Star Party Research Articles

Enhancing public engagement and science communication through participatory astronomy: insights from the Surabaya Astronomy Club's star party model

This practice insight examines the Surabaya Astronomy Club (SAC) and its innovative approach to science communication and public engagement in Indonesia. Through organized star parties and community outreach, SAC leverages astronomy to foster public interest and enhance scientific literacy. The club's activities are deeply influenced by Indonesia's cultural and social context, emphasizing communal participation and integrating scientific phenomena with traditional and religious practices. Despite its successes, SAC faces challenges such as limited resources and the need for more systematic evaluation. Recommendations for improvement include expanding resource acquisition, adopting robust evaluation methodologies, enhancing inclusivity, and maintaining high-quality engagement. By partnering with governmental bodies and community organizations, SAC bridges the gap between scientific knowledge and public policy, demonstrating astronomy's relevance to societal issues and fostering a more informed and engaged public.

The Winning of Empty Box in the 2018 Makassar Regional Head Election

This research discusses how the empty box won in the 2018 Makassar Regional Head Election. This phenomenon became the elections’ history where a single candidate failed to win the election. Ten political parties consisting of Functional Groups Party (Golkar), National Democratic Party (NasDem), Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), United Development Party (PPP), Crescent Star Party (PBB), Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), People’s Conscience Party (Hanura), National Mandate Party (PAN), and Indonesian Justice and Unity Party (PKPI), promoted a single candidate pair. This study aims to describe how the movement of empty box volunteers in the Makassar Regional Head Election. This research uses a qualitative method. Selection of informants using a snowball sampling technique, and using social movement theory. There are three parts to this theory: 1) Complaint theory. Public disappointment over a candidate pair’s disqualification and consider the election organizer unfair; 2) Mobilizing structures theory. Analyze the voluntary movement of empty boxes to gather mass support and sympathizers during the election; and 3) Framing theory. Analyze the use of issues and methods of spreading the issue. This research found that the empty box phenomenon in Makassar Regional Head Election, unlike in the elections in other areas where the single candidate did not have an opponent, in Makassar, one of the candidate pairs was disqualified due to violation. It made the community, supporters, and the success team feels disappointed with the General Elections Commission’s decision. This disappointment also resulted in the emergence of the empty box volunteer movement. Movements of empty box volunteers to gather mass support and sympathizers through door-to-door socializing, leaflets, flyers, and banners call to action to win empty box and use social media and online media as campaign tools.

Islam and Indonesia's 2019 Presidential Election

Islam and Indonesia's 2019 Presidential Election Thomas Pepinsky (bio) Indonesia's 2019 presidential election pitted incumbent president Joko Widodo (Jokowi) against challenger Prabowo Subianto in a repeat of the 2014 presidential contest. As in 2014, both Jokowi and Prabowo campaigned on nationalist platforms that defended Indonesia's multireligious national ideology of Pancasila and sought to win votes from all Indonesians.1 But even more so than in 2014, the 2019 campaign saw growing differences between Islamist and pluralist camps in Indonesian politics. Jokowi's victory is a reassuring sign for pluralists concerned about rising Islamist forces in Indonesian politics, although the selection of the influential cleric Ma'ruf Amin as his vice president signals that Islam will continue to play an important role in Jokowi's second term in office. Digging deeper into the 2019 presidential election results reveals important trends in religion and politics in Indonesia. The most important of these has been a widening electoral cleavage based on religious identity rather than ideology. This cleavage, however, interacts with other types of political cleavages in this diverse multiethnic democracy. Electoral and demographic data from the most recent election helps reveal the contours of this emerging religious cleavage structure and provides clues about its implications going forward. Before turning to this data, I begin with a brief overview of religion, ideology, and partisanship in contemporary Indonesia. Islamists, Pluralists, and Party Ideology in Contemporary Indonesia One central cleavage in Indonesian politics is between Islamists and non-Islamists. Terminology is important here: by "Islamist" I mean parties, organizations, or movements that explicitly seek to align national politics with Islamic principles.2 Non-Islamists, then, are a broad category that includes religious Muslims who are comfortable with Indonesia's multireligious constitution, Muslims who hold a more liberal or pluralist [End Page 54] political orientation, secular nationalists for whom religion is a private matter, non-Muslims, and others. Accordingly, discussions of the Islamist cleavage vary in their understanding of what its true "other" is: nationalism, pluralism, liberalism, secularism, or something else altogether. In truth, the opposite of Islamism in Indonesia is all these to some degree. Plainly, not all Muslims are Islamists. Indonesia's population is nearly 90% Muslim, yet the Indonesian constitution grants no special rights to Islam over other religions and instead embraces a multireligious ideology known as Pancasila ("Five Principles"), which explicitly endorses the belief in God without using the word "Allah." Given Indonesia's demographics, this is only possible because a substantial number of Muslims do not support Islamism. Instead, since democratization in 1999, the country has seen vibrant contestation over the role of Islam in society as well as in public life, with Muslims on both sides. The largest political parties in Indonesia are either multireligious parties that are holdovers from the authoritarian regime of Suharto (the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle) or multireligious parties that were formed after democratization as personal vehicles for aspiring presidential candidates (such as the Democratic Party and the Great Indonesia Movement Party). Although Islamist parties exist, they struggle to earn the support that the pluralist or nationalist parties win. Nevertheless, Islamist forces played an essential role in Indonesia's 2019 presidential elections. Both Jokowi and Prabowo ran broadly nationalist campaigns designed to appeal to all voters, at least rhetorically. Each campaign earned endorsements from key Islamist parties: the United Development Party (PPP) endorsed Jokowi, and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the smaller Crescent Star Party (PBB) endorsed Prabowo. And yet, Islamist elites and civil society organizations sided overwhelmingly with Prabowo and against Jokowi, particularly hard-line Islamist groups like the Islamic Defenders Front. As a result, at least in popular understanding, the 2019 election pitted one candidate with a pluralist, multireligious platform and constituency against one endorsed by Islamists. This split between Jokowi and Prabowo, with Islamists lining up primarily behind the latter, mirrors the 2014 election campaign.3 Cognizant of the mobilizing potential of religious identity, Jokowi and his campaign also courted influential conservative Muslims and Islamists in the run-up [End Page 55] to the 2019 election.4 This culminated in the selection of Ma'ruf Amin, chairman of the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI) and...

