Years Of Astronomy Research Articles

IAU South-West and Central Asian Regional Office of Astronomy for Development

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced its Strategic Plan on Astronomy for Development in 2009, during the International Year of Astronomy (IYA). One of its main components was the creation of the Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD) and corresponding Regional Offices (ROADs) for implementation and coordination of its aims. The OAD was created in Cape Town, South Africa and later on ROADs were created in 11 regions. Since 2015, Armenia hosts one of them, IAU South West Asian (SWA), later renamed to South West and Central Asian (SWCA) ROAD. At present, already 6 countries have officially joined (Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Turkey), but the Office serves for a rather broad region, from Eastern Europe to Central Asia. Armenia's geographical location and its historical role in astronomy (both for well-known archaeoastronomical heritage and the presence of the famous Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory (BAO) founded by Viktor Ambartsumian in 1946) serve as a link between Europe and Eastern Partnership countries, Middle East and Asia in general. We run activities in 3 directions, Task Forces (TF): TF1 Universities and Research, TF2 Children and Schools and TF3 Public Outreach. We present our projects and all other accomplishments and discuss the role of our ROAD in maintaining contacts and development of astronomy in the region, as well as contacts between Europe and the Eastern Partnership countries. Most up-to-date information about the IAU SWCA ROAD is available on its webpage at http://iau-swa-road.aras.am/eng/index.php.

Eight years after IYA2009: a successful project of Outreach and Astronomy Education on selected countryside towns in Mexico

We present the main results of a multidisciplinary project on education and outreach in Guanajuato (Mexico). This collaboration was initiated in the International Year of Astronomy (IYA09, IAU-UNESCO, 2009) and is led by a team including astronomers, sociologists and environment biologists. The Astronomy activities had their origin at the Public Observatory of Universidad de Guanajuato, where an outreach program was dedicated to young students, teachers and the general public. Thanks to the many activities linked to IYA09, the astronomers joined with a group of sociologists working on the development of rural zones of the Mexican State of Guanajuato. This region undergoes a high rate of migration towards the USA. Working together, our goals were enlarged, having important results on different aspects like social development, environment recovering and education. Astronomy plays a central role within this project, mainly through activities like stargazing, science games for young public, Astronomy courses for teachers, and talks for a wide audience.

Indigenous Australian artists and astrophysicists come together to communicate science and culture via art

During the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, we initiated a collaboration between astrophysicists in Western Australia working toward building the largest telescope on Earth, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), and Indigenous artists living in the region where the SKA is to be built. We came together to explore deep traditions in Indigenous culture, including perspectives of the night sky, and the modern astrophysical understanding of the Universe. Over the course of the year, we travelled as a group and camped at the SKA site, we sat under the stars and shared stories about the constellations, and we talked about the telescopes we wanted to build and how they could sit on the Indigenous traditional country. We found lots of interesting points of connection in our discussions and both artists and astronomers found inspiration. The artists then produced <150 original works of art, curated as an exhibition called “Ilgarijiri — Things belonging to the Sky” in the language of the Wadjarri Yamatji people. This was exhibited in Geraldton, Perth, Canberra, South Africa, Brussels, the U.S.A., and Germany over the course of the next few years. In 2015, the concept went further, connecting with Indigenous artists from South Africa, resulting in the “Shared Sky” exhibition, which now tours the ten SKA member countries. The exhibitions communicate astrophysics and traditional Indigenous stories, as well as carry to the world Indigenous culture and art forms. The process behind the collaboration is an example of the Reconciliation process in Australia, successful through thoughtful and respectful engagements, built around common human experiences and points of contact (the night sky). This Commentary briefly describes the collaboration, its outcomes, and future work.

Video killed the writing assignment

We move pretty fast in the introductory astronomy class at Albion College (Albion, MI)—13.7 billion years of astronomy in about 15 weeks (one semester). Thus, it is virtually impossible to talk about all of the really interesting things that are happening in our solar system, our galaxy, and the universe, or about the really cool people and instruments that make our observations possible. This may or may not be a problem because students take this course for different reasons—to satisfy a graduation requirement, because it fits in their schedule, and/or because they are interested in astronomy in general.

