IYA2009 Updates
New IYA2009 Special Project
15 July 2008
New IYA2009 Special Project: The mutual phenomena of the Galilean satellites of Jupiter. Read more on on this link
IAU/INAF Meeting
11 July 2008
The Joint Symposium IAU - INAF, entitled "Astronomy and its instruments before and after Galileo", will be held during 28 September - 3 October 2009 in San Servolo Isle in Venice, Italy. Read more about it on this link
ICSU endorses IYA2009
11 July 2008
The Executive Board of ICSU at its last meeting agreed to endorse IYA2009. Read more about ICSU on this link
US House of Representatives supports IYA2009
11 July 2008
US House of Representatives resolution supports IYA2009. Read more here
Watch the video here
Newsletter to the SPoCs
10 July 2008
Dear SpoCs,
The IYA2009 newsletter for this week:
Organisational Matters:
Presently we have 118 National Nodes and 23 Organisational Node. New organizational nodes: World Space Week and the European Network of Science Centres and Museums
We are proud to announce that Armagh Planetarium is our latest IYA2009 Organisational Associate. Please visit Armagh Planetarium website: http://www.armaghplanet.com
Resources:
Statement on the occasion of the International Year of Astronomy 2009
The Director-General of UNESCO and the President of the IAU are pleased to announce the decision to declare 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy, and the designation by the UN of UNESCO as the lead agency, in collaboration with IAU, in the implementation of scientific, educational and cultural activities during the Year.
Astronomical Pictures at an Exhibition
José Francisco Salgado's now world-famous multimedia concepts is a hot topic for IYA2009. He has agreed to a special offer to all the SPoCs with is new Astronomical Pictures at an Exhibition. It is is a suite of high-definition videos that takes viewers through a virtual gallery featuring awe-inspiring visualizations of the cosmos. Read more about it on http://www.astronomy2009.org/resources/performances/detail/performances_adler/
Cornerstones and Special projects:
Universe Awareness
A message from Carolina Ödman, the Universe Awareness Cornerstone project chair:
"Dear all,
In order to facilitate the establishment of new Universe Awareness projects and initatives, we have put together a toolkit with some resources and guidelines for you to use. In this toolkit you will find an organisational framework to set up a project, a nationwide programme, a website and report on your activities. It also includes a template website that you can adapt at your will.
Universe Awareness is an organisation made up of the sum of its parts. We are a diverse international community encompassing different learning environments, approaches, structures and people. We therefore welcome the participation of all who subscribe to the goal of bringing the beauty of the universe to young children worldwide to make a difference.
The UNAWE International Office is here to support your efforts. We invite you to join the international UNAWE community with your UNAWE project and share materials, knowledge and experiences with our growing network. If you have any questions, you are welcome to contact me directly at carolina.odman@unawe.org .
The toolkit is available here: http://www.unawe.org/join
Warm regards,
Carolina"
100 Hours of Astronomy
Some news about 100 Hours of Astronomy:
The 100 Hours Of Astronomy will take place from 2-5 April 2009. The Moon is at first quarter on 2 April so it is at a good phase for early evening observing over this period. Saturn will be the other highlight of observing events in the early evening.
This event consists of five main parts:
1. An opening event featuring the telescope Galileo used to make his groundbreaking observations.
2. Events at science centres, including planetariums and science museums, at which enhanced outreach programmes will be expedited through participation of amateur astronomy groups holding public observing sessions and other activities related to the science centres' regular programmes and missions.
3. School programmes, in which groups of astronomy enthusiasts such as astronomy clubs conduct educational sessions that include observing and other educational opportunities.
4. Live observatory webcasts, observing events and other activities connecting large observatories around the world.
5. Sidewalk astronomy, in which telescopes are made available to the public within population centres in order to maximise the number of people who observe through them.
Each part will be scheduled so as to maximise its impact, while supporting the others with activities and publicity.
Please feel free to contact the Task Group if you have any question regarding the 100 Hours of Astronomy Cornerstone Project: http://www.100hoursofastronomy.org
IYA2009 Special projects
The guidelines for the selection of Special Projects are available here: http://www.astronomy2009.org/organisation/structure/taskgroups/ The category of IYA2009 Special Projects is intended to give large global projects (which satisfy the vision of IYA2009) greater international recognition and an opportunity to link with celebrations worldwide. We welcome application from any global projects which fits the criteria defined the IYA2009 Executive Committee Working Group.
