IAU Astronomy Outreach Newsletter

2015 #9 july #1

In this newsletter:

0. From the Editors
1. IAU OAD Annual Call for Proposals 2015
2. CAPjournal Issue 17 Now Available
3. CosmicLight IYL2015: Submit your Cosmic Light event photos
4. HighLIGHT of the Month: International Sun Day
5. CosmicLight around the world
6. Inclusive Astronomy Conference
7. The 2015 International Earth & Sky Photo Contest Winners
8. Asteroid Day
9. Upcoming meetings & global events around the globe
10. Contributions to this newsletter

 

0) From the Editors

In this newsletter, we would like to call your attention to the 2015 IAU Office for Astronomy for Development (OAD) annual call for proposals. This year, our sister office, OAD, has spent a lot of effort refining the calling process to help potential proposers to plan better projects. We are looking forward to seeing your ideas supporting IAU's “Astronomy for a better world”.

The Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal Issue 17 is out featuring, as usual, many interesting articles. Please enjoy reading!

Lots of great celebrations happened around the world over the past two weeks with Asteroid Day and International Sun Day. We hope you all had a lot of fun at both of these events!

Finally, we urge you not to miss out on the chance to celebrate Cosmic Light and International Year of Light. There are lots of events happening close to you.

We wish you a happy browse through the topics we have selected for this issue. And remember, this is a user-generated newsletter, so send us your cool projects in astronomy outreach and share your favourite astronomy activities with our team!

Clear Skies!
Lina Canas & Sze-leung Cheung
IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach

 

1) IAU OAD Annual Call for Proposals 2015

The IAU Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD) has issued its 4th annual call for proposals for astronomy-for-development projects. The IAU has earmarked €110 000 for OAD projects to be selected in 2015 and implemented in 2016. This is an open call for project proposals, with individual project grants ranging from about €500 to about €15 000. The OAD looks forward to engaging with potential proposers and helping develop and realise ideas relating to using astronomy to stimulate global sustainable development.

More details here: https://www.iau.org/news/announcements/detail/ann15020/

 

2) CAPjournal Issue 17 now available

The 17th issue of Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal is out now! In this issue you will find articles discussing the outreach around the Google Lunar XPRIZE race to the Moon; the issues involved in communicating astronomy directly to a mass audience through television; the role of space art in astronomy outreach; and how using simple optical instruments to reproduce historical astronomical observations can help amateur astronomers and the wider public engage with astronomy in a direct, collaborative way.

More information here: https://www.iau.org/news/announcements/detail/ann15018/

 

3) CosmicLight IYL2015: Submit your Cosmic Light event photos

As International Year of Light 2015 (IYL2015) is celebrated enthusiastically across the globe, many astronomy groups coordinating activities are continuously sharing their photos from CosmicLight events across different platforms. To provide one single shared place where everyone can find these amazing photos, we have created CosmicLight Flickr Album. Please go to CosmicLight IYL2015 Group and upload your photos, including a small description of your event.

Join our CosmicLight newly created Flickr account here: https://www.flickr.com/groups/cosmiclightiyl2015/

 

4) HighLIGHT of the Month: International Sun Day

The International Sun Day is a global celebration of the Sun. In 2015, this celebration took place on June 21, as reported to us by Clube de Astronomia Louis Cruls. In their city, Campos dos Goytacazes, in Brazil, this group managed to bring together a large group of people celebrating the Sun in their community. They used two solar telescopes and distributed free glasses for safely observing (donated by Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project, the founder of International Sun Day) reaching over 1,000 people. During the event, they also organized a Flash Mob to show everyone the importance of observing the sun safely through the use of these special glasses.

Learn more about International Sun Day here: http://www.solarastronomy.org/

 

5) CosmicLight around the world

On June 30, the city of Nus, Italy, joined the celebrations of “Asteroid Day”. The event included a lecture about the Tunguska impact; an exhibition of meteorites, including a section of a 150-year-old tree that survived the catastrophe of 1908; and the observation of the sky with seven 25-cm telescopes.

In Lisbon, Portugal on July 2 & 3, researchers, artists, entrepreneurs and other experts discussed the importance of light and its links with art, science, technology, communication, history and education, during the Conference “Light, from the Earth to the Stars”.

