Function: To develop and foster contact and communication between the IPS and other professional and educational organizations, as well as to distribute database resources for use in planetariums around the world.
This committee works on making ongoing contact with such organizations as the International Astronomical Union, the American Astronomical Society, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and the Space Telescope Institute. The committee facilitates information between the IPS membership and international space agencies such as NASA, ESA, CNES and JSA.
Committee Members
Jon Elvert, Chair <jelvert@lasm.org>
Irene W. Pennington Planetarium
Louisiana Art & Science Museum
100 South River Road
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802 USA
(1) 225 344 5272 x141
Shoichi Itoh
Research Expert and Project Leader
Public Relations Center
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
National Institute of Natural Sciences
2-21-1 Osawa, Mitaka,
Tokyo, 181-8588 JAPAN
+81-(0)422-34-3802
+81-(0)422-34-3810 fax shoichi.itoh@nao.ac.jp
The International Year of Astronomy 2009 is supported by eleven cornerstone projects. These are global programmes of activities centred on a specific theme and represent the means to achieve the IYA 2009’s main goals; 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 millions, the eleven cornerstones will be the key facets of the success of the IYA 2009. Below you can find a brief update from the Cornerstone Project task groups:
• 100 Hours of Astronomy
The "100 hours of astronomy" will take place in the weekend of Thursday, April 2nd, through Sunday, April 5th, 2009. This includes two weekdays (school days), which is ideal for students and teachers, and two weekend days, which is ideal for families. The Moon is at first quarter on the 2nd, so it is at a good phase for early-evening observing that whole weekend.
• The Galileoscope This cornerstone wants to share this observational and personal experience with as many people as possible across the world. The task group is developing a simple, accessible, easy-to-assemble and easy-to-use telescope that can be distributed by the millions. Ideally, every participant in an IYA2009 event should be able to take home one of these little telescopes.
• Cosmic Diary
Since October 2007, the Cosmic Diary Cornerstone Project has done some important progresses. The first aim is to set up a blog, where a group of astronomers will be able to discuss their work, their lives and hobbies, at the same time as they communicate science to the public. Although this is the main objective of the project, we are making every effort to take it beyond and produce a Cosmic Diary Book and a Cosmic Diary Documentary.
• The Portal to the Universe
The Portal to the Universe will enable innovative access to, and vastly multiply the use of, astronomy multimedia resources – including news, images, videos, events, podcasts, vodcasts etc. The implementation of this project is foreseen to be led by the ESA/Hubble, which is prepared to sponsor a considerable amount of manpower for the construction and first year or two of operation. The work will be done in close cooperation with the IAU IYA Secretariat.
• She is an Astronomer
The aim of the project is to provide neutral, informative and handful information to female professional and amateur astronomers, students and those who are generally interested in the gender equality problem in science. We believe that providing this information can help to increase the interest of young females to study astronomy, and to pursue a career in astronomy.
• Dark Skies Awareness
For this cornerstone project, IAU will collaborate with the U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatory, International Dark-Sky Association and other national and international partners in dark sky and environmental education on several related themes, including worldwide measurements of local dark skies by thousands of citizen-scientists using both unaided eyes and digital sky-quality meters, star parties, new lighting technologies, arts & storytelling, and health and ecosystems.
• Astronomy and World Heritage UNESCO and the IAU are working together to implement a research and education collaboration as part of UNESCO’s Astronomy and World Heritage project. This initiative aims at the recognition and promotion of achievements in science through the nomination of architectural properties, sites or landscape forms related to the observation of the sky through the history of mankind or connected with astronomy in some other way.
• Galileo Teacher Training Programme
The goal of this cornerstone is to create by 2012 a world-wide network of certified Galileo Ambassadors, Master Teachers and Teachers. Included in the programme is the use of workshops and on-line training tools to teach the topics of robotic optical and radio telescopes, web cams, astronomy exercises, cross-disciplinary resources, image processing, and digital universes (web and desktop planetariums).
• Universe Awareness
UNAWE is an international outreach activity that inspires young disadvantaged children with the beauty and grandeur of the universe. UNAWE enables the exchange of ideas and materials through networking and interdisciplinary workshops.
• From Earth to the Universe - an exhibit of astronomical images
This cornerstone will generate and facilitate exhibitions of astronomical images around the world in a variety of settings during IYA2009. One crucial goal of this effort would be to place these images in “non-traditional” locations. That is, we hope that in addition to having these images featured in “traditional” settings such as science centres and planetariums, other types of locations such as public parks, metro stations, art centres, and others would be host to these images. In short, we hope to expose astronomy to the general public in an unexpected yet accessible manner.
• Developing Astronomy Globally
A cornerstone project that responds to the acknowledgement that astronomy needs to be developed, both professionally (universities, research), publicly (communication, media, amateur groups) and educationally (schools) in various countries that do not have strong astronomy communities. The implementation would be focussed on training and development at each of the levels mentioned above. This cornerstone will focus on developing countries and parts of developed countries which are lagging.
2008 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference
The Lunar and Planetary Institute invites all interested planetarians to join us for the 2008 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. This annual conference is attended by approximately 1400 planetary scientists from around the world, and takes place in Houston (League City), Texas, March 10-14 2008. It is hosted by the Lunar and Planetary Institute and the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Directorate of NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
Planetarians are invited to register to attend several free educator workshops being offered by planetary science mission education leads, as well as the free E/PO Forum: Reaching the Moon.
As part of the Outreach Committee's efforts to assist planetariums in developing countries, David Weinrich reports: "We have been talking about ways of helping astronomy educators in developing countries for the past two years. Now we are ready for a pilot project that we hope will lead to future astronomical outreach to many developing countries." As part of this pilot project a refurbished Mediaglobe digital projector will be donated by Joanne Young at Audio Visual Imagineering, Inc.(AVI) to the Ghana Science Center in Africa. The science center will provide funding for shipping it from Orlando, Florida to Ghana. They will also provide a dome for the projector, identify local science teachers or astronomy enthusiasts who can be trained to operate the system and give shows and provide funding for the training.
Dave explains, "We felt that it is especially important that there be active involvement of personnel and resources from Ghana. They have to be involved in the planning, the implementation and the future operation of the planetarium."
"We believe that it is especially important that local personnel be trained to run the planetarium and that there is adequate documentation of the project for media presentations and for reports to the International Planetarium Society."
Congratulations to David and Joanne for getting this project off the ground. Thank you Joanne for your generosity too; this could not happen without you.
Committee Members 
Thomas Kraupe <