Meetings:
Report from ASP/AAS St. Louis Meeting by Douglas Isbell (US SPoC)
From the perspective of the US IYA 2009 program committee and its 10 volunteer-led working groups, the AAS/ASP symposium in St. Louis was a major success.
Attendance at the weekend workshops (~175 people) and the subsequent three days session of panels, posters and presentations (~200) was strong, and we've received numerous messages of appreciation and intent to use the workshop materials and activities in 2009. Many positive comments were heard on the opening plenary talk by IAU President Catherine Cesarsky (and we thank her for traveling such a long distance to present it). The public lecture by Dava Sobel was very engaging, especially the extensive question-and-answer session after her talk on Galileo and "How the Telescope Changed Everything."
Perhaps the biggest hit of the IYA portion of the meeting was the first prototype of the Galileoscope. This prototype was realized thanks to extensive design and development work led by Stephen Pompea of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (also the US project director for IYA 2009), and some extraordinary extra effort by Doug Arion of Carthage College, who obtained support from his administration to produce a rapid-prototype plastic model. From the outreach professionals at the ASP meeting to the astronomers on the AAS side, everyone seemed excited by the potential of the Galileoscope and the plans for related optics education curriculum materials. We also took away a growing list of people interested in receiving future e-mail updates on it.
The best factual evidence for the success of the meeting was a very instructive informal, low-cost summative evaluation done by Mary Dussault of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics during the closing plenary of the IYA symposium. Using simple paper note cards, Mary surveyed the 74 plenary participants using dashed lines to represent a seven point scale. When asked how much they knew about IYA materials a week earlier, the participants responded with an average score of 3.5. When asked how much they knew after the meeting, the average score was 6.0. When asked how likely they were to use some of the IYA materials from the meeting, the score was around 6.5. The average number of IYA-related sessions they attended was 5.5. All of these numbers are very encouraging and demonstrate both the interest in IYA, as well as the amazing organizational effort put forth by the ASP and Andy Fraknoi of Foothill Community College to harness and develop the volunteer enthusiasm in IYA.
Finally, I am pleased to announce that the US IYA program committee will launch a new this newsletter as an official publication of the US IYA 2009 effort, and we intend to provide the regular updates and content tips that you need to plan first-class IYA 2009 events in your community. More information: http://www.400years.org/newsletter.html. As always, also keep an eye on the US website at www.astronomy2009.us. Once again, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Upcoming IYA2009 meetings:
- Global Hands-on Universe Conference (Lisbon, Portugal), 20 - 23 July 2008 - http://ghou2008.globalhou.net/
- APRIM2008 (Kunming, China), 3 - 6 August 2008 - http://aprim.ynao.ac.cn/
- JENAM2008 (Wien, Austria) - 8-12 September 2008 - http://www.univie.ac.at/jenam2008/ or http://www.roe.ac.uk/ukatc/test/symposium.html
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards,
Pedro, Lars and Mariana
IYA2009 Secretariat
Astronomical Pictures at an Exhibition
4 July 2008
Astronomical Pictures at an Exhibition is a suite of high-definition videos that takes viewers through a virtual gallery featuring awe-inspiring visualizations of the cosmos. Read more about it on this link
Newsletter to SPoCs
4 July 2008
Dear SpoCs,
The IYA2009 newsletter for this week:
Organisational Matters:
Presently we have 118 National Nodes and 23 Organisational Node. New organizational nodes: World Space Week and the European Network of Science Centres and Museums
We are proud to announce that Armagh Planetarium is our latest IYA2009 Organisational Associate. Please visit Armagh Planetarium website: http://www.armaghplanet.com
Resources:
Statement on the occasion of the International Year of Astronomy 2009
The Director-General of UNESCO and the President of the IAU are pleased to announce the decision to declare 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy, and the designation by the UN of UNESCO as the lead agency, in collaboration with IAU, in the implementation of scientific, educational and cultural activities during the Year.
Astronomical Pictures at an Exhibition
José Francisco Salgado’s now world-famous multimedia concepts is a hot topic for IYA2009. He has agreed to a special offer to all the SPoCs with is new Astronomical Pictures at an Exhibition. It is is a suite of high-definition videos that takes viewers through a virtual gallery featuring awe-inspiring visualizations of the cosmos. Read more about it on http://www.astronomy2009.org/resources/performances/detail/performances_adler/
Cornerstones and Special projects:
Universe Awareness
A message from Carolina Ödman, the Universe Awareness Cornerstone project chair:
“Dear all,
In order to facilitate the establishment of new Universe Awareness projects and initatives, we have put together a toolkit with some resources and guidelines for you to use. In this toolkit you will find an organisational framework to set up a project, a nationwide programme, a website and report on your activities. It also includes a template website that you can adapt at your will.
