These last two weeks have been very busy, but we welcomed Kelly Blumenthal onto our team, who is joining us as the Deputy Director of the OAO. This week, we wrapped up our program Women and Girls in Astronomy. We will have a more formal report next week, but overall, we had a whopping 650 submissions to the Draw An Astronomer contest, and our posts on social media accumulated over 22,000 impressions on Twitter, and more than 45,000 on Facebook. We are looking forward to the next issue of the CAP Journal, and to the launch of Telescopes for All at the end of this month. Meanwhile, the regional offices of our sister office, the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development, have been busy holding conferences and workshops around the globe.
In this newsletter, you’ll find (among other things) an exciting new IAU prize for outreach and public engagement, an invitation to help shape the future of the IAU Centre for the Protection of Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference, and a fascinating opportunity for undergraduates. We hope you enjoy this issue of the OAO Newsletter, and encourage you all to submit your stories and content for future editions!
Finally, we would like to recognize that this is an immensely difficult time for many people across the globe; we hope you all are doing your best to stay healthy and safe. We hope peace eventually returns to the Ukrainian region, but we know these things take time. We offer our caring support to everyone impacted by this crisis.
Wishing you the clearest skies and good health!
Kelly Blumenthal, Suzana Filipecki Martins, and Lina Canas, on behalf of the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach Team
1) Message about the Scientific Community in Ukraine
The IAU, in collaboration with the European Astronomical Society, the American Astronomical Society, the African Astronomical Society, the Astronomical Society of Australia, and the Korean Astronomical Society have issued a formal statement regarding the situation in Ukraine. We wish to provide support to our Ukrainian colleagues in this difficult time. We hope that one day peace will come to this region, and to the rest of the world.
For the IAU’s official statement, and details regarding the support networks in place for Ukrainian scientists, please see this link.
2) IAU Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference
The IAU Centre for the Protection of Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference (cps.iau.org) will begin operations in April. As a lead up to their grand opening, the Centre is planning a series of listening sessions on policy, industry and technology, community engagement, and more. The sessions have already started, but you still have time to join in on the conversation!
For more information about the Centre, please see their press conference here. And register for one or more of the listening sessions here.
3) Hybrid Training Workshop on Educational Psychology and Astronomy for Mental Health and Wellbeing
Prof. Tsolmon Renchin at the National University of Mongolia has planned a hybrid workshop entitled "Educational Psychology and Astronomy for Mental Health and Wellbeing", taking place on 19 - 21 May 2022. Registration and abstract submission are now open! For more information, and abstract submission, see their conference website.
4) Global Planetarium Survey
The KU Leuven University and IAU Office of Astronomy for Education jointly developed a survey on planetarium use, content, and best practices worldwide. The survey is available in Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Additional languages will be added in the future. Click on this link to start the survey.
For more information feel free to contact:
Prof. Dr. Jan Sermeus (KU Leuven/Royal Observatory Belgium) - [email protected]
Dr. Saeed Salimpour (IAU Office of Astronomy for Education) - [email protected]
5) Awards
a) Falling Walls
The Falling Walls organization has put out a global call for nominations! They are looking for scientists at the forefront of the next big breakthroughs in science. The ten winning contributions, the Science Breakthroughs of the Year, will be presented live in Berlin and broadcast via livestream this fall. Submit your nominations before 15 May at this link.
b) The International Astronomical Union Astronomy Outreach, Development, and Education Prize
The 15 March deadline is fast approaching for nominations for the new The International Astronomical Union Astronomy Outreach, Development, and Education Prize! The prizes are open to individuals (IAU members and non-members) and groups (small teams and organisations) who have made outstanding contributions to astronomy education, outreach or development. The first round of prizes will be presented at the IAU General Assembly in Busan, South Korea, in August 2022. For more information, please refer to their website.
c) Astronomy Society of the Pacific Awards
Another 15 March deadline! The Astronomy Society of the Pacific is still accepting nominations for their seven awards in professional astronomy, public outreach, education, and amateur astronomy. For more information, and details on their nomination process, click this link.
6) Updates from the IAU National Outreach Coordinators (NOCs)
a) NOC Chad
The West African Regional Office of Astronomy for Development, in collaboration with the African Astronomical Society and the NOC Chad, organized an activity in Chad called the Week of the Discovery of Astronomy in Chad from February 14 to 19, 2022. These activities enabled students from two major cities in Chad to discover for the first time what astronomy is and the use of astronomy for development.
b) NOC Dominican Republic
Our NOC Dominican Republic made a video in collaboration with Breezy Ocaña (NAEC Dominican Republic), in which she answers four questions girls interested in science tend to have. Watch the video here.
c) NOC Kuwait
Onlookers at the Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre in Kuwait were dazzled by the crescent moon and other celestial bodies.
d) NOC Morocco
On International Women’s Day, NOC Morocco organized a 100% female conference, in collaboration with the Astronomy Association of Triflet.
e) NOC Qatar
On Monday, March 7th 2022, our NOC Qatar was invited to give a talk on the Drama of the Arabic Tales in the Sky at the Arabic Planetarium Society. You can watch the talk in Arabic here.
7) Opportunities
a) Earth-Life Science Institute and Blue Marble Space Institute of Science Internship
The Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI; Japan) and the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science (BMSIS; USA) have launched a remote science communication internship for undergraduate students and recent graduates. Together with project mentors, the selected candidates will work on questions in the fields of science communication, education, and public outreach, and will also receive training in key areas.
a) Astronomy Society of the Pacific (ASP) Women in Astronomy [Content in English]
The Astronomy Society of the Pacific has produced an educational resource on women in astronomy, past and present. To download the materials, and learn more about them, see this page.
b) Ciência Viva Book on Girls and Women in Science [Content in Portuguese]
Ciência Viva just released a book for Girls & Women in Science Day, bringing together personal statements from dozens of girls and women involved in STEM projects across Portugal. One of them, by 17-year-old student Ye Jinghao, was translated into English:
"People always like beautiful things, so do I. For me, the greatest beauty there is is the universe. I don't just mean the universe itself, but also the relationships between its components, the rules behind the universe and the process of discovering these rules. The scientific method give us the best point of view to appreciate this beauty, but we still don't fully understand the beauty of the universe. There is much more that is waiting for us to explore and, on the way exploring, we have a lot of fun!"
To download the book and read through some of the other quotes, see this link.
c) Astronomy Calendar for Astronomy Popularizers [Content in English and Spanish]
Claudio Martinez, an IAU Dark Sky Ambassador from Argentina, helped to create an astronomy calendar to make sure astronomy popularizers stay on top of the astronomical events that happen over the course of the year. This includes “Every event in heaven, for all the planet [sic]. Eclipses, conjunctions, occultations, oppositions, solstices, equinoxes and so on.” They have also included images by astrophotographers from Argentina, Mexico, and the USA.
Portuguese (European)
Translations are thanks to Catarina Leote and João Ferreira through the Astronomy Translation Network Portuguese Language Group.
Spanish
Translations are thanks to Emílio Zuniga of the Association of Amateur Astronomers in León, Nicaragua.
If you are interested in translating the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach Newsletter into your language, please email [email protected].
10) Contribute to the IAU Astronomy Outreach Newsletter
We are always looking for material about astronomy outreach, communication and public engagement from around the world to include in our next IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach Newsletter. If you have an astronomical event, job, opportunity, educational resource, or anything else that would be of interest to the astronomy outreach community, send us an email at [email protected] with more information.
Please send us your suggestions through the 4th for issue #1 and the 17th for issue #2 of each month. We are looking forward to hearing from you
