IYA2009 Updates

Newsletter to the SPoCs

19 June 2008

Dear SPoCs,

The IYA2009 trailer is now available in 41 different versions with several formats for each.  You can download it on our website here:

http://www.astronomy2009.org/resources/multimedia/videos/

Please use it to promote the IYA2009 and your national activities and programmes. The several formats made available will allow you to use it on websites, TV, Science Centres, Planetariums, cinemas, theatres, the web as well as  in other places you will surely think about.

We have also prepared a version with no text. Those of you haven't been able to request a translated version in time for it to me produced by the IYA2009 Secretariat, may now use this version and add subtitles if you so wish.

Kind regards,

Pedro, Mariana and Lars
IYA2009 Secretariat

Joint Statement on IYA2009

19 June 2008

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. Read more here

Palindrome Movie

19 June 2008

Bonnevue Pictures is producing Palindrome, which will be the official motion picture event for New Zealand´s contribution to the International Year of Astronomy 2009. For a short description and information on the film makers visit bonnevuepictures.com/movies.html

The train "Astronomiejahr2009"

12 June 2008

In honour of IYA2009, the Austrian Federal Railways renamed a fast train "Astronomiejahr2009". This train connects the Austrian towns of Bregenz in the west and Graz in the south-east. Leaflets available at seats in most fast trains now inform passengers not only about the train schedule but also the organization the train is named after. In this particular case, the leaflets discuss astronomy in Austria and direct readers to the national node webpage www.astronomie2009.at . The leaflets seem to have inspired more than 1,000 passengers to visit the webpage. Two Austrian astronomers, Dr. R. Seeberger and Dr. R. Weinberger, encouraged the Austrian Federal Railways to sponsor the naming.

The trailer for "400 Years of the Telescope" Documentary

11 June 2008

The trailer for IYA2009 Special Project "400 Years of the Telescope" Documentary is now online and available for your viewing. Check it on the Official Website: http://www.400years.org/.

Newsletter to the SPoCs

9 June 2008

Dear SpoCs,

A few updates from the past weeks:

1. Organisational Matters:
New Single Points of Contact: The IYA2009 keeps growing: we would like to welcome our new National SPoCs from to East Timor, Slovenia and Macau and also our new Organisational Node, the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC). We now have 118 National Nodes and 21 Organisational Nodes.

2. Resources
IYA2009 Trailer
We have now collected all the translations and corrections to the trailer scripts and are finalizing the production of 45 different languages versions of the IYA2009 trailer. They will be available for download on our website as soon as humanly possible on account of the huge amount of work this task involves. Thank you all for your collaboration and we are sure you will all put this resource to good use. Unfortunately, we will not be able to accept any more translations or correction from this date and hope you understand.

3. Communication with the IYA2009 Secretariat
As the IYA2009 network grows, it becomes more difficult for us to keep track of all the people involved in the several projects. Therefore, we ask you if you could please create a “signature” at the bottom of your email messages to the Secretariat where you state your name, country and contacts details. This would make our work a lot easier and faster and we thank you in advance for it. It can be something like:

Name
(Country) SPoC
Institution
Phone number
Email

4. A message from the Opening Ceremony Special Task Group
"One month ago an email was sent, concerning the Opening Ceremony at the Unesco HQ on 15-16 January 2009. We gave you the deadline of 31 May to tell us how many people from your National node are interested in attending and whether you had the intention to select 1 or 2 students to come to Paris. Please answer as soon as possible, since the process will take time, and we need to have a first approximation of the number of participants to foresee.

With kind regards,

The IYA2009 Opening Event Organisers ( astro.2009@obspm.fr )"

5. Upcoming IYA2009 meetings:

Upcoming IYA2009 meetings:
- 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

New Publication: Sharing Astronomy With the World

2 June 2008

feature article in Spring 2008 issue of Mercury magazine describes ambitious aims of Astronomers Without Borders and TWAN project. read more

Galileoscope prototype presented

30 May 2008

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. More information check the IYA2009 Galileoscope Cornerstone Project.

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

Global Sponsors

IYA2009 Patron