The IAU, from New Worlds to Exoworlds: recollections of a mandate

AbstractThis paper presents my own recollections of the difficult relations that existed between the IAU and a fraction of the public, especially in the USA, following the IAU decision to reclassify Pluto as a dwarf planet at the 2006 General Assembly in Prague, and which ultimately led the IAU to organize the NameExoWorlds international contest to give public names to selected exoplanets and their host stars. In spite of the success of the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, the Pluto controversy continued, and its consequences climaxed during my term (2012-2015), as NASA’s New Horizons probe approached Pluto for a flyby just before the 2015 General Assembly in Honolulu. It was during this period that the IAU launched the NameExoWorlds contest, which also came to a conclusion in Honolulu after over half a million votes were cast from all over the world. While the inside story of how the contest was organized has appeared elsewhere, here I focus on the historical and sociological context that made Pluto such a sensitive issue, especially in the USA, explaining why this contest generated another controversy between the IAU and the New Horizons team. However, after the world-wide success of NameExoWorlds, the IAU and the New Horizons team eventually reached an agreement on finalizing the characterization and names of a number of newly discovered Pluto and Charon surface features (an on-going process), while a new edition of NameExoWorlds is in preparation for the IAU centennial in 2019.

Joint Constraints on Galactic Diffuse Neutrino Emission from the ANTARES and IceCube Neutrino Telescopes

Abstract The existence of diffuse Galactic neutrino production is expected from cosmic-ray interactions with Galactic gas and radiation fields. Thus, neutrinos are a unique messenger offering the opportunity to test the products of Galactic cosmic-ray interactions up to energies of hundreds of TeV. Here we present a search for this production using ten years of Astronomy with a Neutrino Telescope and Abyss environmental RESearch (ANTARES) track and shower data, as well as seven years of IceCube track data. The data are combined into a joint likelihood test for neutrino emission according to the KRA model assuming a 5 PeV per nucleon Galactic cosmic-ray cutoff. No significant excess is found. As a consequence, the limits presented in this Letter start constraining the model parameter space for Galactic cosmic-ray production and transport.

200 Years of Astronomy in South Africa: From the Royal Observatory to the ‘Big Bang’ of the Square Kilometre Array

South Africa has been an important site for southern hemisphere astronomy since La Caille’s observations in the 1750s. A new phase of international significance now dawns as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is being assembled in the Karoo. This huge project forms part of an international consortium and it promises to give South Africa a leading edge in radio astronomy. A strong developmentalist agenda pushed by its promoters goes along with the promise that science can benefit humankind. This article surveys the history of astronomy in South Africa from the perspective of the politics of knowledge. It identifies several different phases in the development of astronomy, from its colonial origins in the 19th century to its entrenchment as a South African-based discipline in the 20th century, following a long period of heavy reliance on investment and expertise from abroad. The article argues that astronomy was only fully ‘nationalised’ in the apartheid era. In the post-apartheid era, South Africa’s special place as a portal into the southern skies has been important to the country’s re-emergence as a site for the globalisation of knowledge and legitimated by the promise of a scientifically led ‘African renaissance’. The article concludes by posing questions about the SKA’s future in the light of the history of colonial and post-colonial knowledge exchange.

Q&A: Virginia Trimble on 50-plus years in astronomy

Q&A: Virginia Trimble on 50-plus years in astronomy

IAU South West and Central Asian Regional Office of Astronomy for Development

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) announced its Strategic Plan on Astronomy for Development in 2009, during the International Year of Astronomy (IYA). One of its main components was the creation of the Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD) and corresponding Regional Offices (ROADs) for implementation and coordination of its aims. The OAD was created in Cape Town, South Africa and later on ROADs were created in 8 regions. Since 2015, Armenia hosts one of them, IAU South West Asian (SWA), later renamed to South West and Central Asian (SWCA) ROAD. At present, already 6 countries have officially joined (Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Turkey), but the Office serves for a rather broad region, from Eastern Europe to Central Asia. Armenia’s geographical location and its historical role in astronomy (both for well-known archaeoastronomical heritage and the presence of the famous Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory (BAO) founded by Viktor Ambartsumian in 1946) serve as a link between Europe and Eastern Partnership countries, Middle East and Asia in general. We run activities in 3 directions, Task Forces (TF): TF1 Universities and Research, TF2 Children and Schools and TF3 Public Outreach. We present our projects and all other accomplishments and discuss the role of our ROAD in maintaining contacts and development of astronomy in the region, as well as contacts between Europe and the Eastern Partnership countries. Most up-to-date information about the IAU SWCA ROAD is available on its webpage at http://iau-swaroad.aras.am/eng/index.php.

