We would like to welcome the return of our colleague Yukiko Shibata to the office, back to leading the Astronomy Translation Network project with the support from our colleague Pisit Nitiyanant from NARIT, Thailand. We would like to start by thanking all our IAU ATN volunteers for their continuous efforts in translating IAU100 resources and other relevant astronomy materials to the outreach and educational community — the ATN is breaking language barriers and making Astronomy accessible in native languages all around the world. As this year signals the International Year of Indigenous Languages, we invite you to stay tuned as our team prepares special activities within the framework of the IAU ATN, IAU100 and the IYIL2019.
Many events are coming up as we continue celebrating the 100 years anniversary. In this issue, we want to highlight some of the ongoing IAU regular activities that are taking place beyond the celebrations, such as the latest IAU Office of Astronomy for Development newsletter and projects, the IAU symposium 350 (IAUS350) in the UK and its educational program, and the astroEDU conference in Germany.
Stay tuned to our latest news through our different channels and don’t miss any of the IAU100 celebrations. The next big event will be the IAU Women and Girls in Astronomy Day, with more than 125 events registered in 42 different countries! Join the celebrations!
Wishing you the clearest skies for 2019 and all the very best! Lina Canas, on behalf of the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach Team
1) IAU Astronomy Translation Network (ATN)
The IAU Astronomy Translation Network (ATN) is a global network that centralizes worthy resources needing translation, and matches these translation needs with volunteers. The ATN has officially gone over the 350 volunteers mark in 50 different languages! We are grateful to all our volunteers — translators, scientific reviewers, and proofreaders for their involvement and taking astronomy into their language and communities! We’d also like to extend a warm welcome to all our new volunteers!
2) The IAU Office of Astronomy for Development Newsletter #23 Available Online
The IAU OAD Newsletter #23 is now online. The newsletter is issued quarterly by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development. Some highlights of this issue are the applications for the RAS-OAD grant, with the deadline on February 28; the results of the OAD annual call for proposals announced, and the IAU100 opportunities during 2019.
An archive of all OAD newsletters is available on the website here.
3) IAU Office of Astronomy for Development 2019 Projects
Amazon: Celebrating Astronomy
The "Amazon: Celebrating Astronomy" is a proposal to include the Amazonas in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the arrival of humankind on the Moon, the centenary of the IAU and the Eclipse of Sobral-Prince. This proposal uses digital planetariums, telescopes (solar and nocturnal), and the pedagogical Astronomy laboratory and observatory located in the dependencies of the University of the State of Amazonas (UEA) to implement hands-on workshops, lectures, play activities, and courses on astronomy to schools in need, from the interior of Amazonas: Indigenous, riverside, and rural schools. The team is composed of 25 women, including three Indigenous women, from UEA undergraduate courses.
4) IAUS350: Laboratory Astrophysics: from Observations to Interpretation — educational programme
The first IAU Symposium on Laboratory Astrophysics, the IAUS 350: Laboratory Astrophysics: from Observations to Interpretation, will be held in Jesus College, Cambridge, UK, from 14th – 19th April 2019. During the IAUS350 symposium, on April 16 and 18, there will be public evening lectures, with invited speakers Dr Kimberly Ennico-Smith and Dr Helen Jane Fraser. People worldwide can tune in to the live broadcasts (at 8-9 pm BST), from Cambridge University, via the Open Unversity public YouTube channel and in parallel, through social media, the IAUS350 team of PdDs and postdocs will be able to answer viewers’ questions.
The Astronomy Education Conference: Bridging Research & Practice, to be held in ESO, Garching, Munich, Germany, September 16-18, 2019. This meeting is intended to be the first of a regular, bi-yearly, IAU Commission C1 Astronomy Education Conference with the aim of increasing the quality, quantity, community, and impact of astronomy education research and practice. Key topics addressed will be (1) Astronomy Education Research, (2) Astronomy Education Standards, Curriculum and Instruction, and (3) Bridging research and practice in Astronomy Education.
