IAU Astronomy Outreach Newsletter

#15 2014 (December 2014 #1)

In this newsletter:

From the Editor
CosmicLight IYL2015: The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast Celebrates the International Year of Light 2015
CosmicLight IYL2015: Story of Light Festival — Shedding Light on the Abstract
astroEDU Honoured with Science Education Award
astroEDU One-year Update
ASP Invites Nominations for the Klumpke-Roberts Award for Astronomy Outreach
Resources: Summary of Resources for the Great American Eclipse of the Sun in 2017
CAPJournal Issue 16 Now Available
Upcoming meetings
Contributions to this newsletter

0) From the Editor

Quite a number of important space-related events have taken place over the last few days. NASA’s Orion spacecraft completed its test flight successfully, and also the New Horizon spacecraft has woken up and is heading to Pluto. They all show a promising future for mankind’s exploration of the unknown. In this issue of the Astronomy Outreach Newsletter we cover the latest news from the International Year of Light, the IAU astroEDU project, and some other resources. Enjoy reading!

Clear Skies,
Sze-leung Cheung
IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach

1) CosmicLight IYL2015: The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast Celebrates the International Year of Light 2015

The year 2015 is an important one for astronomy. The United Nations has declared it the International Year of Light, and the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast will record its seventh year of daily content — content that focuses on light! This podcast is produced as part of the CosmoQuest virtual research facility through a collaboration with NUCLIO, a non-profit organisation coordinating the Galileo Teacher Training Program.

Launched in 2009 as part of the International Year of Astronomy, 365 Days of Astronomy features content from the community, and has been downloaded roughly eight million times. It has included roughly 1000 voices from six continents and countless countries. Initially launched as an audio only-programme, 365 Days of Astronomy added video content in 2013. Now, in 2015, 365 Days of Astronomy will join the celebration of the International Year of Light and highlight content from the Cosmic Light Awareness Cornerstone, the IAU Cornerstone project for the 2015 International Year of Light.

More information:
http://cosmoquest.org/x/365daysofastronomy/2014/12/02/the-365-days-of-astronomy-podcast-celebrates-the-international-year-of-light-2015/

2) CosmicLight IYL2015: Story of Light Festival — Shedding Light on the Abstract

The Story of Light Festival is a unique initiative for the International Year of Light 2015 to be held in Goa, India, from 14 to 18 January 2015. Its aim is to make concepts of modern physics and the Universe accessible to the general public by enabling collaborations between artists and scientists. The festival brings artists, scientists, educators and philosophers together to create public discussions, workshops and talks. The festival committee has curated 45 informative and imaginative projects touching on various topics: light pollution, vitiligo, probability, wave and particle properties of light, cyanotyping, moon bounce, shadow science, and a lot more! Their artistic form ranges from large public installations to hands-on workshops.

They have launched a crowdfunding campaign to support production costs, logistics, security and supporting the basic needs of the dozens of volunteers who have stepped up to help with all of this. Read more at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-story-of-light--2.

Read more about the project at http://thestoryoflight.org/

3) astroEDU Honoured with Science Education Award

IAU astroEDU, a platform for peer-reviewed, open-access astronomy education activities, has been recognised for its educational value by Scientix — the European Network of Science Education. At the Scientix Conference, which brought together more than 600 educators, astroEDU was awarded the first Scientix Award for Best Resources in Science, Technology, Mathematics and Engineering. The award highlights the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics resource Star in a Box, an activity that explores the life-cycles of stars, and which was developed by the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT) for high-school students.

4) astroEDU One-year Update

The IAU’s astroEDU platform was launched a year ago to address some of the key problems in the field of astronomy education, such as standards of quality, visibility and accessibility, while providing credibility. This was achieved through a peer-review process, a dedicated editorial board, community feedback, and with the official endorsement of the International Astronomical Union.

Within a year, astroEDU was able to improve the quality of astronomy education activities, winning the prestigious Scientix Award. The platform has expanded into organising workshops for astronomy educators to help them design activities focused on objectives and evaluation, and incorporating scientific practices and enquiry-based teaching.

5) ASP Invites Nominations for the Klumpke-Roberts Award for Astronomy Outreach

The Klumpke-Roberts Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific is awarded annually to an individual or individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy. Nominees can include a broad range of individuals involved in science, education, writing/publishing, broadcasting, astronomy popularisation, the arts, or other pursuits that advance public understanding and appreciation of astronomy. The 2015 Klumpke-Roberts Award is now accepting nominations.

Please see: https://astrosociety.org/who-we-are/awards/klumpke-roberts-award.html for more information.

6) Resources: Summary of Resources for the Great American Eclipse of the Sun in 2017

A total solar eclipse will take place on 21 August 2017 across North America. The Astronomical Society of the Pacific has prepared a new guide to educational resources about eclipses in general and they are available at: http://www.astrosociety.org/eclipse2017.

7) CAPJournal Issue 16 Now Available

The 16th issue of Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal is out now! In this issue you will find articles discussing the value of science communication training for scientists, the best practices when looking for crowdfunding, the process of capturing the night sky in Ultra HD and the logic, or lack thereof, behind stripping astronomy engagement of its maths. Plus, a column article describes the process behind writing a book that explains the physics of the Universe using only the most common thousand words in the English language.

8) Upcoming meetings

a) The 225th American Astronomical Society Conference
Date: 4–8 January 2015
Location: Seattle, Washington, USA
More information: http://aas.org/meetings/aas225

b) Globe at Night — Sky Brightness Monitoring Network User Workshop
Date: 7–8 January 2015
Location: Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan
More information: http://globeatnight-network.org/

c) East Asian Young Astronomers Meeting 2015
Date: 9–12 February 2015
Location: Taipei, Taiwan
More information: http://www.eacoa.net/event/20150209/

d) 2nd International Conference on Light Pollution Theory, Modelling and Measurements (LPTMM)
Date: 26–29 May 2015
Location: Sherbrooke, Quebéc, Canada
More information: http://lptmm.org

e) 3rd International conference on Artificial Light at Night (ALAN 2015)
Date: 30 May – 1 June 2015
Location: Sherbrooke, Quebéc, Canada
More information: http://www.artificiallightatnight.org/

f) The 29th IAU General Assembly
Date: 3–14 August 2015
Location: Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA
More information: http://astronomy2015.org/

9) Contributions to this newsletter

We are looking for news about astronomical education and outreach events; if you are organising any large-scale events at regional and international levels, offering positions for astronomy education or communications, have any special innovative projects or inspiring stories, looking for professional–amateur collaboration in astronomy, or created any educational resources, please send us an email at outreach@iau.org.