Although the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) comes to a formal close this weekend with a ceremony in Padua, Italy, numerous core programs conducted during the year will carry on in 2010 and beyond, including many led by educators and outreach professionals in the United States and elsewhere in North America.

“Thanks to the support of the National Science Foundation, NASA, the American Astronomical Society and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, as well as the hard work of hundreds of volunteers, we were able to conduct a vigorous, fun and wide-ranging set of programs and events throughout 2009,” says Douglas Isbell, the U.S. Single Point of Contact (SPoC) for IYA2009.  “We are thrilled that so many of these efforts will continue to grow, mature, and morph into new projects in the years ahead.”

Click here to see the details of these projects and where they are heading.

(Click to view image in higher detail)

Today, in celebration of Galileo’s telescopic achievements and as part of the International Year of Astronomy, NASA has used its entire fleet of Great Observatories, and the Internet, to bring the center of our Galaxy to you.

Pictured above, in greater detail and in more colors than ever seen before, are the combined images of the Hubble Space Telescope in optical light, the Spitzer Space Telescope in infrared light, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory in X-ray light. A menagerie of vast star fields is visible, along with dense star clusters, long filaments of gas and dust, expanding supernova remnants, and the energetic surroundings of what likely is our Galaxy’s central black hole. Many of these features are labeled on a complementary annotated image. Of course, a telescope’s magnification and light-gathering ability create only an image of what a human could see if visiting these places. To actually go requires rockets.

Credit: NASA, ESA, SSC, CXC, and STScI

Astronomy enthusiasts across the globe are breaking out their telescopes this weekend (October 22-24) in a coordinated  effort to help hundreds of thousands of people experience their own “Galileo moment” of awe and discovery when  seeing the planet Jupiter and its four largest moons.

More than 1,100 public observing events in over 70 countries are being organized as part of “Galilean Nights,” a cornerstone project of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009). More than 75 events in the United States are listed on the international Galilean Nights Web site at www.galileannights.org.

Large U.S. events are being planned for Inwood Hill Park in New York City and Hilo, Hawaii, for example. A wide variety of other events are scheduled at places as diverse as a Starbucks coffee shop in Alabaster, Alabama; Wilhemina State Park in Mena, Arkansas; the Amoeba music store in Hollywood, California; Colorado Astronomy Day in Brighton and Chamberlin Observatory in Denver; the Embry-Riddle University observatory in Daytona Beach, Florida; sidewalk astronomy at the corner of North and Wells streets in Chicago; a Radio Shack in Waterloo, Iowa; Chabot Science Center near Oakland; a Border’s Bookstore in Wichita, Kansas; the Longway Planetarium in Flint, Michigan; Bottomless Lakes State Park in Roswell, New Mexico; the
University of Texas Arlington planetarium; the Great Salt Lake Nature Center in Utah; the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC; and the Green Bank Science Center in West Virginia.

For more information, visit:
www.galileannights.org
www.astronomy2009.org

A centrepiece of the IYA2009 Dark Skies Awareness (DSA) Cornerstone project has been the citizen science programmes inviting children and the general public to find out how many stars are lost due to light pollution in their night sky. The DSA Task Group requests your help in spreading the word about one of the DSA citizen science campaigns that is happening now over the next two weeks, namely the Great World Wide Star Count. The following is an ad you could use to advertise by listserve. Or you can download the PDF file at the following link: www.starcount.org.

To supplement the TWAN exhibition, many of the shopping centers have added educational programs appropriate to their customers and available space. Examples include “Dancing Under the Stars”, “Movies Under the Stars” (screening “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”), a program to help Boy and Girl Scouts earn astronomy badges, a contest to win a trip to space camp, outreach partnerships with industry and with science centers like the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, science fairs, fashion shows, and children’s events such as creating constellations and building telescopes.

The exhibitions are a collaboration between the centers’ owner, Developers Diversified Realty, and TWAN’s parent organization, U.S.-based Astronomers Without Borders.

The starry night above Yellow Stone National Park, Wyoming. The yellow patch in the foreground is an eruption of Old Faithful Geyser, a strong cone geyser that can shoot 14,000–32,000 liters of boiling water to a height of 30–55 meters. Photo Credit: Wally Pacholka Astropics.com/TWAN

TWAN exhibitions are created individually to enhance programs at museums and in public spaces with eye-catching images produced by TWAN’s team of specialized photographers. Exhibitions can be shown either indoors or outdoors, alone or in conjunction with other IYA2009 exhibits and cultural and educational programs.

TWAN is a long-term project that intends to continue in 2010 and beyond. Some upcoming events in North America include: – October 16 – Nov. 8, a TWAN exhibition and lectures in the town of Borrego Springs in southern California – November 20 – 22, TWAN exhibit at the Holiday Folk Fair International in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – February 2010 exhibit at New Mexico State University – several sites in Canada are under development.

For more information and to follow along as TWAN continues, see www.twanight.org

For more information: uanews.ua.edu/2009/10/from-earth-to-the-universe-exhibit-opens-at-ua-museum/

Elementary School (1^st-4^th grades or ages 6-10)

Middle School (5^th-8^th grades or ages 10-14)

High School (9^th-12^th grades or ages 14-18)

To submit an entry to SEDS-USA, please take photos in a standard image format (.jpg, .gif, etc.) from each side of the model, and up to 5 additional photos may be submitted showing off particular details that the contestants would like to be brought to the attention of the judges. E-mail the photos to Keri Bean at outreach@seds.org. If you must mail the photos or video on a CD, they must be received by November 15th. Contact Keri Hancock at high-school@seds.org for mailing details. A video showing the model will also be acceptable. The video must be no longer than 5 minutes and be submitted to a free video hosting website such as YouTube or e-mailed in a standard video format (.avi, .mov, .mpeg, etc.)

For more  information, view this more detailed form or contact Keri Bean at outreach@seds.org.