광환경과 기상조건에 따른 야간조도 영향 분석

This study deals with the light environments and weather conditions affecting to the night illuminance over the Korean peninsula. The experiment was executed to analyze the effects on the illuminance at separate sites(Gyeryong and Pilseung) considering the different light environments. The analysis was applied to illuminance measurement from the lightmeter, which was developed for the IYA(International Year of Astronomy) 2009, in order to observe the illuminance of areal networks. The weather observations, such as the cloud cover and visibility, were used to understand the quantitative influence of the illuminance to the selected sites. The results show that the illuminance measurements are significantly different from data of the operational illuminance prediction model which simply applies extinction effect for the illuminance. It shows that these differences are caused by the light environments and weather conditions for each site. Therefore, it can be confirmed that the night illuminance is the output of interaction with the characteristics of light for luminous sources.

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.

What makes astronomical heritage valuable? Identifying potential Outstanding Universal Value in cultural properties relating to astronomy

AbstractThis communication presents the situation regarding astronomical and archaeoastronomical heritage related to the World Heritage Convention through recent years up until today. Some parallel events and works were promoted strongly within the IAU–UNESCO Initiative during the International Year of Astronomy (2009). This was followed by a joint program by the IAU and ICOMOS—an official advisory body assisting the World Heritage Committee in the evaluation of nomination dossiers. The result of that work is an important publication by around 40 authors from 20 different countries all around the world: Heritage Sites of Astronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the Context of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention (Ruggles & Cotte 2010). A second volume is under preparation (2015). It was also accompanied by some initiatives such as the “Windows to the Universe" organisation and the parallel constitution of local “Starlight Reserves”. Some regional meetings studying specific facets or regional heritage in the field giving significant knowledge progresses also accompanied the global trend for astronomical heritage.WH assessment is defined by a relatively strict format and methodology. A key phrase is “demonstration of Outstanding Universal Value” to justify the WH Listing by the Committee. This communication first examines the requirements and evaluation practices about of demonstrating OUV for a given place in the context of astronomical or archaeoastronomical heritage. That means the examination of the tangible attributes, an inventory of the property in terms of immoveable and moveable components and an inventory of intangible issues related to the history (history of the place in the context of the history of astronomy and cultural history). This is also related to the application to the site of the concept of integrity and authenticity, as regards the place itself and in comparison with other similar places (WH sites already listed, sites on national WH Tentative Lists, or other similar places in the region). The second issue of the communication is to give a glimpse of today's WH List, including some difficulties with listing and occasional failures, and trends and promising approaches.