Towards the 5 star party

ABSTRACT2017 is an important year in the short history of the Italian Five star Movement (M5s), both from a symbolic and substantial point of view. Municipal elections held in June marked the end of M5s’s first cycle as a governing actor at the local level, which began in 2012 with its success in the northern city of Parma. Together with the seats gained during regional elections in Sicily in November, the M5s continued its ongoing consolidation in local politics. The M5s also continued to have enduring problems both on the ground and internally. Furthermore, 2017 is an important year from an organizational perspective, since the M5s witnessed the selection of Luigi Di Maio as candidate for prime minister and leader. The young vice-president of the Camera dei deputati (the Italian Parliament’s lower chamber) embodies the slow, controversial, and largely incomplete shift from an anti-system movement to a (would-be) ruling party. This chapter frames the Five Star project as part of the European populist wave and connects its success with the party’s ability of combining elements of both left-wing and right-wing populism. In particular, this work outlines the M5s’s complex route towards normalization and institutionalization on the eve of the 2018 General Elections.

Opportunities and Challenges of the DPW Crescent Star Party in Elections in North Sumatra

In the context of Indonesia where the population is predominantly Muslim (even the largest Muslim country in the world) the views above are very relevant if linked to the political life of Muslims. In the 2009 General Election the UN vote was greatly reduced and could not exceed the 2.5% threshold, so that they could not place their representatives in the DPR RI, in connection with that the UN DPP through the Independent Survey Institute of the University of Indonesia (UI) had done survey to find out the causes, with results: first, the Candidate Figure is unknown or unpopular. Second, party administrators are less well known and not close to the community. Third, programs and issues are not in accordance with the aspirations of the people. Fourth, the image of leaders and administrators is rarely covered by the mass media. Fifth, the performance of legislators and regional heads from the United Nations is not aspiration and less publicized.

Outreach Activities and Teacher Training Programs in Turkey

In this paper, outreach activities and teacher training programs that are held in Turkey are presented. There are star parties, public nights, summer schools and open house events among public outreach activities in astronomy. More than a decade special courses and concentrated training programs are organized for science teachers, especially. With the inclusion of planetariums and science centers outreach activities have become more productive in the recent years.

Some Daytime Activities in Solar Astronomy

This century's transits of Venus (2004, 2012) captured significant public attention, reminding us that the wonders of astronomy need not be confined to the night. And while nighttime telescope viewing gatherings (a.k.a. “star parties”) are perennially popular, astronomy classes are typically held in the daytime. The logistics of coordinating students outside of class can often be problematic, leading to dark-sky activities that are relegated to extra credit for only those who can attend.

