IAU Astronomy Outreach Newsletter

August 2014 #2

In this newsletter:

From the Editor
Zambia hosts Southern African Regional Office of Astronomy for Development
Call for support: Speaker request from 365 Days of Astronomy podcast
Event for students from ESO Member States: ESO Astronomy Camp
Upcoming meetings
Contributions to this newsletter

0) From the Editor

The IAU has just organised its 12th Asia–Pacific Regional Meeting successfully in South Korea, with lots of presentations and discussions among the astronomers, educators and communicators in the region. I am so glad to have been a participant at the meeting and to have heard many different and successful stories from my fellow participants, who came from many and varied backgrounds. I would like to share some of these very interesting stories with you in the coming issues of this newsletter. In the meantime, there is more exciting news from the IAU — the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development has recently opened its fourth regional office in Zambia. All these efforts will help to foster a better future for astronomy.

Clear Skies,
Sze-leung Cheung @ Incheon International Airport, South Korea
IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach

1) Zambia hosts Southern African Regional Office of Astronomy for Development

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has signed an agreement with the Copperbelt University (CBU) in Zambia to host a Southern African regional node of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD). This is the second regional node to be established on the African continent and forms part of the IAU’s decadal strategic plan, which aims to realise the global societal benefits of astronomy. The signing follows the approval of a proposal from the CBU which enjoyed the support of astronomy collaborators in Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and South Africa, including the South African Square Kilometre Array Project Office.

2) Call for support: Speaker request from 365 Days of Astronomy podcast

The 365 Days of Astronomy podcast is a project that has been publishing one astronomy-related podcast per day since 2009. They are looking for speakers to support their project — could anyone who is interested please contact the project manager Ms Avivah Yamani at avivahy@gmail.com

More info about the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast: http://cosmoquest.org/x/365daysofastronomy/

3) Event for students from ESO Member States: ESO Astronomy Camp

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) and its Science Outreach Network are collaborating with the science communication event organiser Sterrenlab to arrange the second ESO Astronomy Camp — Measuring the Universe. The camp will take place from 26 December 2014 to 1 January 2015 at the Astronomical Observatory of the Autonomous Region of the Aosta Valley, located in Saint-Barthelemy, Nus, Italy. Several partners, including ESO, are providing bursaries that will be awarded to the winning applicants. The camp is available for students aged between 16 and 18 from the ESO Member States and ESO Science Outreach Network countries.

More info: http://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann14042/

4) Upcoming meetings

The 3rd Middle East and Africa IAU Regional Meeting
Date: 1–6 September 2014
Location: Beirut, Lebanon
More Information: http://www.mearim3.org/
44th Young European Radio Astronomers Conference
Date: 8–12 September 2014
Location: Toruń Centre for Astronomy, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland
More Information: http://yerac2014.astro.uni.torun.pl/
Astronomy Education Alliance Meeting
Date: 8–12 September 2014
Location: Cascais, Portugal
More Information: http://handsonuniverse.org/astroeducation/

5) Contributions to this newsletter

We are looking for news for astronomical education and outreach events, so if you are organising any large-scale events at regional and international levels, have any special innovative projects to report on or inspiring stories to tell, or if you have created any educational resources, please send us an email at outreach@iau.org.