Universe Awareness is an organisation made up of the sum of its parts. We are a diverse international community encompassing different learning environments, approaches, structures and people. We therefore welcome the participation of all who subscribe to the goal of bringing the beauty of the universe to young children worldwide to make a difference.
The UNAWE International Office is here to support your efforts. We invite you to join the international UNAWE community with your UNAWE project and share materials, knowledge and experiences with our growing network. If you have any questions, you are welcome to contact me directly at carolina.odman@unawe.org .
The toolkit is available here: http://www.unawe.org/join
Warm regards,
Carolina”
100 Hours of Astronomy
Some news about 100 Hours of Astronomy:
The 100 Hours Of Astronomy will take place from 2-5 April 2009. The Moon is at first quarter on 2 April so it is at a good phase for early evening observing over this period. Saturn will be the other highlight of observing events in the early evening.
This event consists of five main parts:
1. An opening event featuring the telescope Galileo used to make his groundbreaking observations.
2. Events at science centres, including planetariums and science museums, at which enhanced outreach programmes will be expedited through participation of amateur astronomy groups holding public observing sessions and other activities related to the science centres’ regular programmes and missions.
3. School programmes, in which groups of astronomy enthusiasts such as astronomy clubs conduct educational sessions that include observing and other educational opportunities.
4. Live observatory webcasts, observing events and other activities connecting large observatories around the world.
5. Sidewalk astronomy, in which telescopes are made available to the public within population centres in order to maximise the number of people who observe through them.
Each part will be scheduled so as to maximise its impact, while supporting the others with activities and publicity.
Please feel free to contact the Task Group if you have any question regarding the 100 Hours of Astronomy Cornerstone Project: http://www.astronomy2009.org/cornerstone-projects-mainmenu-80/100-hours-of-astronomy-mainmenu-82.html
IYA2009 Special projects
The guidelines for the selection of Special Projects are available here: http://www.astronomy2009.org/special-iya2009-projects.html The category of IYA2009 Special Projects is intended to give large global projects (which satisfy the vision of IYA2009) greater international recognition and an opportunity to link with celebrations worldwide. We welcome application from any global projects which fits the criteria defined the IYA2009 Executive Committee Working Group.
Meetings:
Report from ASP/AAS St. Louis Meeting by Douglas Isbell (US SPoC)
From the perspective of the US IYA 2009 program committee and its 10 volunteer-led working groups, the AAS/ASP symposium in St. Louis was a major success.
Attendance at the weekend workshops (~175 people) and the subsequent three days session of panels, posters and presentations (~200) was strong, and we’ve received numerous messages of appreciation and intent to use the workshop materials and activities in 2009. Many positive comments were heard on the opening plenary talk by IAU President Catherine Cesarsky (and we thank her for traveling such a long distance to present it). The public lecture by Dava Sobel was very engaging, especially the extensive question-and-answer session after her talk on Galileo and “How the Telescope Changed Everything.”
Perhaps the biggest hit of the IYA portion of the meeting was the first prototype of the Galileoscope. This prototype was realized thanks to extensive design and development work led by Stephen Pompea of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (also the US project director for IYA 2009), and some extraordinary extra effort by Doug Arion of Carthage College, who obtained support from his administration to produce a rapid-prototype plastic model. From the outreach professionals at the ASP meeting to the astronomers on the AAS side, everyone seemed excited by the potential of the Galileoscope and the plans for related optics education curriculum materials. We also took away a growing list of people interested in receiving future e-mail updates on it.
The best factual evidence for the success of the meeting was a very instructive informal, low-cost summative evaluation done by Mary Dussault of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics during the closing plenary of the IYA symposium. Using simple paper note cards, Mary surveyed the 74 plenary participants using dashed lines to represent a seven point scale. When asked how much they knew about IYA materials a week earlier, the participants responded with an average score of 3.5. When asked how much they knew after the meeting, the average score was 6.0. When asked how likely they were to use some of the IYA materials from the meeting, the score was around 6.5. The average number of IYA-related sessions they attended was 5.5. All of these numbers are very encouraging and demonstrate both the interest in IYA, as well as the amazing organizational effort put forth by the ASP and Andy Fraknoi of Foothill Community College to harness and develop the volunteer enthusiasm in IYA.