Star Parties in Mexico extended to Colombia and China

The preparation for The International Year of Astronomy 2009 stirred our interest in preparing star parties in Mexico. The lunar eclipse of February 20th 2008 was the perfect event for the first massive observation in Mexico City that attracted over 25,000 people. To accompany this event there were additional attractions: a massive astronomical lecture, more than 100 telescopes were set up for people to watch the sky, exhibits of astronomical images, children hands-on projects, rock concert, dance performance, and chats with astronomers. Already in 2009 a collective program was organized to involve more than 30 sites in Mexico to hold star parties at the same time once a year. These star parties were more in the spirit of science fairs, that include lectures, astronomy exhibits, children projects, as well as concerts and other cultural displays. The scope of each one of them depended on the local support from volunteers and from the local authorities. After the International Year of Astronomy the group that organized these star parties decided to continue its activities. The main attraction in these fairs has been the opportunity to see the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn (if observable) through a telescope. For this program the presence of the amateur astronomers has been crucial. They have brought their instruments to the sites and have generously taught the public how to look through the telescopes and pointed out to the interesting features on the sky.

Driftless Dark Skies Initiative: Training Astronomy Educators

The Driftless Dark Skies Initiative is training and supporting a cohort of a dozen astronomy educators who make use of the unique resources of the Kickapoo Valley Reserve to inspire and inform school groups and the public about the night sky and space exploration by offering nature programs and public star parties.

Jadwal A‘māl al-Aḥzāb al-Islāmīyah fī Indonesia al-Mu‘āṣirah: Bayn al-Sharī‘ah wa al-Dīmūqratīyah

This article discusses the responses of the proponents of political Islam toward the downfall of New Order regime and in creating political power at grassroots level. This trend has been marked by the demand to include those ‘seven words’ of the Jakarta Chapter of 1945 into the constitution. This aspiration has been represented by three major Islamic parties: United Development Party (PPP); the Crescent Star Party (PBB); and the Justice Party (PK). However, this political Islam aspiration has also been expressed by Muslim–based parties, namely the Nation’s Awakening Party (PKB) and the National Mandate Party (PAN). These two parties represent Indonesia’s largest Muslim organisations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah respectively. PKB and PAN do not have agendas to implement Islamic sharī‘ah. The two parties consider that, theoretically, a relation between Islam and politics exists but not in the formal sense of a governmental system.DOI: 10.15408/sdi.v20i1.351

Communicating Astronomy in a Metropolis and Disaster Area – Activities of the Tenpla Project

AbstractWe present recent activities delivering astronomy to the public by the Tenpla project in Japan. One is voluntary activities in the disaster area of the Great East Japan Earthquake. The other is holding tens of star parties and public lectures in the central area of Tokyo.

Making a real impact

If you work in science, if you’re involved with education, if you’re a parent, you will have seen at first hand the fascination that science can have for children and young people. Whether it is dinosaurs, stars or the Large Hadron Collider, we’ve all seen them captivated by the thrill of it all. And we tend to think that the excitement experienced when young will lead to more people getting the education that will bring them into scientific and technical careers in the future. Attempts to establish that link as cause and effect – that a star party at the local observatory, for example, led directly to a profitable software company 25 years later – don’t work. But everyone I know who is working in any scientific or technical field mentions “Wow!” moments from their childhood, when they encountered something that revealed to them what science could do. It could have been a book, a rock, seeing Saturn through a telescope, a meteorite... It was often something that an inspirational teacher brought into their lives. That’s one reason why the RAS has established the Patrick Moore Medal to recognize the role of teachers in drawing the next generation into science. Becky Parker’s work in Kent shows how powerful astronomy can be in engaging young people. For one school to produce 1% of current physics undergraduates is strong evidence that outreach gets results. And it is good news that the value of public engagement of science has been recognized by David Willetts, the Science and Universities Minister, in his ambitious plans to boost UK research and industry. Outreach inspires the industrialists of the future – it is an area where scientists and government alike can agree on the importance of making an impact. Editorial NEws

RAS Fellow visits the White House

An IYA2009 star party took a Fellow of the RAS to the White House in Washington DC in October last year.

Promoting astronomy for the development of society in Nepal

AbstractAstronomy as one of the oldest sciences has influenced and spurred steady development of society and culture. Inherent superstitious beliefs and their related rituals that have been hampering the progress and prosperity of nations have been dispelled and reduced considerably through the promotion of astronomical activities at all levels of the society. For disseminating basic knowledge and logic of astronomical facts that were deemed important for the development of our society, various programmes have been conducted through mass media. Many talk programmes, seminars and star parties were organised in different places. Our experiences when planning and executing such programmes are summarised and illustrated. The effectiveness of our programmes with the participation of general public is discussed in detail. Positive results of our activities that have contributed towards creation of substantial awareness of astronomy for the development of our society in Nepal are explained.

