#2 December 2019 | IAU100 Special: A Year in Review
From the Editors
Dear friends and colleagues,
It’s the last issue of the IAU Astronomy Outreach Newsletter of 2019! Of the 2010s! And our team cannot believe what a fantastic journey we’ve been on.
The IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach (OAO) began at the outset of the decade on the tails of the fantastic International Year of Astronomy in 2009. Now, ten years later, we’re finishing up with another global year of celebration—that of the IAU’s centennial.
Internally, I stepped into the role of International Outreach Coordinator while Izumi Hansen entered my former position as Assistant Outreach Coordinator. We’d like to thank Sze-Leung Cheung, former International Outreach Coordinator, and Yukiko Shibata, former International Outreach Officer, for their hard work and dedication to the office during the last five years. This year we also welcomed to our team, our colleagues Dr Wanda Diaz Merced, Mizuho Matsumoto, Pisit Nitiyanant and two graphic design interns, Karin Shimodate and Milano Aoki, to them we send warm thank-yous and appreciation.
During 2019 we have also had the privilege to collaborate with the IAU100 Secretariat, based in Leiden (The Netherlands) for the IAU 100 years celebrations. We’d like to thank the hard-working and talented group of Jorge Rivero González, Bethany Downer, Eduardo Penteado, Hannah Harris, Aneta Margraf-Druc, Iris Nijman and many others, for their great work over the past year.
To our other colleagues at the IAU Secretariat in Paris, France; the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development in Cape Town, South Africa and back here at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) in Mitaka, Japan, our warm thanks for the friendship and support throughout the past decade. And, of course, a warm welcome to our new colleagues from Heidelberg, Germany, as we look forward to collaborating with them and the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education.
Last, but not least, a deep thank you our National Outreach Coordinators (NOCs), who played a key role in promoting IAU100 celebrations around the globe and who dedicated their time and passion to make IAU100 an exceptional time of celebration. And we cannot forget the many astronomy professionals who are part of the IAU, as well the many organisers and volunteers from the global community, who are willing to share their expertise to support outreach efforts for our field. We look forward to the work we, as collaborators, colleagues, and teammates will do in the next decade.
Wishing you the clearest skies for 2020 and all the very best!
Lina Canas, on behalf of the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach Team.
IAU100: A Year in Review
As we reach the end of 2019, it is time to review some of the IAU100 highlights carried out around the world.
We started the year with the 100 Hours of Astronomy on 10-13 January. During 100 straight hours people around the world joined the IAU celebrations by organising activities related to astronomy. From star parties to lectures, this initiative served to reactivate the community and let people find out about the IAU100 activities. Most people that participated in our first action of the year, keep participating in many more throughout the year.
In February we focused our efforts on the kick-off of the IAU100 Women and Girls in Astronomy events. Within this framework, so far over 300 events in 70 countries have been organised discussing gender equity, the role of women in science, the importance of role models and encouraging the participation of girls in STEM careers. Many inspiring events worldwide, including the winner of the IAU100 Women & Girls in Astronomy Contest, the Molo Mhlaba project carried out in South Africa.
During this month, the Inspiring Stars exhibition was also organised in three different venues in Europe, including the active participation in the Zero Conference at the United Nations in Vienna. Overall, the IAU100 Inspiring Stars was present in 9 countries: Austria, Chile, Ethiopia, Belgium, Italy, France, UK, Iran, Japan and Thailand in a total of 16 interventions that reached thousands of people.
In March, many Einstein Schools were starting their activities leading up to the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the 1919 Solar Eclipse that proved Einstein was right. Around 200 schools in 45 countries have been part of the Einstein Schools network, which have been busy all year learning about gravity and communicating about science.
In April, the IAU 1919-2019: 100 Years Under One Sky Celebration Flagship Ceremony took place at the Palace of the Academies in Brussels (Belgium). At the very same place where the IAU was born, people from 67 different countries met to reflect about the past century in astronomy but also to discuss what comes next. The celebration concluded with a day dedicated to the amateur astronomy community to explore ways to collaborate better.
