U.S. Delegation Visibly Sharp During IYA2009 Opening Ceremony at UNESCO Paris

By Jarita C. Holbrook
University of Arizona Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology
Chair, US IYA2009 Working Group on Cultural Astronomy

The United States was well represented by several U.S. IYA2009 leaders, working group chairs and group members, as well as two NASA IYA2009 student ambassadors, astronomers, filmmakers, and a secondary school science teacher.  Over 50 people attended from the extended U.S. team, including a delegation from Puerto Rico.

The most visible members were U.S. IYA2009 Single-Point-of-Contact Doug Isbell and U.S. IYA2009 Project Director Steve Pompea, who were focused on promoting the Galileoscope cornerstone project.  They set up a Galileoscope prototype in various parts of the UNESCO complex for public viewing and distributed many informational handouts for people interested in purchasing them, starting in just a couple weeks.  An early morning session on the front sidewalk of the UNESCO building, with the Galileoscope providing a sharp view of top of the Eiffel Tower was perhaps the most memorable (see photos).

Paris was also the first official appearance of new IYA2009 national spokesperson Derrick Pitts, chief astronomer at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.  Derrick interacted with numerous meeting participants and began developing lots of creative ideas for promoting IYA2009 throughout the year.

The new documentary production BLAST! was screened during a lunch break at the meeting by filmmaker Paul Devlin.  Paul is interested in showing the film in science centers, planetaria, universities, and other venues during IYA2009.  For more information, see  www.blastthemovie.com or write Paul at paul@pauljdevlin.com.  The official IYA2009 documentary 400 Years of the Telescope by Interstellar Studios was well promoted in Paris by producer/writer/director Kris Koenig, who was due to screen it during the subsequent conference on cultural astronomy; watch for its debut on PBS in early April.

Four U.S. participants were part of the official program of science overview lectures:
Robert Wilson (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) spoke on discovering the remnants of the Big Bang, Jonathan Gardner (NASA Goddard) reviewed the accomplishments of the Hubble Space Telescope and looked ahead to the James Webb Telescope, Baruch Blumberg (NASA Lunar Science Institute) spoke on astronomical exploration and the search for organic materials in the Universe, and George Saliba (Columbia University) discussed the rich history of Islamic astronomy.  American Astronomical Society President John Huchra (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) was the senior official U.S. representative.

Jody Harkrider, a high school science teacher from Texas, created a unique souvenir from the opening: she asked each of the opening speakers to sign her hardcopy program.  Smart move, since many are Nobel Prize winners!  Jody plans to share the program with her science students.  Perhaps it will appear on eBay many years in the future.

Caption 1: View from UNESCO building taken using Canon compact camera

Caption 2: Magnified (zoom) view showing direction Galileoscope is pointing, to a crane in front of a distance building

Caption 3: View taken by simply holding Canon compact camera on normal settings to eyepiece of Galileoscope. (I held the camera upside down as the Galilescope provides an inverted view)