IYA2009 Updates

5 March 2010

IYA2009 Galilean Nights award winners announced!

The IYA2009 Cornerstone project Galilean Nights ran during October 2009 and saw thousands of individuals and organisations host a wide range of events to popularise astronomy and highlight the importance of Galileo's legacy. Now that event reports have been collated the Galilean Nights awards can be announced. There are six categories, each with a winner and two highly commended entries. http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/829/

Global Astronomy Month Update

Registrations for GAM are now open! Those who are planning to take part in Global Astronomy Month this April can now register their events at: http://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org/index.php/projects/global-astronomy-month/events.html

Once registered, make sure your event bears the GAM fingerprints. You can find several promotional products with the GAM logo at: http://www.cafepress.com/gamawb

Stay in touch with the latest from GAM Starting this week, GAM has a weekly newsletter with all the updates on projects and events. Subscribe to be in touch with the progress of one of the largest outreach programmes this year: http://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org/index.php/projects/global-astronomy-month/news/newsletter.html

At the same time, the newsletter is a tool for sharing ideas. If you have news about your GAM activities that you would like the world to know about, send them to info@gam-awb.org

Clockwork Skies digital planetarium show free to download and use

Participants of the Spring 2010 Blender Production Workshop were set a challenging task: develop their own skills by creating an immersive fulldome planetarium show under very strict time limits. The result is the entertaining yet informative show Clockwork Skies. http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/830/

She is an Astronomer conference

Celebrating success and seeking solutions

Date: 22 and 23 April 2010

Venue: Royal Astronomical Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, UK

To celebrate the ending of the IYA2009 Cornerstone Project "She is an Astronomer", a conference is being held in London. The conference will be opened by Prof Jocelyn Bell Burnell. http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/828/

Careers in Astronomy

The IAU has published a new theme about Careers in Astronomy: http://www.iau.org/public/careers/

Bareket Observatory brings cutting-edge science education within reach

Bareket Observatory (Israel) introduces teachers and students from around the country to other colleagues from all over the globe and provides them with the scaffolding to perform research projects in their classroom. Students are participating at the projects by using the observatory's on-line activities and completing observations on its state of the art remote internet telescope, analysing the data and interpreting their results. http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/826/

Galileo Teacher Training Program: deadline extended

The Galileo Teacher Training Program has decided to extend the deadline of the call for proposals to 25 March 2010. More information: http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/768/

First Light: Photography & Astronomy exhibition

First Light: Photography & Astronomy will be held at the Huis Marseille Museum for Photography in Amsterdam between 6 March and 30 May 2010. It will comprise a first-time combination of unique historical astronomy photographs, from Dutch collections, and present-day images made by famous telescopes and space probes such as ESO, Hubble and Cassini. http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/824/

Space Education and Outreach Symposium call for abstracts

Space Education and Outreach Symposium at this year’s International Astronautical Congress is taking place in Prague at the end of September. This symposium deals with activities, methods and techniques for formal and informal space education at different educational levels, space outreach to the general public, space workforce development, etc. Each of the sessions in the symposium features an invited key note speaker followed by presentation of selected papers. Symposium sessions may also include panel discussions. http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/823/

March issue of Practical Astronomy magazine is available to download for free

Practical Astronomy is a new magazine, distributed for free by means of digital download from the internet. The magazine is published by Structure Ltd (a UK registered company) in PDF format, making it readable and printable by most computers in the World. http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/820/

Help to collect stories about the stars

The project "The Sky of our grandparents" involves the general public, in particular ancient people and rural and isolated populations, in collecting traditional stories in order to discover old myths and ancient knowledge of astronomy before they become lost. http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/821/

Hubble resources ready to use

The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies has compiled a list of Hubble Space Telescope related resources to aid in the popularisation of astronomy and space education. The highlights of these resources have been listed on a single webpage. Examples include exploring the history of the telescope from Galileo to today, spacewalks, servicing missions, and IMAX ® Hubble 3D. To see the list, and for additional information, please visit: http://topstars.strategies.org/resources.html

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