Book Review: A History of Telescopes

A HISTORY OF TELESCOPES 400 Years of Astronomical Telescopes: A Review of History, Science and Technology. Edited by Bernhard Brandi, Remdo Stuik and Jeannette Katgert-Merkelijn (Springer, Dordrecht, 2010). Pp. xvi + 535. $179. ISBN 978-90-481-2232-5.This wonderful book, with experts describing telescopes and related astronomical facilities from before Galileo into the twenty-first century, will stand the test of time. The series of articles are from a conference held in Leiden in 2008 to mark the oncoming International Year of Astronomy. As the conference organizer Bernhard Brandi writes in his preface, almost all the invited speakers accepted, making the conference important indeed for the history of astronomy.The 104 pages in the section on the History of Optical Telescopes begins with Albert Van Helden starting with Lipperhey, Giorgio Strano describing the details of Galileo's own telescopes, and Jim Bennett bringing us up to Lord Rosse. James Lequeux discusses the great nineteenth-century refractors. Leiden Observatory, where the conference was held, was founded in 1633, making it 380 years old. My own Hopkins Observatory of Williams College, the oldest in the United States, was founded 175 years ago, making it almost half as old. We gave Alvan Clark his start, commissioning him to build us a telescope, his first, installed here in 1852, though his 7 starter refractor doesn't rival his 40 magnum opus, listed along with other large refractors in a four-page table in Lequeux's entry. David DeVorkin and Patrick McCray then bring us through the increasingly bigger reflectors of the twentieth century.The 117 pages in the section on the History of Non-Optical Telescopes present Woody Sullivan on radio telescopes, George Rieke on infrared telescopes, Riccardo Giacconi on x-ray telescopes, Klaus Pinkau on gamma-ray telescopes, Heinrich Volk and Konrad Bemlohr on higher-energy gamma-ray telescopes (the only entry with colour photographs), Oskar von der Luhe on solar telescopes, and Atsuto Suzuki and Masatoshi Koshiba on neutrino telescopes. It is too bad that there is no way of keeping this volume continually updated with, for example, the 2013 report of extremely high energy neutrinos detected with the IceCube array buried in Antarctic ice.The 60 pages in the following section include a miscellany of Eric H0g on astrometry (as we await the launching of Gaia to supersede the Tycho catalogue from Hipparcos that H0g supervised), Malcolm Longair on historical case studies including the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram for which we celebrate its centenary in 2014, Detlev Koschny on amateur telescopes, and C. R. [Bob] O'Dell with a behind-the-scenes history of how the Hubble Space Telescope came to be. (In section V, Martin Harwit continues the story with the unofficial history of NASA's continued program called Great Observatories.)In the 124-page section on Fundamental Telescope Technologies we learn from Lothar Noethe about telescope mirrors from casting to adaptive optics, Pierre Lena more about adaptive optics, Jason Spyromilio about telescope mounts and domes, Andreas Quirrenbach about the history of astronomical interferometry, Ian Robson and Harry van der Laan about submillimetre telescopes (though the opening of ALMA is too recent to be included), James Cordes about future radio telescopes including plans for SKA, Bernd Aschenbach about x-ray telescope design and performance, and Neil Gehrels and John Cannizzo about gamma-ray telescopes. …

A SURVEY OF ASTRONOMICAL RESEARCH: A BASELINE FOR ASTRONOMICAL DEVELOPMENT

Measuring scientific development is a difficult task. Different metrics have been put forward to evaluate scientific development; in this paper we explore a metric that uses the number of peer-reviewed, and when available non-peer-reviewed articles, research research articles as an indicator of development in the field of astronomy. We analyzed the available publication record, using the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Database System, by country affiliation in the time span between 1950 and 2011 for countries with a Gross National Income of less than 14,365 USD in 2010. This represents 149 countries. We propose that this metric identifies countries in `astronomy development' with a culture of research publishing. We also propose that for a country to develop astronomy it should invest in outside expert visits, send their staff abroad to study and establish a culture of scientific publishing. Furthermore, we propose that this paper may be used as a baseline to measure the success of major international projects, such as the International Year of Astronomy 2009.

CHAPTER I: TWENTY EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Welcome to Beijing and IAU XXVIII General Assembly. Although the world economic situation continues to show stress, the science of astronomy is flourishing on many fronts. True, we are not immune to the negative effects of sharply reduced funding for projects and positions, yet our do-main sees increased international collaboration, pioneering facilities and techniques in development, and significant discoveries that are changing the way humanity thinks about the universe and our place in it. Programs that the IAU has undertaken such as the United Nations International Year of Astronomy 2009 and the creation of the Office of Astronomy for Development in Cape Town have been hugely successful.