The “Nuits des étoiles” events (1991–2008) and their impact on the French astronomical leisure landscape

AbstractThe popular event Nuits des étoiles has become in France the summer encounter with the sky. More than 400 events are set up for three consecutive days each year: several thousands of voluntary organisers invite more and more people to observe the heavens and discover astronomy. Each summer, those collective star parties reach about one hundred thousand people, several millions of sky maps are printed and distributed by newspapers and the associated TV live program broadcast by France 2 channel interested 1 to 3 millions spectators. Since 1991, Nuits des étoiles has helped to develop organisations at the local level and increased the stakeholders' interest in general public awareness. It contributed in France to strengthen and professionalise an astronomical leisure offer.

The universe: yours to discover

The International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009) was declared by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2007. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, together with the International Astronomical Union, are leading the celebrations under the theme ‘The universe, yours to discover’. IYA2009 marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei’s first astronomical observation through a telescope. It will be a global celebration of astronomy and its contribution to society and culture, with a strong emphasis on education, public engagement and the involvement of young people. IYA2009 is supported by 11 cornerstone projects—global programmes of activities centred on specific themes. Whether it is the support and promotion of women in astronomy, the preservation of dark-sky sites around the world, or educating and explaining the workings of the universe to the public, these projects will be the key components of the programme. In recognition of the role that this event has to play in developing nations, especially those that have neither observatories nor astronomy departments in their universities, the 11th cornerstone project is entitled ‘Developing Astronomy Globally’. In South Africa celebrations kicked off with a six-day star party at Sutherland, which culminated in the dawn of the new year 2009 at midnight on 1 January. Later in the year several other local activities will be offered by our observatories, planetaria and science centres, which will be listed on the IYA2009 website www. astronomy2009.org.za South Africa has also taken a leading role on the African continent to ensure that IYA2009 benefits as many people across Africa as possible, an objective in line with the vision of facilities such as the Southern African Large Telescope. Through programmes such as the National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme and those offered by the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cape Town, South Africa already hosts research training for students from across Africa. IYA2009 is an opportunity to significantly advance collaboration in Africa in the astronomy field. IYA2009 is not just an opportunity to promote astronomy, but also to stimulate the imagination of young and old alike across the continent. We recognise that the most sustainable form of development is education, and celebrating a year of astronomy is an opportunity to stimulate curiosity in people’s minds, and to inspire them towards adopting a learning culture. The theme adopted by the numerous African countries involved in IYA2009 is thus ‘Astronomy for Education’. The year is not just going to be about appreciating the beautiful sky, but rather about what we in Africa can do with it, and how we can use this sky—this subject of astronomy—for the development of our people.

The top ten toys in Europe

Reports the Duracell survey of favourite toy purchases in nine European countries, and how it is conducted. Lists and comments on the top 10 toys Europe‐wide: Tecnitoys’ SCX Monza Set, Smoby’s Star Party CD, Smoby’s No.1 football table, Zapf Creation’s My Model, Game Boy Advance SP, Smoby’s Ma Palette Beaute, Konami’s Battle Accel, LEGO Dirt Crusher, Geomag Panels 220pcs, and Giochi Preziosi’s Robosapiens. Moves on to findings from the qualitative research conducted with children and parents: playing with toys remains the favourite leisure activity, pocket money normally starts at six years old, 58 per cent of children save money from gifts, children attend an average of eight birthday parties a year and spend 13 Euros on the host’s present, Toys “R” Us is their favourite toy store, and they receive an average of seven toys at Christmas and four or five on their birthday.