NASE: Network for Astronomy School Education, is a teacher training course developed by a working group under the guidance of the International Astronomical Union. The NASE-Japan local organising committee will host a workshop as a satellite event of the IAUS358. NASE features wide coverage of the Japanese curriculum from Elementary to Senior High School along with a lot of astronomical observations and rich content for hands-on and minds-on activities. Participants can attend all the classes in Japanese or in English and participation is free of charge.
8) Project Diversity @NAOJ
In 2019, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) will host the Astronomy for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion IAU Symposium. Building momentum as the symposium approaches, NAOJ will host a set of talks (in English or Japanese) related to diversity and inclusion. The team invites a speaker about once a month and offers a talk on diversity and inclusion to all the institute's staff. On February 8, the initiative welcomes speaker Maria Rosaria D’Antonio, IAU Head of Administration and Inspiring Stars Task Force, that will present "Under one sky: discovering Inspiring Stars in a universe without walls and borders." The organization encourages other institutes to undertake similar initiatives to their teams.
Here you can find a list of astronomy outreach & education conferences and events around the world. Plan ahead for a very special year for Astronomy, full of interesting events!
c) 8th International Conference “New Perspectives in Science Education”
Dates: 21 - 22 March 2019
Location: Florence, Italy
More Information: https://conference.pixel-online.net/NPSE/
d) Yuri’s Night
Date: 12 April 2019
Location: All around the world
More information: https://yurisnight.net/e)
f) IAUS 350: Laboratory Astrophysics: from Observations to Interpretation
Date: 14 – 19 April 2019
Location: Cambridge, UK
More information: http://www.astrochemistry.org.uk/IAU_S350/
g) European Week of Astronomy and Space Science
Date: 24 – 28 June 2019
Location: Lyon, France
More information: https://eas.unige.ch//EWASS/
h) Starmus Festival V: A Giant Leap
Date: 24–29 June 2019
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
More information: https://www.starmus.com/
i) Asteroid Day
Date: 30 June 2019
Location: Around the world
More Information: http://asteroidday.org/
j) 3rd Workshop on Dissemination and Education of Astronomy (WDEA III)
Dates: 2 July (Solar Eclipse), 4- 5 July 2019
Location: San Juan, Argentina
More information at http://sion.frm.utn.edu.ar/WDEAIII/
l) Astronomy Education Conference: Bridging Research & Practice
Date: 16-18 September 2019.
Location: Garching, Munich, Germany,
More Information: http://iau-dc-c1.org/astroedu-conference/
m) IAUS358: Astronomy for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion — a roadmap to action within the framework of IAU centennial anniversary
Date: 12-15 November 2019
Location: Tokyo, Japan
More information: https://iau-oao.nao.ac.jp/iaus358/
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
- Translations into Serbian are available, by Dr Liliana Gracanin from Serbia: https://twitter.com/IAU_srpski ;
- 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 to the Japanese Amateur Astronomers Association here: http://www.jaaa-astro.jp/jaaa-ml.html, or the Japanese Society for Education and Popularization of Astronomy here: http://www.tenkyo.net/;
- Translations into Galician are available, by Martin Pawley, Agrupación Astronómica Coruñesa Ío, in Spain here: http://agrupacionio.com/gl/tag/boletin-iau
- Translations into Spanish are available by Emílio Zuniga, the Association of Amateur Astronomers from León, Nicaragua: http://asafile.blogspot.jp/p/blog-page_12.html;
- Translations into Italian are available by Eleonora Piromalli, AstronomiAmo, from Italy here: https://www.astronomiamo.it/DivulgazioneAstronomica/Newsletter-IAU/last
- 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 through the Astronomy Translation Network (ATN) Portuguese Language Group (the previous issue can be found here).
If you are interested in translating our newsletter into your language, please let us know via outreach@iau.org.
11) Contributions to the IAU Outreach Newsletter—looking forward to hearing from you in 2019
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 2019! 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.