From July 2 to August 27, in Windisch, Switzerland, there will be a “Summer of Light” every Thursday. At the campus square, children and adults will be able to join this celebration by observing the Sun with their telescopes and trying different experiments involving sunlight.

Hiratsuka, Japan, on July 4, hosted another Astronomy Lecture, "Cosmic Light", where the audience could learn learn about the appearance of the universe as seen in multi-wave light.

On July 6, if you're in Volos, Greece, don’t miss “100 years of General Relativity: The Geometrization of Gravity”, a lecture by Dr. Theofanis Grammenos on the effect of General Relativity on the understanding of the physical world and the geometry of spacetime.

On July 8, in Perth, Australia, using stunning images, Dr. Tanya Hill will explore the remarkable science that astronomers have carried out. “The Light Fantastic” will uncover many things about the Universe just by looking at light.

Also in Perth, on July 14, you can take a thrilling journey into the shadowy world of the elusive neutrino. Astronomer and author Professor Ray Jayawardhana will recount a captivating detective story with a colorful cast of characters and awesome cosmic implications in “Neutrino Hunters: Chasing a Ghostly Particle to Unlock Cosmic Secrets”.

“Stellar: Bright ideas at Smales Farm” will be an after-dark experience for all the family, providing a chance for the community (whakawhanaungatanga) to learn more about the natural world underfoot and the star constellations above in celebration of Māori new year. Don’t miss it from July 9 - 12, in Auckland, New Zealand.

If you’re in Massa Marittima, Italy from July 13 to August 9 you can visit “Mapp(ear)ing the upper half of the landscape” at the Toscana Foto Festival. This photo exhibition by Federico Giussani will feature, on July 16, an evening with a talk, regarding the role of light in photography of nocturnal landscapes.

Light: Beyond the Bulb continues throughout July. This time, the exhibition will be on display in Christchurch, New Zealand; Gijón, Spain; Dolna Mitropolia, Bulgaria; Belgrade, Serbia; Brasilia, Brazil; Aldeia da Luz, Portugal; Vancouver, BC, Canada; Rennes, France; Asunción, Paraguay; West Hartford, CT and Anchorage, AK, both in the United States of America.

To find Light: Beyond the Bulb somewhere near you, please go to http://lightexhibit.org/iylexhibits.html.

And last, but not least, from July 7 to 16, don’t miss another Globe at Night program. An international citizen-science campaign for monitoring light pollution.

You can learn more here: http://www.globeatnight.org/

 

6) Inclusive Astronomy Conference

From June 17 to 19, the Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tennessee, hosted the Inclusive Astronomy meeting, where, for two days, more than 150 participants discussed issues affecting underrepresented minorities in the astronomy community. Plenary talks and breakout sessions focused on four topical areas: Creating an Inclusive Environment; Barriers to Access; Establishing a Community of Inclusive Practice; and Power, Policy, and Leadership. You may also want to read the report on the meeting via The Planetary Society here.

Learn more on the conference website: http://bit.ly/1Ag8CoP

 

7) The 2015 International Earth & Sky Photo Contest Winners

On June 16, The World at Night (TWAN) and Dark Skies Awareness project announced the winners of the 6th Earth & Sky Photo Contest. This edition featured images taken in 54 countries, and the submitted images were taken during 2014-2015, showing Earth and the sky, with a focus on the idea of preserving night skies as part of our natural heritage and supporting global efforts in controlling light pollution.

See the contest video winners and all the amazing photos here: http://twanight.org/newTWAN/news.asp?newsID=6101

 

8) Asteroid Day

Asteroid Day, celebrated on 30 June, on the anniversary of the Tunguska event, is a global campaign to learn about asteroids and raise awareness for protecting our planet from future asteroid impacts. Community initiatives are still happening worldwide and the events range from live concerts to lectures and other educational programmes to support a movement to increase detection and mapping of asteroids.

