Projects
100 Hours Astronomy
The 100 Hours of Astronomy cornerstone project (100HA) is a worldwide event with a wide range of public outreach activities including live webcasts, observing events and more taking place during a 100-hour period in early April. One of the key goals of 100HA is to have as many people as possible look through a telescope as Galileo did for the first time 400 years ago. 100HA will take place from 2-5 April when the Moon goes from first quarter to gibbous, good phases for early evening observing. Saturn will be the other highlight of early evening observing events.
http://www.100hoursofastronomy.org
Program: To hold observation sessions in about 30+ schools and few public places as well
Date: 3rd April, 2009
Venue: Island wide
Portal to the Universe
The Portal to the Universe (PTTU) seeks to provide a global, one-stop portal for online astronomy content, serving as an index, aggregator and a social networking site for astronomy content providers, laypeople, press, educators, decision-makers and scientists. PTTU will feature news, image, event and video aggregation; a comprehensive directory of observatories, facilities, astronomical societies, amateur astronomy societies, space artists, science communication universities; and Web 2.0 collaborative tools, such as the ranking of different services according to popularity, to promote interaction within the astronomy multimedia community. In addition, a range of "widgets" (small applications) will be developed to tap into existing "live data". Modern technology and the standardisation of metadata make it possible to tie all the suppliers of such information together with a single, semi-automatically updating portal.
The vision for the Portal is threefold:
Enabling access: To aggregate (pull) from content providers, including all astronomy-related dynamic content (e.g. RSS feeds of blogs, images, news, etc.) and distribute (push) to users.
Indexing and archiving: To collect and maintain a central repository of useful information, including resources such as educational materials and addresses for all astronomy stakeholders such as amateur clubs, planetariums and observatories.
Enabling communication and collaboration: To create and maintain a network of all stakeholders, including a social network for everyone interested in astronomy.
The PTTU homepage will feature a selection of these resources, with defaults based on editorial decisions decided after assessing the target groups' behaviour and needs, but will gradually move toward a live community-based selection determined by the real preferences of the visitors. The visitors may naturally tailor their own MyPortaltotheUniverse with the widgets that they wish.
Editorially PTTU is a selective aggregator with a non-painful editorial mechanism in place.
PTTU will have the latest stuff first.
To have a single portal to Sri Lanka (http://www.astronomy.lk)
To link Sri Lankan sites to PTTU
The Solar Physics Task Group
The night sky harbours countless marvels to make any human wonder about its existence. However, during half of the time our sky is dominated by the Sun. We are all familiar with its heat and light, and that it drowns out almost every other light above. Our Sun is by far the closest star to us. The Sun-Earth relation is a key point in understanding our relationship with the Universe. It serves as a paradigm of other Universe bodies. It represents an extremely rich and practical educational resource. It is important to every society. Its brightness facilities a wide range of educational activities that can be carried out in the daytime. Therefore, the Sun is the perfect point from which to begin our journey to the Universe.
The goal of this Task Group is to help the International Year of Astronomy 2009 with solar matters. It aims to communicate the link between the Sun and the rest of the Universe, and so the place of solar science in astronomy. Our means are the suggestion, organisation and support of solar related events for IYA2009 and being the reference desk for solar matters. Our network reaches every solar field and professional observing location.
http://solarastronomy2009.org/
Program: Partial Solar Eclipse
Date: 2009 Jan 26 - 2:03 PM to 4:12 PM
Venue:
*Kurunegala - Colombo Planetarium
*Mt. Lavinia Beach - Astronomy & Space Study Center/ Sri Lanka Astronomical Association
From Earth to the Universe
The International Year of Astronomy 2009 is an unprecedented opportunity to present astronomy to the global public. The Cornerstone project From Earth to the Universe (FETTU) endeavours to bring wonderful astronomical images to a wider audience in non-traditional venues. In delivering these images and the science behind them to public parks, metro stations, art centres and other locations, we wish to engage individuals who might normally ignore or even dislike astronomy, or science in general.
http://www.fromearthtotheuniverse.org
Program: Exhibit a collection of astronomical images at Public Places.
Date: May – July, 2009
Venue: (possible places)
Colombo Planetarium
Majestic City Shopping Mall
Liberty Plaza Shopping Mall
Crescat Shopping Mall
Public Library – Colombo
Arpico Shopping Mall
Cargills – Big City Shopping Mall
British Council
Dark Skies Awareness
The arc of the Milky Way seen from a truly dark site is part of our planet's cultural and natural heritage. It is now more urgent than ever to preserve and protect dark night skies in places such as urban cultural landscapes, national parks and sites connected with astronomical observations, as well as to support the goals of UNESCO's thematic initiative, Astronomy and World Heritage, to preserve sites of astronomical importance for posterity.
