Beyond IYA2009 Updates

29 October 2010

SPICA telescopes empower astronomy education
Recently, ORBYS Inc donated a Spica Telescope Kit to each recipient of the Galileo Teachers Training Session seed grants. This is in addition to the 3 000 telescopes that had already been given to developing countries in the You are Galileo! project.These kits represent an important additional support to the educational activities in developing countries: http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/1078/

John Dobson Inaugurates Living Legend Series
John Dobson, popularizer of the widely-used Dobsonian telescope design that now bears his name, will be interviewed in the first episode of a new series of webcasts, Astronomers Without Borders' Living Legend Series on Saturday, November 13. More information: http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/1079/

Astronomers Without Borders Newsletter October 2010: http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/1081/

Highlights of Astronomy 15 from the 2009 International Astronomical Union General Assembly are now online,Including reports from the session: SpS2-The International Year of Astronomy 2009: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?decade=2000&jid=IAU&volumeId=5&issueId=H15&iid=7915056

IYA2009 Call for Additional Reports
A few weeks ago we released the 1400-page final report for the International Year of Astronomy 2009. This report is a compilation of the achievements of the 216 IYA2009 stakeholders — 148 countries, 40 international organisations and 28 global projects. It shows the excitement, engagement and community involvement engendered by IYA2009. The report is intended to stand as a record of the legacy of this astonishing international celebration of astronomy. Although comprehensive, the report cannot acknowledge every single event, project or activity during IYA2009. To mitigate this, the IYA2009 secretariat calls on individuals, organisations, universities, amateur associations, etc. to submit any additional IYA2009 relevant reports, brochures and books to be archived on the main IYA2009 website for posterity: http://www.astronomy2009.org/reports/ Such reports can be submitted until end of November 2010 in any language and in rich text, word or PDF format to iya2009@eso.org with the country name in the subject line.

Latest Communicating Astronomy with the Public journal Highlights Cultural Astronomy
This special issue of Communicating Astronomy with the Public journal (CAPjournal) looks at IYA2009 events that focused on cultural astronomy and discusses how including a historical or cultural aspect can help communicators to engage with a wider audience. Read more: http://www.capjournal.org/issues/09/index.php