More details about the events celebrating Asteroid Day, please visit: http://www.asteroidday.org/asteroid-day-events/

 

9) Upcoming meetings & global events around the globe

a) Science in Public Annual Conference 2015
Location: Bristol, UK
More information: http://scienceinpublic.org/

b) StixCamp on Using Open Standards in Science, Education, Technology and Culture for Development
Date: 17–19 July 2015
Location: Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo, Portugal
More information: http://www.open.org.pt/

c) Global Hands-On Universe Conference 2015
Date: 4–5 August
Location: Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA
More information: http://handsonuniverse.org/ghou2015/

d) Galileo Teacher Trainings Programme (GTTP) International Teacher Training Workshop
Date: 8–9 August
Location: Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA
More Information: http://handsonuniverse.org/ghou2015/

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

Focus Meetings:

6–7 August: Communicating Astronomy with the Public in the Big Data Era
More information: http://astronomy2015.org/focus_meeting_19

11–13 August: Mitigating Threats of Light Pollution and Radio Frequency Interference
More information: http://astronomy2015.org/focus_meeting_21

11–13 August: Astronomical Heritage: progressing the UNESCO–IAU initiative
More information: http://astronomy2015.org/focus_meeting_2

13–14 August:: Astronomy for Development
More information: http://astronomy2015.org/focus_meeting_20

f) Hawai'ian, Oceanic and Global Cultural Astronomy: Tangible and Intangible Heritage
Date: 16–20 August 2015
Location: Hilo, Hawai'i, USA
More information: http://www2.astronomicalheritage.net/index.php/community/past-events/cultural-astronomy-meeting-big-island

g) Cartography Beyond the Ordinary World
Date: 21–22 August 2015
Location: Niteroi
More Information: http://niteroi2015.elte.hu/

h) International Observe the Moon Night
Date: 19 September 2015
Location: All around the World
More Information: http://observethemoonnight.org/

i) The 6th International Festival of Scientific Visualisation 2015
Date: 23–26 September 2015
Location: Koriyama-city, Japan
More Information: http://image.sci-fest.net/2015/en/index.html

j) International Symposium on the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) Museum
Date: 27–29 September 2015
Location: Tokyo, Japan
More information: http://prc.nao.ac.jp/museum/symp2015/

k) European Planetary Science Conference (EPSC)
Date: 27 September – 2 October 2015
Location:La Cité des Congrès, Nantes, France
More information: http://www.epsc2015.eu/

l) UNAWE International Workshop
Date: 5–9 October 2015
Location: Leiden, The Netherlands
More information: http://www.unawe.org

m) Earth Observation Science 2.0
Date: 12–14 October 2015
Location: ESRIN, Frascati, Italy
More information: http://eoscience20.org/

o) Conference on Light Science and Applications (ICLSA)
Date: 26–28 October 2015
Location: University of Namibia (UNAM), Windhoek main campus, Namibia
More information: http://www.unam.edu.na/light2015

p) International Conference on Communication and Light
Location: University of Minho, Braga, Portugal
Date: 2-4 November 2015
More Information: http://www.comlight2015.org/

q) .Astronomy 7
Date: 3–6 November 2015
Location: Sydney, Australia
More information: http://dotastronomy.com/blog/2015/05/join-us-for-astronomy-7-in-sydney/

r) 2nd Symposium of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR): Water and Life in the Universe
Date: 9–13 November 2015
Location: Foz do Iguaçu — Brazil
More Information: http://cosparbrazil2015.org/

s) 1st Symposium on Space Educational Activities
Date: 9–12 December 2015
Location: Padova, Italy
More Information: http://ssasymposium.org/

t) ESO Astronomy Camp
Date: 26 December 2015 to 1 January 2016
Location: Astronomical Observatory of the Autonomous Region of the Aosta Valley, Saint-Barthélemy, Nus, Italy
More information: http://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann15038/

u) Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2016 Conference
Date: 16–20 May 2016
Location: Medellín, Colombia
More information: https://www.facebook.com/CAPconference

v) International Planetarium Society Conference
Date:19– 25 June 2016
Location: Warsaw, Poland
More Information: http://www.ips2016.org/

x) IAU Symposia IAUS 326: Research in Astronomy Education: Far-reaching Impacts and Future Directions
Date: 4–7 October 2016
Location: Heidelberg, Germany
More Information: https://www.iau.org/science/meetings/future/symposia/1159/

 

10) Contributions to this newsletter

Here at the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach we are always looking for more news about astronomical education and outreach events around the world, so please share your story with us! If you are organising any large-scale events at a regional or international level, offering astronomy education or communication job positions, have any special innovative projects or inspiring stories, looking for professional–amateur collaboration in astronomy, or have created any educational resources, let us know by sending an email to outreach@iau.org.