Browsing all posts in "IYA".

The End of IYA (Part 2)

Sometimes it takes a bit longer than planned to get around to writing than expected. The second day of the IYA Closing ceremonies was filled with talks on history & vision – Who was Galileo and what was the real relationship between him and the Chrutch? How do we move forward to celebrate astronomy in [...]

The End of IYA (Part 1)

It is January 10, 2010, and IYA is coming to a close.
I’m am currently sitting in the Palazzo Bo in Padau (Padova), Italy. I am here for the IYA2009 closing ceremony. It has been a long journey getting here. The idea of the IYA2009 originated form Franco Pacini in 2002, and in 2003, at the [...]

A new website for a New Year: Astrosphere .org

It’s December 25, Christmas day 2009. In 6 more days we’ll ring in 2010, and in 16 more days IYA will come to an official end. There are still pieces to tie up – the evaluations will all take place in South Africa in March, and there are a whole lot of websites that need [...]

A week to look up: LCROSS Impact and White House Star Party

As a 1 year long event, IYA2009 has worked hard to provide a steady stream of events. That said, some weeks are more interesting than others, and this week is shaping up to be one of those more interesting weeks. On October 7, Mr and Mrs Obama will host a star party at the US [...]

Galileoscope: A dream of 1 Telescope Per Child

I know a set of men who had a dream. They wanted to see every child in the world have access to a high-quality low-cost telescope. They wanted something that would show the rings of Saturn, survive a tumble down the stairs, and just keep revealing the sky night after night after night. This is [...]

The International Year of Astronomy Travel

In case you somehow missed it, 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy. For me, that has translated into the International Year of Astronomy Travel. According to my American Advantage account, I’ve earned 71,616 qualifying miles for this year to date. Now admittedly, that included bonus miles, minimum mile increases, and two for one miles, [...]

IYA@IAU: World Reports

(Can’t find internet access that will allow me to upload photos – they will come)
As an IYA organizer, one of my greatest delights has been randomly finding IYA logos in random places. My first moment of glee was at the National Maritime Museum in London where their gates were govered in IYA logos, and then [...]

Building a Portal to the Universe

As those of you who have been reading for a while probably know, I am one of the worker bees behind the International Year of Astronomy. While I’m going to continue to teach next year, I’m taking a reduced course load so I can focus on attacking the world with astronomy content one website at [...]

2008, The Year of the Potato

Up until a moment ago, my husband and I were laying in bed listening to the BBC. This all ended when they went into a story on the International Year of the Potato and he went into a laughing fit at the silliness of the Year of the Potato concept. (Image Credit: Ecuador, J-L.Gonterre)
All I [...]

AAS Day 2: Google Sky, Google Earth, and the International Year of Astronomy

I have been trying to find the time to learn how to use Google Sky for astronomy outreach for the last year. My time is limited, and I have to admit that my early attempts were met with very ugly implementations, and I’ve been dieing to see what others are doing and (more importantly) to [...]