 EVENTS

· IYA2009 Opening Event, 15-16 January 2008 - http://www.astronomy2009.fr/opening

· International Astronomical Union Symposium 260: "The Rôle of Astronomy in Society and Culture" UNESCO, Paris 19-23 January 2009 - http://iaus260.obspm.fr/index.php

This conference will bring together many individuals who strive to ensure that astronomy is present at all levels in education, society and culture worldwide.

Summary from the Education and Popularisation of Astronomy Session in 10th APRIM, the 10th Asian-Pacific Regional IAU Meeting, held from 3-6 August 2008Report by Avivah Yamani: http://www.astronomy2009.org/resources/documents/detail/documents_aprim2008/

As always, if you have any questions then please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,

Pedro and Mariana

IYA2009 Secretariat

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