Astronomical Society Bestows Honors

Last month, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific presented this year’s awards, including one being given for the first time, at its annual meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota. Hans Bethe, professor emeritus of physics at Cornell University, was awarded the Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal, the ASP’s highest honor, “for his fundamental and lifelong contributions to our understanding of how stars produce energy.” Working with other physicists in the 1930s, Bethe calculated the detailed nuclear fusion reactions that power stars such as the Sun. He explained how hydrogen nuclei fuse to form helium nuclei, thus releasing energy in the process. He also explained how more massive stars generate energy through the carbon cycle. Later research helped astronomers to better understand how massive stars explode at the end of their lives as supernovae. For these and other contributions, Bethe received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1967. Joseph R. Caruso was recognized with the Las Cumbres Amateur Outreach Award, which is new this year. This award honors outstanding outreach to children and the public by an amateur astronomer. Caruso, a technician at the Oak Ridge Observatory, was acknowledged for making “extraordinary and sustained contributions to astronomy education and outreach in the greater Boston area for more than 25 years.”The ASP presented the Thomas J. Brennan Award, which recognizes exceptional achievement related to the teaching of astronomy at the high-school level, to James G. Hill, founder and director of the French Camp Academy’s Rainwater Observatory and Planetarium in French Camp, Mississippi. In addition to teaching astronomy to high-school students, Hill conducts teacher workshops and introductory astronomy classes for the public and is a solar system educator and ambassador at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He also established and coordinates the Mid-South Star Gaze, an annual star party held at the Rainwater Observatory. Syuichi Nakano received the Amateur Achievement Award in part for his work in computing comet orbits for nearly a quarter of a century. Nakano is an amateur astronomer and liaison in Japan for the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, which is based at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He also organizes Japanese amateur astronomers involved in astrometric work on comets and minor planets, and Japanese observers who calculate orbits.The Robert J. Trumpler Award went to Michael A. Pahre (photo unavailable), who is with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The award is given to a recent PhD-degree recipient whose doctoral research is considered unusually important to astronomy. In 1998, Pahre received his PhD from Caltech under the supervision of George Djorgovski. Pahre studied more than 300 galaxies at optical and infrared wavelengths and found that the ages, velocities, and distributions of their stars varied according to the mass of the host galaxies. His observations of more than 100 elliptical galaxies revealed that stars in those galaxies formed when the universe was only 10% of its current age. His findings also suggested that less massive elliptical galaxies evolve slightly faster than more massive ones, implying that the low-mass galaxies formed later, which is in accordance with theoretical predictions. Sandi Preston, director of public information and education with the McDonald Observatory of the University of Texas at Austin, was honored with the Dorothea Klumpke-Roberts Award, which recognizes an individual’s outstanding contributions to public understanding and appreciation of astronomy. Preston is responsible for the observatory’s public information and education programs, including the syndicated radio programs StarDate and Universo and StarDate magazine.The ASP’s Maria and Eric Muhlmann Award, which honors scientists who have obtained important research results based on their development of instruments and techniques at the forefront of technology, went to Keith Taylor, head of instrumentation in the astronomy division at Caltech. When he worked at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, Taylor produced the first Fabry-Perot imaging spectrograph, which enabled astronomers at the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) in central New South Wales, Australia, to investigate the velocity and distribution of elements in objects such as nebulae and nearby galaxies. He also played a key role in the development of AAT’s low-dispersion survey spectrograph. He developed and managed the design and construction of the Two-Degree Field system (2Df), located at the AAT, which combines a highly complex wide-field corrector for the AAT with 400 robotically positioned optical fibers that feed a pair of multiobject spectrometers. To date, the survey has produced redshifts for more than 200‥000 galaxies. Bethe ROBERT BARKER/CORNELLPPT|High resolution Caruso KAREN CARUSOPPT|High resolution Hill JAMES G. HILLPPT|High resolution Nakano TAKESHI URATAPPT|High resolution Preston DAVID NEUSE/MCDONALD OBSV.PPT|High resolution Taylor KEITH TAYLORPPT|High resolution© 2001 American Institute of Physics.

Spanish Translation for Astronomy Outreach

Astronomy and space science outreach to the Hispanic community in Madison has taken many forms and presents many challenges. With support from WSGC, UW Space Place has experimented with a wide variety of Spanish-language outreach, including both bi-lingual (English presentation with simultaneous translation into Spanish) and Spanish-only interactive sessions, lectures in Spanish, star parties with Spanish interpreters present, community science “fairs” targeted for the Spanish-speaking community, and Spanish translations of exhibit materials. (See proceedings paper from last year.) In addition to the program development itself, each of these types of outreach requires Spanish-language promotional materials, support materials (e.g. agendas and event maps), and supplementary materials, such as take-home brochures. Thus, the simple-sounding process of translation itself arises constantly, although in different contexts, from beginning to end. I report here on the particular matter of translating outreach material of various sorts into Spanish. The appendix to this report contains examples of this translation work, funded entirely by WSGC.Â

Star parties

The subculture of star party attendees has rarely been addressed within anthropology. Through an ethnographic approach, this paper explores the customs and motivations of those who skywatch at star party gatherings. Some factors that motivate people to attend these gatherings include the sharing of technology, camaraderie, scientific learning, environmental advocacy, and emotional connections with the universe itself. Additionally, digital versus physical spaces are explored and contrasted. More broadly, this paper looks at possible reasons for the popularity of astronomy within our culture today.