We want to start by celebrating the success of the first Astronomy Beyond the Common Senses workshop organised in Colombia early this month, hoping that it is the first of many more to come. We would also like to highlight the presence of our OAD colleague Dr. Wanda Diaz Merced at the White House Frontiers conference; you can watch her inspiring talk here.
In this issue, we discover more about the latest activities of the Network for Astronomy School Education (NASE) , reexplore HubbleSite, produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute's OPO, and celebrating ten years of UNAWE with a truly inspirational video.
We want to send a special thank you to our National Outreach Contacts for their efforts in sharing with us the inspirational outreach and education news from their country.
Clear Skies!
The IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach team
1) Start planning for IAU General Assembly (GA) 2018 in Vienna, Austria
The XXXth General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union will be held in Vienna, between 20 and 31 August 2018. The GA will be hosted by the Austrian Society for Astronomy and Astrophysics (ÖGA2), and Astronomische Gesellschaft, an organisation that joins together professional and amateur astronomers and that promotes public outreach and research meetings. We encourage you to explore the conference website and start arranging your travel plans in good time!
2) Letters of Intent for IAU Scientific Meetings in 2018
The programme of IAU scientific meetings (Symposia, Focus Meetings, Division Meetings, Regional Meetings) is one of the most important methods by which the IAU pursues its goal of promoting astronomy through international collaboration. A large fraction of the Union's funds are devoted to the support of these IAU scientific meetings. Eighty-four Letters of Intent proposing scientific meetings in 2018 have been received, many focusing on Outreach and Education.
3) National Outreach Contact (NOC) Corner: News from Japan
a) Science Opera in Japan
From 8 to 10 October 2016 students from Soka-higashi high school hosted the Global Science Opera and Eco-scenography Workshop led by Janne Robberstad and Hideo Shinohara. The goal was to create a scene for the forthcoming "Ghost Particles" science opera. The 2016 production of the global opera will be performed around the world and streamed online on 19 November 2016 (at 13:30 GMT) here.
b) 20th anniversary celebration of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) Public Relations Center
The20th anniversary party of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) Public Relations Center will be hosted on 12 November. Anyone who is around Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan is most welcome to join this informal gathering at Gakushi Kaikan, Kanda-Jimbo-cho.
You can apply via this online web form: http://bit.ly/2e4VDm9 (Japanese only)
The deadline for applications is 31 October (closed when reaching full capacity).
4) Latest training courses from the Network for Astronomy School Education (NASE)
The Network for Astronomy School Education (NASE) is an IAU-endorsed programme for postgraduate students. NASE works with university professors to train future teachers and cooperates with the departments of education to train experienced primary and secondary school teachers. The team, lead by Rosa Ros (Spain, Chair of the IAU NASE WG) and Beatriz Garcia (Argentina, IAU Commission C1 President), has by October 2016 completed 90 courses all over the world and in September 2016 met the ISO 29990:2013 standard of quality in Argentina, guaranteeing the IAU external evaluation standards of quality and impact of the courses.
5) Inspiring Every Child with Our Wonderful Cosmos - UNAWE’s new video
This year, UNAWE celebrates its 10th anniversary and, during the Space Education International Workshop, the founding father of Universe Awareness, Prof. George Miley announced a new video, celebrating the vision to inspire young children around the world with astronomy, science, and technology.
The video emphasises the mission of using astronomy for education: to motivate children to become aware of our world and the Universe and to contribute towards global citizenship and the protection of planet Earth. The video was created with UNAWE's colleagues from South Africa, Japan, Portugal, Mongolia, and Morocco.
6) Global Hands On Universe (GHOU) recommended software
The Global Hands-On Universe (GHOU) Association is a non-profit organisation with partners worldwide. Its mission is to train teachers in the use of modern tools and resources for science education and to engage students in international scientific projects. SalsaJ is a free software package that allows students to display, analyse and explore real astronomical images, and Astrometrica is an interactive software tool for scientific grade astrometric data reduction of CCD images. Both tools are translated into multiple languages and are free to download.
At the core in of the Space Telescope Science Institute’s (STScI) mission are outreach and education. Their Office of Public Outreach (OPO), constantly tries to find innovative ways to share Hubble's discoveries with the public. The OPO exists as a unique blend of communications professionals and scientists working together to share educational products in print and electronic formats with educators, the general public, and the media. You can access all these resources and more here: http://hubblesite.org/. HubbleSite is produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute's OPO, and you can learn more about them here: http://hubblesite.org/about_us/.
8) Subscribe to the NASA Space Place Gazette
The Space Place started in 1998, to reach younger audiences with the message that "science and technology and learning about space are fun and within their grasp". It is an education and public outreach project of NASA's New Millennium Program, and its target audience consists of elementary school age children. If you want to keep up with all the latest articles, activities, and games, NASA Space Place offers a free digital newsletter for teachers and parents. Each month you will receive an email with news, links, and fun space facts. It’s a great way to stay updated.
To subscribe, parents and teachers can go to this link.
a) IX International Conference on Oriental Astronomy
Date: 15–18 November 2016
Location: Pune, India
More Information: icoa2016.tifr.res.in
b) Southeast Asia Astronomical Network (SEAAN)
Date: 12 and 13 November 2016
Location: Hanoi, Vietnam
More Information: https://vnsc.org.vn/seaan2016
c) ESO Astronomy Camp
Date: 26 December 2016 to 1 January 2017
Location: Aosta Valley, Italy.
More information: http://www.eso.org/public/announcements/ann16031/
d) 7th International Festival of Science Visualization - Dome Fest
Date: 5–7 March 2017
Location: Tokyo, Japan
More Information: http://ifsv.org/en/index.html
e) International Planetarium Society 2017
Date: 1–6 July 2017
Location: Toulouse, France
More Information: http://www.ips-planetarium.org/page/IPS2018Toulouse
f) 13th Asian-Pacific Regional IAU Meeting (APRIM 2017)
Date: 3–7 July 2017
Location: Taipei, Taiwan
More Information: http://www.aprim2017.tw/
Have we missed something? Then share your astronomy outreach and education international meetings or events with us via outreach@iau.org.
10) IAU Astronomy Outreach Newsletter in other languages
c) If you want to receive the Japanese newsletter translation, please subscribe to the Japanese Amateur Astronomers Association here: http://www.jaaa-astro.jp/jaaa-ml.html;
If you are interested in translating our newsletter to your language, please let us know via outreach@iau.org.
11) Contributions to IAU Outreach Newsletter for 2016
Here at the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach, we are always looking for more news about astronomical education and outreach events around the world. Please continue to share your stories with us in 2016! If you are organising any 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.