Finally, I am pleased to announce that the US IYA program committee will launch a new this newsletter as an official publication of the US IYA 2009 effort, and we intend to provide the regular updates and content tips that you need to plan first-class IYA 2009 events in your community. More information: http://www.400years.org/newsletter.html. As always, also keep an eye on the US website at www.astronomy2009.us. Once again, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Upcoming IYA2009 meetings:
- Global Hands-on Universe Conference (Lisbon, Portugal), 20 – 23 July 2008 - http://ghou2008.globalhou.net/
- APRIM2008 (Kunming, China), 3 - 6 August 2008 - http://aprim.ynao.ac.cn/
-JENAM2008 (Wien, Austria) - 8-12 September 2008 - http://www.univie.ac.at/jenam2008/ or http://www.roe.ac.uk/ukatc/test/symposium.html
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards,
Pedro, Lars and Mariana
IYA2009 Secretariat
Guidelines for Special Projects
3 July 2008
The guidelines for IYA2009 Special Projects was released. Read more about it on on the Special Projects page.
Newsletter to the SPoCs
27 June 2008
Dear SPoCs,
We have a very short newsletter this week:
Organisational Matters:
We would like to welcome our new IYA2009 Organisational Associates, Armagh Planetarium, and our new IYA2009 Organisational Node, ECSITE-European Network of Science Centres and Museums.
We are proud to announce that Celestron is our newest IYA2009 Global Sponsor. Celestron recognised the tremendous potential of IYA2009 and we extremely delighted with this new partnership.
Guidelines and Resources:
As the IYA2009 draws closer and the preparation of activities and the search for support becomes more urgent, the IYA2009 Secretariat had prepared a resource which will hopefully help you promote and get support for your IYA2009 national activities. The IYA2009 Communication Guidelines for SPoCs is available on the Resources webpage: http://www.astronomy2009.org/static/resources/iya2009_comm_guidelines_spocs.pdf and attached to this email.
The IYA2009 Trailer is now available in Fulldome format (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulldome). This is a very useful resource for planetariums and we recommend you to contact your national planetariums to show the IYA2009 trailer.
Please note that the trailer without text is also available for download. Those of you haven't been able to request a translated version in time for it to be produced by the IYA2009 Secretariat, may now use this version and add text if you so wish.
Opening Event:
We would like to remind you about the IYA2009 Opening Ceremony. As you know, it will be held in Paris, at the UNESCO Headquarters, on 15 and 16 January 2009. The ceremony will have the presence of several invited personalities on astronomy and the topics of their talks will range from history to the state of astrophysics nowadays, from the exciting discoveries to the prospective for the future. The programme will also include discussion in round tables and remote observations.
Participation in the IYA2009 Opening Ceremony will be by invitation only. In order to properly prepare this ceremony, the Opening Ceremony Task Group needs to know in advance how many people (typically from 1 to 3) from your IYA2009 National Node would who like to attend.
The Task Group would also like to stress the importance to have as many young people as possible. For this, they ask your help in selecting one or two students from your country (18-21 yrs old), who are highly engaged in astronomy and who should be selected on their merits.
Please note that neither accommodation, nor travel expenses will be covered for the SPoCs. However, the Task Group will offer 4 days stay for the students in youth hotels, extending over the weekend if they wish to tour in Paris or meet together. The travel expenses would have to be covered by the IYA2009 National Node of each country.
We ask you again to tell us as soon as possible (no later than 4 July) whether you intend to participate in the ceremony, how many people from your node would come, and if you agree to do the selection of young people and can support their travel.
The selection process should start as soon as possible, and be finished by the 1 October 2008. More information on the IYA2009 Opening Event Website: http://ama09.obspm.fr/ama09/open.php
If you have any questions, please contact the IYA2009 Opening Ceremony Task Group at astro.2009@obspm.fr
Once again, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards,
Pedro, Lars and Mariana
IYA2009 Secretariat
Newsletter to SPoCs
20 June 2008
Dear SpoCs,
A few updates from the past weeks:
1. Organisational Matters:
New Single Points of Contact: We would like to welcome our new Organisational Node, the World Space Week Association.