The ongoing loss of dark night skies for much of the world's population is a serious and growing issue that not only impacts astronomical research, but also human health, ecology, safety, security, economics and energy conservation. According to the United Nations, 2008 will be the first year in which 3.3 billion people, over half the world's population, will live in cities. With the growth of large cities in Africa and Asia, the number of people living in dense urban areas could climb to 5 billion by 2030. As cities grow, so does their impact on the global environment.
For this Cornerstone project the IAU will collaborate with the US National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), representatives of the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA), the Starlight Initiative and other national and international partners in dark sky and environmental education on several related themes. The focus will be on three main citizen-scientist programmes to measure local levels of light pollution. These programmes will take the form of "star hunts" or "star counts", providing people with a fun and direct way to acquire heightened awareness about light pollution through firsthand observations of the night sky. Together the three programmes will cover the entire International Year of Astronomy 2009, namely GLOBE at Night (in March), the Great World Wide Star Count (in October) and How Many Stars (January, February, April through September, November and December).
http://www.darkskiesawareness.org
Program: GLOBE at Night (in March), the Great World Wide Star Count (in October) and How Many Stars (January, February, April through September, November and December).
Date: March - December
Venue: Island wide
Earth Hour
Millions of people in cities across the U.S. and around the globe turned their lights off for one hour on Saturday, March 29, 2008 to make an unprecedented and highly visible global statement in support for action on climate change, energy conservation and light pollution. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the world’s largest conservation organization, which organized and coordinated the inaugural global event reports that an estimated 36 million Americans took part in Earth Hour. According to a survey by Zogby International, approximately 16 percent of the U.S. adult population reported taking part in Earth Hour and 78 percent were aware of the event, which took place globally in more than 400 cities in 35 countries across all 7 continents. During the week leading up to the event, there were more than 6.2 million unique visitors to the www.EarthHourUS.org website.
Beyond the four official US flagship cities of Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco, WWF estimates that more than 100 cities and towns across the nation took part in the event, including Miami, Denver, Honolulu, Charlotte, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and St. Louis and many others. Iconic landmarks in the US going dark included the Golden Gate Bridge, Sears Tower, Empire State Building, Coca-Cola billboard in Times Square, Bank of America Plaza (Atlanta), US Airways Arena (Phoenix), Alcatraz and others turned off their lights to symbolize the need to take action on climate change.
World Wildlife Fund is already gearing up to bring even more people, cities, and organizations for next year’s Earth Hour on March 28, 2009 from 8:30-9:30 pm during IYA. Meg Pearce, director of Earth Hour USA, convinced the worldwide Earth Hour staff that postponing Earth Hour by a half an hour during IYA would include more of the population invested in preserving dark skies. (The skies are still bright at 8pm for the population located on the western edges of timezones.) The collaboration between Earth Hour and the IYA Dark Skies Cornerstone Project is a natural connection and requires no funding. Not only does the Earth Hour program allow the public to see the dark skies from the cities, it also helps conserve energy. It will give families a chance to walk out their door to see the stars, realize how much light pollution there is, find out from the Earth Hour website how much energy and money is wasted and at the same time, spark a child’s imagination.
Anyone can join the program. More information about Earth Hour can be found at www.EarthHour.org. Almost 200,000 people and over 13,000 business have signed up to be a part of Earth Hour 2008. Be a part of something bigger-join them by visiting www.earthhour.org or www.earthhourus.org to sign up.
http://www.darkskiesawareness.org
Program: Lights off for one hour! Make people/places to switch off their lights for an hour.
Date: March 28, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Venue: Island wide
GLOBE at Night
Join thousands of other students, families and citizen-scientists hunting for stars during the second half of March 2009. Take part in this international event called GLOBE at Night to observe the nighttime sky and learn more about light pollution around the world.
GLOBE at Night is an easy observation and reporting activity that takes approximately 15-30 minutes to complete. Citizen-scientists record the brightness of the night sky by matching its appearance toward the constellation Orion with one of seven stellar maps of different limiting magnitude. They then submit measurements online at here. Resulting maps of all observations are created and placed online by the GLOBE at Night staff within the few weeks that follow.
http://www.globe.gov/globeatnight
Program: Students individually take unaided-eye observations toward the constellation Orion and report.
Date: March 16-28, 2009
Venue: Island wide
Great World Wide Star Count
Join thousands of other students, families, and citizen scientists counting stars in 2009 for the Great World Wide Star Count! This international event encourages everyone to go outside, look skywards after dark, count the stars they see in certain constellations, and report what they see online. This Windows to the Universe citizen science campaign is designed to encourage learning in astronomy. The Great World Wide Star Count will be held from
October 9 – October 23, 2009!
