IAU Outreach Newsletter

August 2013

In this newsletter:

1. Vacancy announcement: IAU International Outreach Coordinator
2. Closing of the 2013 OAD Call for Proposals (31st August 2013)
3. Total solar eclipse in Gabon (3rd November 2013)
4. International Year of Light 2015
5. 4th International eclipse and occultation conference (Iran)
6. Name the Astronomers Without Borders telescope and win it!
7. SEAYAC 2013 Second Call (Bandung, Indonesia)
8. Cassini Scientist for a Day (25th October 2013)
9. Eyes on Ison (India)
10. Gathering the Gathering - Recording the Pulse of a Nation (Ireland)
11. Upcoming events

Please send us your input to info@astro4dev.org for the next newsletter which we will aim to send out on Friday 27th September 2013.

1) Vacancy announcement: IAU International Outreach Coordinator

The IAU International Outreach Coordinator (IOC) will coordinate worldwide efforts to promote public awareness, appreciation and education of astronomy and related sciences. The IOC fills a fulltime position. He/she runs the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach (OAO), which is hosted by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), Mitaka Campus, Tokyo, Japan. He/she will work closely with the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD), based in Cape Town (South Africa), with the newly created IAU Division on Education, Outreach, and Heritage (Division C) and maintain good contacts with the funding partners. For the full job description, follow this link: http://iau.org/static/secretariat/job-desc-iau-aoc-2013-07-31.pdf (PDF, 36 KB).

More information on how to apply: http://iau.org/static/secretariat/iau-ioc-ad-2013-07-31.pdf (PDF, 91 KB). See the IAU website at https://www.iau.org/science/news/176/

2) Closing of the 2013 IAU-OAD Call for Proposals (31st August 2013)

The IAU Office of Astronomy Development call for proposals for projects to be implemented in the 2014 calendar year is ending tomorrow (31 August 2013) with a strict deadline of 23:59 UTC. Remember to submit your proposals in time! Details can be found on the OAD website at http://www.astro4dev.org/aboutiauoad/cfp/ with three separate calls and application forms for each respective Task Force (TF1: Universities and Research; TF2: Children and Schools; and TF3 Public Outreach). Please contact the International Astronomical Union Office of Astronomy for Development at info@astro4dev.org if you have any queries.

3) Total solar eclipse in Gabon (3rd November 2013)

On 3rd November 2013, Gabon and other countries in Africa will experience a total solar eclipse. In partnership with local and international stakeholders such as the International Astronomical Union, Nommo Astronomia, the Society for Astronomy & Space Science is organising a regional workshop for astronomy and space science in Libreville (Gabon). The workshop will be held before the total solar eclipse. The driving purpose of the workshop is the development of a regional Astronomy & Space Science research, teaching and outreach hub in west central Africa with an initial focal point in Gabon. The workshop will consist of compact lecture series covering basics of Astronomy & Space Science to help participants teach and develop high school and/or undergraduate Astronomy & Space Science courses; to start/continue with further Astrophysics/Space Science studies themselves and/or to use these subjects in their professional duties. In parallel, various continent-wide initiatives are taking shape to consolidate the Pan-African intention to make the 2013 eclipse, a fun and unique intra-african as well as international collaboration in the ongoing (scientific) Renaissance of Africa.

Please register for the event here: http://eclipse2013.weebly.com/

4) International Year of Light 2015

As we look forward to the formal adoption of the International Year of Light (IYL 2015) Resolution by the UN General Assembly later this year, enthusiastic volunteers are already developing activities and ideas. One very nice initiative has been to make a World Map of IYL Supporters. Please join the momentum for the International Year of Light by adding your own name/location/institution to the map which you can access here: http://www.magic-of-light.org/iyl2015/map.php

Some people are using their personal names but you can also sign up a Department or enter support in some other way. We will incorporate this map within the official website when it opens in early 2014, but even now it is great to be able to start to see the genuinely international interest.

5) Call for papers of 4th International eclipse and occultation conference

The 4th international conference on eclipse and occultation will take place on 24th October 2013 in Tehran, Iran. The conference contains the topics such as TNOs, Occultations, Variable stars, Exoplanets, Robotic and virtual observations, Spectroscopy, Image processing, Astrobiology, etc. The deadline for the manuscript submission is 20th September 2013.

To register please follow this link: http://iota-me.com/index.php?do=form. The manuscripts must be uploaded either in English or Persian from the registration web page. The manuscripts would be accepted either as a presentation or a poster. All the accepted manuscripts (posters and presentations) will be published in the conference book.

6) Name the Astronomers Without Borders telescope and win it!

