IAU Astronomy Outreach Newsletter

2015 #15 (October 2015 #2)

In this newsletter:

0. From the Editors
1. Last chance to vote in the NameExoWorlds contest
2. Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal — Issue 18
3. IAU National Outreach Contact Corner: News from Ghana
4. HighLIGHT of the Month: Supporting schools through Telescopes4Teachers
5. CosmicLight around the world
6. GalileoMobile releases its third documentary Ano-Luz (Light-year)
7. FREE online astronomy workshop for teachers (in French)
8. PhysicsHack Crowdfunding Hackathon
9. Upcoming meetings & global events around the world
10. Contributions to this newsletter

0) From the Editor

Time for the final countdown for NameExoWorlds! Over the last three months, 370 000 people around the world have taken part in this contest. This project has been an incredible experience for our team, and in particular, that we have been able to share and join in with the global excitement that NameExoWorlds has generated this year!

In this issue, news from our National Outreach Contacts continues to arrive, this time from Jane and Jacob Ashong from Ghana. Our friends at GalileoMobile have released their third documentary, so don’t miss the chance to check it out. Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal (CAPj) issue 18 is already out, and we wish you happy reading!

Finally, we would like to send a huge thank you to all of you who have sent us news of your exciting events. There are so many great things happening in astronomy outreach around the world. We hope to be able to highlight even more of the activities that you have shared with us.

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

1) Last chance to vote in the NameExoWorlds contest

The NameExoWorlds Contest is reaching its final stage after a process in which 240 astronomy clubs and institutions proposed names for the listed exoworlds, and 370 000 public votes were registered for their favourites. On 31 October the voting period will end, the votes will be counted, and the winners announced. The clubs and non-profit organisations that successfully propose a winning ExoWorld name will receive a plaque and will be eligible to name a minor planet (subject to the usual rules for minor planet naming).

If you still haven’t voted, you can still do so here: http://nameexoworlds.iau.org/.

2) Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal — Issue 18

In this issue, you will find articles discussing key findings in astronomy communication, including research into astronomers’ views on outreach. Learn more about the highly successful Galileoscope project and Global Astronomy Month, and discover new ways in which to share and improve access to the huge files that astronomy communicators are creating.

Find all of this, and more here: https://www.iau.org/news/announcements/detail/ann15033/

3) IAU National Outreach Contact Corner: News from Ghana

The Ghanaian Committee for the International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies (IYL 2015) organised the African regional launch and celebration of IYL2015 with a conference and exhibition at the Accra International Conference Centre, from 14–16 September 2015.

Take a look at the photos that the Ghana Planetarium has shared with the community: http://on.fb.me/1LN2YTk

(By Jacob and Jane Ashong)

4) HighLIGHT of the Month: Supporting schools through Telescopes4Teachers

Believing that every teacher and student should have access to a telescope and the celestial wonders it reveals, Galileoscope LLC has teamed up with Astrosphere New Media Association, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to improving science literacy and education, and has created the Telescopes4Teachers programme, through which supporters in the US can make tax-deductible donations of Galileoscopes to their favourite teachers and schools.

You can also support and learn more about the project here: http://galileoscope.org/support-schools/.

5) CosmicLight around the world

On 10 October, Kiti, Larnaca, in Cyprus hosted the World Space Week 2015 Discovery Closing Ceremony after a week full of great events arranged by the Kition Planetarium and Observatory team.

On 12 October, Trieste, Italy hosted the Rosetta: Light on our Origins seminar, given by leading scientists of the ESA Rosetta mission. The seminar summarised the most recent results obtained from the close-up observations of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

From 12 to 14 October, in San Pedro in the Atacama Desert, Chile hosted L-RO — Night Zero 2015 — Dark Sky for the City Lights (Noche Zero), an interdisciplinary inspirational event in the Atacama Desert. Noche Zero included an international conference, two workshops led by astronomers and lighting designers aimed at children and a seminar with local speakers.

From 12 to 16 October, the Hellenic Illumination Committee hosted the 2nd International Lighting Design Workshop in Ioulis, on the island of Kea, Greece, under the motto Rethink the Night!, aimed at the development and promotion of night-friendly lighting techniques for areas of extraordinary night sky quality such as those found on Kea.

