Our summer has been very active as many of our programmes are in the swing of things. We’ve already had a few meetings through the Meet the IAU Astronomers! programme and more are being planned. We also have the Online Astronomy@Home Awards entering its final stretch. These awards were created by the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach in order to recognise the work done by astronomy outreach practitioners responding lockdowns necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the first part of the application is due at the end of the month.
But our office isn’t the only astronomy outreach groups that have been busy. In this issue we highlight the Space in Your Living Room initiative, congratulate our colleagues from the European ROAD for receiving a major grant and link to an opportunity for amateur astronomers to support ESA and JAXA with observations.
Wishing you clear skies and good health! Lina Canas & Izumi Hansen, on behalf of the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach (OAO) Team
1) Registration for XXXI IAU General Assembly Opens in January
Online registration, abstract submission and grant application submission will open on 1 January 2021 for the XXXI IAU General Assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea. The IAU General Assembly is a unique opportunity for astronomers worldwide working in all fields of astronomy to come together.
Our NOCs cultivate public interest of astronomy through a number of different means. For example, a number of our NOCs and their organisations hold weekly online talks with astronomers from around the world. Check out the following links for more information:
3) NOC Nepal Collaboration with the Beijing Planetarium
The Astronomical Society of Nepal, which our NOC Nepal is a part of, is working with the Beijing Planetarium in China to show the photo exhibition “Sky Across the Himalayas”. Part of the exhibition can be viewed online.
The European Regional Office of Astronomy for Development (E-ROAD) of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development (IAU OAD) was awarded an EU ERASMUS+ International Credit and Mobility grant. This will support students and lecturers associated with the IAU OAD regional offices in Armenia, Colombia, Ethiopia and Nigeria to visit Leiden University in the Netherlands, host of the E-ROAD. Congratulations to our colleagues on recieving this fantastic award!
Space in Your Living Room! is an online summer programme to bring astronomy into the homes of young people, families and educator organised by spaceEU. The multi-lingual programming takes place between 6 July and 30 August 2020.
The 2020 Global Hands-on Universe (GHOU) Conference will take place online between 22-28 August 2020. Registration is open until 10 August and abstracts are being accepted until 31 July 2020.
8) Astronomers Ask for Observations of Venus from Amateur Astronomers
Amateur astronomers are invited to observe Venus between July and October 2020 and submit their observations to support the ESA-JAXA BepiColombo flybys of the planet in August and October. The submitted observations will provide contextual data for observations collected by BepiColombo.
10) IAU Astronomy Outreach Newsletter in Other Languages
Interested in translating our newsletter into your language? Please let us know via outreach@iau.org.
Our newsletter is being translated into the following languages:
Translations into Japanese are available, carried out by Akihiko Tomita through the Astronomy Translation Network: http://bit.ly/2xlNyCR. If you want to receive the Japanese newsletter translation, please subscribe through the Japanese Amateur Astronomers Association (http://www.jaaa-astro.jp/jaaa-ml.html) or the Japanese Society for Education and Popularization of Astronomy (http://www.tenkyo.net/).
Translations into (European) Portuguese are available, carried out by Catarina Leote, João Ferreira & Jonas Souza through the Astronomy Translation Network (ATN) Portuguese Language Group (the previous issue can be found here).
Translations into Russian are available by Artem Mokhnaktin, Central Astronomical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Pulkovo. You can find the latest translations of the newsletter here.
11) Contributions to the IAU Outreach Newsletter—looking forward to hearing from you in 2020
Here at the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach, we’re always looking for news about astronomical education and outreach events around the world. Please continue to share your stories with us in 2020! If you are organising large-scale events at a regional or international level, offering astronomy education or communication job positions, have any 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.
You can send us your suggestions until the 4th (for issue #1) and the 17th (for issue #2) day of each month. We are looking forward to hearing from you.