Extending Vision: Sky-situated Knowledge and the Artist’s Eye

Increasingly, we are looking beyond our planet to speculate about our place in the Universe. In the context of ideas about the sky and cosmic space, art works have the potential to provoke curiosity and to play an educative and imaginative role in visualising connections with science, history and a space beyond the full range of our senses. While both artists and scientists reconstruct the material world on the basis of understanding, artists are able to exploit subjectivity and are not accountable to demonstrate proof. In this way, art seeks a poetic dimension or insight which speaks of things outside art in new or different ways. This paper discusses my recent research and the exhibitions I curated in order to coincide with the 2009 International Year of Astronomy. Included in these were an astro­photographer and a number of Australian artists, both Western and Indigenous, whose work has been influenced by the speculative and experimental processes involved with observation, image-capture and mapping, and the technological developments which shape human consciousness. They draw also on the history of human efforts to picture whatever lies beyond Earth’s atmosphere. This space, mostly beyond the naked eye, is revealed now through a machine-produced visibility which extends our vision. Together, these works show us how various systems of knowledge have sought to make sense of the cosmos and our place within it.

Science in an austerity world

It’s a new academic year, a time for knuckling down and getting some serious work done. And, for many researchers on funding panels in the UK and around the world, that means deciding what research, facilities and instruments we can no longer afford. The US astronomical community is contemplating a report from the National Science Foundation’s Division of Astronomical Sciences that recommends as unavoidable the end of funding for several medium and large facilities, including the Robert C Byrd Green Bank Telescope and the Very Long Baseline Array. While this would make possible investment in innovative projects such as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, the threatened facilities remain valuable astronomical instruments. In difficult times, outreach becomes more important than ever, as science tries to make its voice heard at government level. Working scientists are the best advocates of the wonder and worth of the science, in the direct applications of work in economically valuable ways, in inspiring young people and in broadening and deepening human knowledge. That’s why the International Astronomical Union’s decision to become more involved in education and outreach is so significant. The immensely successful International Year of Astronomy 2009 showed what the world’s astronomers could do working together; now international links through the IAU should help make the most of this most international of subjects. Let’s hope some of the political decision-makers will be watching this space.

Global Astronomy Month - An Annual Celebration of the Universe

AbstractOne of the most successful global outreach efforts in history was the International Year of Astronomy 2009. With the momentum created by this year long program, it was important to take the efforts to coming years. The Astronomers Without Borders organization captured the energy of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 and refocused it as an ongoing annual celebration of the Universe by organizing Global Astronomy Month, a worldwide celebration of astronomy in all its forms, every April. In 2010, the program saw professionals and amateur astronomers, educators and astronomy enthusiasts from around the globe participating together in the spirit of International Year of Astronomy 2009 and provided a global stage for established programs and a framework for partnerships. The 2011 version of the program saw much bigger participation with several global partner organizations joining in creating more than 40 global level programs throughout the month. Within a short period of two years, Global Astronomy Month has evolved to a much needed global platform after International Year of Astronomy 2009.

One World, One Sky: Outreach in a Multicultural, Multilingual Metropolis

As cities around the world grow more and more diverse, we must take this diversity into account in developing outreach activities and materials. The International Year of Astronomy in 2009 brought a lot of attention to the needs of underserved communities and developing countries, emphasizing the ideal of widespread access to astronomy outreach. Increasingly, however, we find that some of the same challenges facing underserved communities and developing countries are also present in modern metropolises. Conveniently, the linguistic and cultural diversity of our cities is more and more accurately reflected among the astronomy community. The diversity of the astronomical community itself creates opportunities for effective multicultural, multilingual outreach.

Status of astronomy in Rwanda and volunteer work at Kigali Institute of Education (KIE)

Until 2009, astronomy was undeveloped in Rwanda, without astronomy courses at universities and schools, astronomical facilities, or any outreach programmes. With the international year of astronomy in 2009, Dr. Pheneas Nkundabakura and Dr. Jean Uwamahoro from the KIE Maths-Physics department, both graduates from the South African NASSP Programme (http://www.star.ac.za), started a program of implementing the astronomical knowledge at schools and universities. During the same year 2009, IAU donated 100 galileoscopes for the secondary schools, and several astronomy workshops were organised for the teachers. IAU donated also 5 laptops to help students and lecturers to learn and use astronomy software. With this, KIE students have now a possibility to choose astronomy/space science for their undergraduate final year research projects. Moreover, there is an ongoing effort to look for further collaboration towards establishing the first astronomical facility (observatory) in the country.