On 22 and 23 October, Lund, Sweden hosted Light in the service of mankind — from the cosmic to the nanoscale, a symposium organised to celebrate the 275th anniversary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (RSAS).

From 23 October to 31 March, Bondeno (FE), Italy will host the Festival della Luce. The Festival of Light of Bondeno will highlight the scientific contributions of Francesco Maria Grimaldi and Giovanni Battista Riccioli to the knowledge of light in physics and astronomy.

On 24 October, Nicosia, Cyprus is hosting a Personal Development Workshop for the whole family entitled Our Sun. First the participants can enjoy a lecture entitled “The Sun — our Star (RUS)” followed by telescope observations of the Sun (EN – GR – RU).

On 25 October, Canosa di Puglia, Italy launches the challenge: Shall we go and see the stars? In collaboration with the Mariano Palace, the participants will be able to enjoy the sky above the city with a telescope provided by astronomers from Bari Planetarium.

On 26 October, Helwan, Cairo, Egypt will hold the event Light and its connotations in the cosmos, which will explain about light and its role in the decoding of the cosmos.

From 3 October to 1 November, Nusrat Jahan College in Rabwah, Pakistan, is holding a series of public lectures, in which some of the top Pakistani physicists will deliver lectures on several science topics entitled The Firefly and the Universe.

Light: Beyond the Bulb continues to dazzle audiences with astronomy throughout the upcoming weeks and across different countries. The exhibition will visit Foleshill, Coventry, United Kingdom; Oviedo, Spain; Baku, Azerbaijan; O’Fallon, Missouri, United States; Qormi, Malta; Brookville, NY, United States; Brasilia, Brazil, and Providence, RI, United States until 5 November.

Find Light: Beyond the Bulb at a place near you at http://lightexhibit.org/iylexhibits.html.

And these are only the events dedicated to astronomy; there are many more exciting light-related events happening around the world: http://www.light2015.org/Home/Event-Programme.html.

6) GalileoMobile releases its third documentary Ano-Luz (Light-year)

The documentary Ano-Luz depicts GalileoMobile's expedition to northern Bolivia and Brazil where they travelled about 3200 kilometres during the five weeks of the trip. carrying out astronomy activities in eleven cities in the Pando department (Bolivia) and the states of Acre and Rondonia (Brazil). This was an adventure that preceded the celebration of the International Year of Light. The documentary has subtitles in five languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Greek. If the documentary does not have subtitles in your language, please help us to produce subtitles in as many languages as possible! If you are interested in helping, please get in contact with the team at contact@galileo-mobile.org.

You can watch Ano-Luz on Vimeo and YouTube.

7) FREE online astronomy workshop for teachers (in French)

Discover the Universe, a Canadian training programme, is offering a free online astronomy workshop for francophone teachers worldwide thanks to funding from the IAU’s Office for Astronomy Development. The workshop, based on the already popular workshops that have been offered in Canada since 2011, will last three weeks and will cover many topics in a general introduction to space and astronomy: the night sky, constellations, motions of the Earth, phases of the Moon and more.

For more information and to register, visit: www.decouvertedelunivers.ca, the French website, or www.discovertheuniverse.ca for the information in English.

8) PhysicsHack Crowdfunding Hackathon

Fiat Physica is a crowdsourcing platform to benefit physics, astronomy and space exploration, and it will be hosting a hackathon in partnership with the General Assembly in New York City on 24 October to assist scientists who are interested in raising funds for their research projects via the platform. The event will invite scientists, tech experts and communicators to help researchers form a successful campaign for research. The event is free and accessible to all.

The event website can be found here: http://www.physicshack2015.com. Learn more: https://generalassemb.ly/education/physicshack-crowdfunding-hackathon/new-york-city/17518

9) Upcoming meetings & global events around the world

a) 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

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

c) .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/

d) 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/

e) ESA/GTTP teacher training 2015
Date: 23 and 27 November, 2015
Location: European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands
More Information: http://bit.ly/1PP7VZp

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

g) 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/

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

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

j) 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.