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/citizen_science/starcount/index.html
Program: This international event encourages everyone to go outside, look skywards after dark, count the stars they see in certain constellations, and report what they see online.
Date: October 9 – 23, 2009
Venue: Island wide
How many stars ...?
Unique experiment! Its goal is the worldwide determination of the present night sky visibility conditions based on simple astronomical observations that can be done with the naked eye and within minutes. The success of the experiment depends on obtaining as many observations as possible from as many locations as possible: that means your contribution!
Throughout Jan., Feb., April–Sept.,Nov., Dec.
Observing Object: Little Dipper
Program: Students individually take unaided-eye observations toward the constellation Little Dipper and report
Date: Jan – Dec, 2009
Venue: Island wide
400years of the Telescope
400 Years of the Telescope; A Journey of Science, Technology and Thought,is slated to air in the Untied States on public television in first quarter 2009, and will be internationally distributed in eleven languages. With comprehensive footage from the globe’s major observatories and a series of interviews by an international, diverse group of professional astronomers, the documentary content follows the story of the development of telescope technology and the ensuing profound impact on humanity’s view of its place within the universe. Culminating in the present day, the film illustrates how the telescope’s influence continues to dominate our attempts to perceive the cosmos.
400 Years of the Telescope is a high definition documentary to be distributed internationally for broadcast in 2009. Cinematic version available for theater and IMAX theaters
http://www.400years.org
Program: Screening the documentary on National Television and other locations
Date: mid year
Venue: -
Eyes on the Skies
The Eyes on the Skies is a movie produced as standard DVD and Blu-ray format, freely available to TV broadcasters. It explores the many facets of the telescope — the historical development, the scientific importance, the technological breakthroughs, and also the people behind this ground-breaking invention, their triumphs and failures. It is presented by Dr. J, aka Dr. Joe Liske, a professional astronomer from the European Southern Observatory and host of the Hubblecast video podcast. The DVD runs for more than 50 minutes and contains subtitles in several languages.
http://www.eyesontheskies.org/movie.php
Program: Screening the documentary on National Television and other locations
Date: mid year
Venue: -
The World at Night (TWAN)
The World at Night (TWAN) will create and exhibit a collection of stunning photographs and time-lapse videos of the world's most beautiful and historic sites against a night-time backdrop of stars, planets and celestial events. These images will present the night sky to the public in an accessible and understandable manner. The sky rises above all the landmarks and symbols of different nations and regions creating a bridge to understanding and friendship. When borders vanish, political and cultural differences become irrelevant. The universal nature of astronomy provides the means to connect people worldwide through this common interest. TWAN's parent organisation, Astronomers without Borders, has several projects designed to work towards this goal. TWAN is an innovative new approach to expanding this global perspective.
http://www.twanight.org/newTWAN/index.asp
Program: Encourage professional, amateur photographers to take beautiful and historic sites against a night-time backdrop of stars, planets and celestial events.
Date: Jan – Dec, 2009
Venue: - (web and print media based)
Cultural Astronomy
Cultural Astronomy is the relationship between people, their cultures, and astronomy. It is also an interdisciplinary field that studies current and ancient societies, through anthropology, sociology, history,astronomy, archaeology, folklore, and philosophy.
Some areas are:
Archaeoastronomy: How peoples in the past understood celestial events, how they used celestial pheonomena and the role of the sky in their cultures.
Ethnoastronomy: How people in current cultures and societies understand and use astronomies and cosmologies.
History of Astronomy is the study of the origins and evolution of the academic disciplines of astronomy and astrophysics.
Historical Astronomy is the application of historical records to modern astrophysical problems.
The goals of the Cultural Astronomy and Storytelling working group are to
1) collect cultural astronomy information,
2) create resources such as films,pamphlets, and computer aids,
3) design activities and events that utilize our research findings and resources that engage the public, and
4) implementation with public participation.
Our group will explore the ideas and concepts of the different oral and written traditions among those who would pass down such teachings of the night sky, what the cosmos meant to the ancient observer, what it means to the current observer, and how past and present traditions relate to all of us today, enabling those who participate to gain a fuller understanding of their own cosmology or, at least, become aware of other frames of reference with which to look at the universe. Those who hold the knowledge and are responsible for teaching it to the next generation are our teachers, elders, professors, astronomers, observers.
Program: Collect all the Sri Lanka related historical astronomy news, observation, stories, information, etc…
Date: Jan – Dec, 2009
Venue: - (web based)