2. Resources
"Products"
On the IYA2009 Official Site you may find a catalogue with some “products” related with IYA2009. The first product that we have to offer to our IYA2009 network is: "Astronomical Pictures at an Exhibition" is a suite of High Definition videos that takes viewers through a virtual gallery featuring awe-inspiring, artlike images and science visualizations of the cosmos as well as astronomy-inspired artwork. The "Astronomical Pictures at an Exhibition" is directed by Dr. José Francisco Salgado, an astronomer and science visualizer at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, USA.
More information on: http://www.astronomy2009.org/resources/
Resources Guides
Andrew Fraknoi(Foothill College & the Astronomical Society of the Pacific) put together a set of amazing Resources Guides for IYA2009! We are very grateful to him for this amazing work!
- Galileo: The Man and His Science (A Resource Guide to Materials in English)
- Kepler: His Life and Work (A Resource Guide to Materials in English for Beginners)
- Multicultural Astronomy (The Astronomy of Non-western Cultures: A Resource Guide)
- Music Inspired by Astronomy (A Selected Listing for the International Year of Astronomy 2009)
- Resources for Doing Evaluation Research (In Informal Astronomy Education and Outreach)
These Guides are availabe here: http://www.astronomy2009.org/resources/guides/
Joint Statement on the occasion of the International Year of Astronomy 2009:
The Joint Statement on the occasion of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 by the Director-General of UNESCO and the President of the IAU is available here: http://www.astronomy2009.org/resources/documents/detail/documents_jointstatement/
This is a extremely important document for your contacts with your national stakeholders.
3. IYA2009 Special Projects
“400 Years of the Telescope; A Journey of Science, Technology and Thought”
We are proud to announce that “400 Years of the Telescope; A Journey of Science, Technology and Thought” project has been selected as IYA2009 Special Project. The IYA2009 Secretariat would like to express support to Interstellar Studios for the collaboration, effort and dedication to the IYA2009 initiative at all levels. “400 Years of the Telescope; A Journey of Science, Technology and Thought” is a key project in the IYA2009 initiative and of crucial importance to the IYA2009 success. More information:www.400years.org
Galileoscope
A Galileoscope prototype was unveiled during the ASP/AAS Meeting in St. Louis. The IYA2009 Galileoscope is now almost ready to start the manufacturing. The kit consists of only 15 individuals parts, is extremely easy to assemble and the optical quality is very good. It is now available for pre-orders. For more information checks the IYA2009 Galileoscope Cornerstone Project page: http://www.astronomy2009.org/globalprojects/cornerstones/galileoscope/
FETTU Liverpool Prototype
The first FETTU Exhibit is taking viewers deep into the Universe at the Albert Dock in Liverpool, UK. The comments received so far are very positive. A sneak preview of the exhibition is available on the FETTU official website: http://www.fromearthtotheuniverse.org/liverpool.php
4. Upcoming IYA2009 meetings:
· JENAM2008 (Wien, Austria) - 8-12 September 2008 - http://www.univie.ac.at/jenam2008/ or http://www.roe.ac.uk/ukatc/test/symposium.html
An invitation from Dr. Thomas Posch (Austrian SPoC and member of the JENAM2008 LOC):
“Dear SPoCs,
Last year's meeting in Athens (CAP 2007) was a great occasion to exchange ideas on the IYA2009. Talking to each other personally repeatedly proves to be a much better means to organize common projects such as the IYA2009 than just exchanging mails. Hence, I'd like to remind you that the symposium no. 2 within JENAM 2008, taking place in Vienna from 11th to 12th of September, is occasion that you should not miss. Also, the boat trip on the Danube, scheduled for the evening of Sept. 10th, will be a good occasion to talk to each other in a relaxed atmosphere.
To register, please visit the symposium webpage: https://www.cosmic-matter.org/indico/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=6
For any questions, don't hesitate to contact me: posch@astro.univie.ac.at
Kind regards,
Thomas Posch”
Upcoming IYA2009 meetings:
· Global Hands-on Universe Conference (Lisbon, Portugal), 20 – 23 July 2008 - http://ghou2008.globalhou.net/
· APRIM2008 (Kunming, China), 3 - 6 August 2008 - http://aprim.ynao.ac.cn/
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Kind regards,
Pedro, Lars and Mariana
IYA2009 Secretariat
Search IYA2009 Updates
National Nodes: 148
Organisational Nodes: 40
Organisational Associates:33
National Websites: 111
Cornerstone Projects: 12
Special Task Groups: 11
Special Projects:16
Official Products:8
Media Partners:22
IYA2009 Patron
