IYA2009 News Round-up

31 July 2009

With the rest of the world attending the International Astronomical Union's General Assembly in Brazil, one plucky staff writer keeps things ticking over, wielding the news round-up like a mighty sabre. What has it been cutting swathes through this week?

Taiwan News has been promoting an astrophotography exhibition at the National Museum of Natural Science. Over 90 works from professional and amateur astrophotographers across Taiwan are on display, conveying "the impressive beauty of atmospheric phenomena and human's concern about the universe." The article doesn't say how much tickets cost. Atmospheric phenomena seem more impressive when they're free to view.

Congratulations, Steamboat Pilot & Today! Your article has made it into the news round-up! It's a good ‘un about the IYA2009 project to observe mysterious star Epsilon Aurigae. Details about the star and why it's so special are given, along with a serving of history and science for good measure. Delicious.

And now, a musical interlude. Of sorts. Times Colonist reports that a classical concert in Canada is bringing out a selection of tunes from Holst's The Planets to act as a crowd-pleaser and to honour IYA2009. The article also provides us with rhetorical question of the week: "Who wants to sit outside on a warm summer evening and sob?"

For space-related snippets, every week German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt) is asking one of its experts to answer an astronomy question, to support IYA2009. This week you can learn about colliding galaxies.

Now it's time to sheath the sabre once more, until it is called upon to bring news to the masses again. Which will be next week.

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