There is a new arrival at Astronomers Without Borders (AWB) and you can help give it a name! Sales of AWB first self-branded telescope will not only raise funds for global astronomy programs, it will be used in AWB's own international projects. Sourced for AWB by Celestron, the world's largest manufacturer of telescopes, the 5-inch table-top Dobsonian collapses to a small package for easy transport. It's ideal for beginning astronomers and a great "grab-and-go" scope for experts. This latest star in the AWB universe deserves a good name, and this is where you come in. Nominate a name for the new AWB telescope, and if your name is chosen you will win one for yourself! Submit name ideas at http://www.astronomerswithoutborders.org/name-the-awb-telescope-entry-form.html before 2 September 2013 to be eligible to win. The winning name will be announced mid-September. The AWB telescope, now available for pre-order (http://shop.astronomerswithoutborders.org/collections/astronomers-without-borders/products/astronomers-without-borders-telescope) for buyer's in the US only, is expected to beginning shipping in mid-August. The naming contest is open to everyone worldwide. Whether you win the telescope or buy one you're supporting Astronomers Without Borders' global astronomy programs, bringing us together through our universal interest in astronomy, and introducing science in developing countries. It's a win-win situation. One People, One Sky!

7) SEAYAC 2013 Second Call

The conference “South East Asian Young Astronomer 2013″ (SEAYAC2013) will take place in Bandung, Indonesia on 19 - 22 November 2013. SEAYAC 2013 aims to provide a venue for young astronomers for presenting their current researches and to interact with colleagues from other countries. SEAYAC 2013 aims to build & strengthen collaborations between different institutions and to break the cultural barriers between different countries. In SEAYAC, young astronomers are encouraged to share and learn the current research in Southeast-Asian astronomy and to identify future areas of development. This conference will be very important for SEAYAC member to empower the foundation of the organization for future development and collaboration with South East Asian Astronomy Network (SEAAN). The meeting will include major themes such as: Planetary System, Stellar Physics, Galaxy & Cosmology, Solar Physics, Instrumentation, Education & Public Outreach.

The deadline for abstracts is 31st August 2013 and the early registration will close on 15th October 2013 at: https://web.archive.org/web/20180831131049/http://seayac.org/blog/seayac2013/registration/. For more information, email conference@seayac.org or visitseayac.org http://seayac.org/. Follow the events on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/seayac/or twitter @seayac http://twitter.com/seayac

8) Cassini Scientist for a Day

From the The Cassini Outreach Team (scientistforaday@jpl.nasa.gov):

The latest edition of NASA's "Cassini Scientist for a Day" essay contest is now under way. The contest is open to students in grades 5 to 12 (approximately ages 10 to 18). The three targets for 2013 are 1) Saturn's moon Iapetus, 2) Saturn's moon Dione, and 3) The planet Saturn. Computer simulated pictures of these three targets are posted on our website: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/scientistforaday/. Students choose which of the three targets they think will yield the best science and write an essay explaining their choice. Complete contest rules are available on the website. The essay contest deadline will be Friday 25th October 2013. For a list of national coordinators in other countries who are making the contest possible outside of the United States, we will update this website with the 2013 list of contacts as more countries are added: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/education/scientistforaday12thedition/international/countries/

9) Eyes on ISON (20-22 August 2013, Centre for Contemporary Studies, IISc)

From the "On the Comet’s Trail! A National-level Training Workshop" Co-ordinator, H. S. Jayakumar: Comet ISON is a large “Sun-grazing” comet that will pass as close as a million kilometres from our Sun on 28 November 2013. This large comet is coming into our neighbourhood for the very first time and bears fingerprints of the history of the solar system. A consortium of astrophysicists, amateur astronomers, science activists and artist-designers have come together to catalyse a mass campaign on the comet’s trail. The campaign is generating free downloadable multilingual resource material and is also conducting countrywide training workshops, working towards incorporating "learning science by doing" into the school curriculum. We plan to conduct workshops in the regional languages in every state in India. These activities, spanning a period from October to February and beyond, are aimed at sharing the excitement of science with the public, having school children learn science by doing, and furthering public ownership of science.

You can follow the event on https://www.facebook.com/EyesOnISON.

10) Gathering the Gathering - Recording the Pulse of a Nation, Ireland

If you love Ireland, you have the chance to record a message and get it transmitted by radio waves to Epsilon Eridani by a powerful telescope at CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory.

For more information visit http://gatheringthegathering.com/

11) Upcoming events

a) International School for Young Astronomers
Date: 25 August – 14 September 2013
Location: Bandung West Java, Indonesia
More information: http://isya2013.dirgantara-lapan.or.id/

b) European Planetary Science Congress 2013
Date: 8 – 13 September 2013
Location: London, UK
More information: http://www.epsc2013.eu/

c) Swedish Day and Night of Astronomy (ADON, Astronomins Dag och Natt)
Date: Saturday 28 September 2013
Location: Sweden
More information: http://www.astronomiska.se/

d) World Space Week 2013
Date: 4 – 10 October 2013
Location: Worldwide
More information: http://www.worldspaceweek.org

e) Universe Awareness (UNAWE) International Workshop
Date: 7 – 11 October 2013
Location: Heidelberg, Germany
More information: www.unawe.org

f) Communicating Astronomy with the Public conference 2013
Date: 14 – 18 October 2013
Location: Warsaw, Poland
More information: http://www.communicatingastronomy.org/old/cap2013/

for more events, please visit the IAU Outreach Events Calendar at: http://iau.org/public/events/