The month of June was quite exciting with the launch of the IAU100 NameExoWorlds project to give the opportunity to countries around the world to organise national campaigns to name a star and an exoplanet. In June, we also launched the poster version of the IAU100 Above and Beyond exhibition. The exhibition showcases the fascinating past century of astronomical discoveries in 12 A0 posters. Thanks to the free distribution of 300 sets of posters, the exhibition has been present in 75 countries so far.
In August, the IAU Above and Beyond travelling exhibition opened in different locations in Ireland and remained there until October. Since its opening in August 2018, the travelling exhibition has been present in Austria, Slovakia, Belgium, Ireland and Italy. We were really glad to find out that localised versions of the exhibition have been produced in the Netherlands, Japan, Algeria and Uruguay to name a few.
The Open Astronomy Schools teacher training call launched earlier in the year was a great success and we were able to fund 20 teacher training sessions, which the majority of them were organised in the last quarter of the year starting in September. We just launched a second call for proposals for the promotion of the Open Astronomy Schools (OAS) teacher training events in 2020. The call for teacher training includes 250 telescope kits, kindly offered by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ).
At the beginning of October we launched the Under One Sky: Astronomy Around the world video series which provides a glimpse into the diverse worldwide astronomical community. Each video is presented through the eyes of the IAU National Outreach Coordinators, with every chapter we will learn about the history of astronomy, the country’s current research efforts in space science, and how astronomy is celebrated in this region. So far 13 videos have been published and we will keep posting them during the first half of 2020.
After much anticipation and widespread global engagement, the results of the IAU100 NameExoWorlds campaigns were announced in December. Over 780 000 people selected the names of 112 sets of exoplanets and host stars named that can be explored here. This is only the second time in history that a competition has led to the naming of stars and exoplanets. It will have a lasting impact for years to come since the winning names will be used in parallel with the existing scientific nomenclature, as well as credited to the person, group or institution that suggested them. We are closing 2019 with many activities related to the Annular Solar eclipse on 26 December, including the IAU100 Special Project ASEAN Workshop.
The year 2019 is coming to an end but we will keep celebrating IAU100 until February 2020 with one more global action: the IAU100 Pale Blue Dot project. After one year of looking back at one hundred years of astronomy with IAU100, we are now encouraging everyone to look back at us, Planet Earth. With these themes of environmental awareness and global citizenship in mind, we the project will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the iconic Pale Blue Dot image on and around 13-20 February 2020.
Although it is important to consider aspects like the large number of IAU100 activities carried out, around 5000 events in 140 countries, or the millions of people who have actively participated in them, we think it is more interesting to look beyond these numbers. On one hand, we would like to highlight that IAU100 has been a truly grassroots initiative with thousands of people worldwide including their astronomical activities under the IAU100 banner. On the other hand, these large-scale global programmes serve for many people to experience important things for the first time, e.g. look for the first time through a telescope, reflect about their place in the universe, organise an outreach activity or give a lecture for the first time. Therefore, the most important legacy of IAU100 will be to ignite a spark that will hopefully make most of the actions perpetuate over time.
We thank all the people around the world that has made IAU100 possible, from the IAU National Outreach Coordinators, the IAU100 Project coordinators, to the other different communities involved such as amateur astronomers, IAU members, educators, teachers as well as the IAU100 Partners. This ambitious year-long programme of activities would have not been possible to implement without you.
We wish you an inspirational 2020, continuing the theme of Under One Sky. Let’s make the final phase of the IAU100 an exciting end to a busy year of astronomy activities and public engagement.
by Jorge Rivero González, IAU100 Coordinator, on behalf of the IAU100 Secretariat
IAU Astronomy Outreach Newsletter in Other 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 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.
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).
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