The celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009
involved 148 countries, a number that confirms that the IYA2009
network is the largest ever in science. Activities and events from
these participating nations paint a picture of professional and
amateur astronomers bringing the Universe down to Earth through
countless projects, opening the eyes of the public to the wonders
above.
IYA2009 was launched by the International Astronomical Union
(IAU) and UNESCO under the theme "The Universe, Yours to Discover".
Abundant in grass-roots initiatives and global projects, this
venture has been highly visible and its impact will last for years.
As from today, astronomers from around the world have gathered in
Padua, Italy for the two-day official conclusion of IYA2009.
Reflecting on the events of the past year is on the agenda, and
there is no shortage of success stories to tell.
Most of the incredible initiatives have come from individual
countries.
IYA2009 supporters in Sweden created the
world's largest model of the Solar System. The Sun is represented
by the huge spherical Ericsson Globe Arena in central Stockholm and
the planets are distributed along the country.
Finland also made a huge scale Solar System
model, with the Sun located at the Helsinki Central Railway
Station, with a giant sticker representing our local star. During
the display around 50 000 people saw it every day!
Sticking with the transport theme, some Paris
Metro stations have been decked out with about 500 metres
of astronomical images, allowing millions of passengers to marvel
at the Universe.
During 2009 more than one million Canadians
have experienced a so-called "Galileo moment", an engaging
astronomical experience that has opened their eyes to the
Universe.
In Portugal more than 300 000 people
participated in this year's astronomy-themed Oceans festival. It
featured a Guinness World Record 4.8-km long canvas painted with
the help of enthusiastic volunteers.
In Japan more than 7 million people were
outside stargazing during 2009.
The IYA2009 presence in the new media sphere has been
tremendous: the number of IYA2009-related blog entries and tweets
reached millions.
The IYA2009 Cornerstone Project Cosmic Diary, a blog where 60
professional astronomers from around the world blog about their
lives, families, friends, hobbies and interests, as well as their
work, had more than 250 000 visitors and more than 2100 blog
entries.
As another example, more than 10 000 people participated in
Meteorwatch on Twitter, making this the first event of its kind,
and also one of the biggest mass-participation events of IYA2009.
On both nights of the Perseid meteor shower it was the #1 top
"trending topic", by far the most-discussed thing on the Twitter
network anywhere in the world!
Astronomy enthusiasts proved keen to innovate in ways of sharing
astronomy with the public, and one original way was through street
parades.
In January Indian astronomers took the grand
opportunity to showcase IYA2009 to the citizens of India by
presenting a tableau on astronomy in the Republic Day Parade in New
Delhi. Around 30 000 people were present to witness it.
During the Brazilian carnival Unidos da Tijuca,
a samba school from Rio de Janeiro themed its parade "astronomy" in
celebration of IYA2009. The parade typically has 600 000
spectators, and the number of TV viewers can reach hundreds of
millions, or even a billion.
In Dublin astronomy topics lined the streets
during the St. Patrick's Day Parade, with more than 675 000
participants.
In October a Galileo-actor marched as part of the famous
Columbus Day Parade in New York City, the world's
largest celebration of Italian-American culture.
The global IYA2009 projects have also been more successful than
anyone initially dared to imagine. Two worldwide star parties were
held in 2009: 100 Hours of Astronomy in April, and Galilean Nights
in October. In total more than 3 million people got involved, with
many members of the public seeing night sky objects such as planets
and the Moon through a telescope for the very first time; a
life-changing experience for many. A record-breaking and
unprecedented live 24-hour webcast called Around the World in 80
Telescopes was a true highlight during 100 Hours of Astronomy.
Featuring astronomical research observatories both on and off the
planet, the webcast gave members of the public a snapshot of life
at research observatories around the world during a single 24-hour
period, showing viewers the wide range of astronomers' activities
at many, often very different, observatories. The marathon webcast,
which had at least 200 000 viewers worldwide, gave a striking
demonstration of the global diversity of astronomical research.
Another hit of IYA2009 is the Galileoscope, a low-cost telescope
kit especially designed for the project. More than 110 000 of these
educational tools have been distributed in 96 countries, and
another 70 000 are in production. This style of practical science
extended to a wide variety of award-winning dark-skies education
programmes that are underway worldwide. More than 20 000
measurements of the night sky were made by citizen scientists
during IYA2009; many of these projects will continue in 2010. These
involve people in scientific research that is beneficial to
researchers measuring the impact of human development on our
environment, highlighting the fact that we all live on a single
planet with shared resources.
Seventeen developing countries have received seed grants to
stimulate astronomy educational and outreach (Macedonia, Nepal,
Uganda, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Gabon,
Rwanda, Uruguay, Tajikistan, Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago,
Mozambique, Pakistan and Tanzania). Their activities span from
astronomy education workshops for teachers, recording and
preservation of indigenous astronomy knowledge, production of
school astronomy education resources in local languages and many
more.
The From Earth to the Universe project enabled more than 500
exhibits of the most beautiful and inspiring large-format
astronomical images in 70 countries.
The IYA2009 Special project, The World at Night, coordinated
exhibitions in 24 shopping centres in 18 states across the US,
during summer and autumn 2009.
More than 75 nations have run Galileo Teacher Training Programs,
creating one of the largest astronomy education networks at a
global level.
The Portal to the Universe created the first "one-stop shop" for
astronomy news and has so far had more than 300 000 visitors since
its opening in April 2009.
"The International Year of Astronomy 2009 has been an
unforgettable journey and I am pleased to see that many of the
projects will continue" says Catherine Cesarsky, Chair of the
IYA2009 Working Group and the IAU's President during the majority
of last year's events.
Political interest in IYA2009 was also high, which in itself is
an achievement for any popularisation initiative. In the
United States of America, the House of
Representatives passed a resolution supporting IYA2009. The
Spanish Congress of Deputies also passed a law supporting
astronomy in the framework of IYA2009.
Heads of State were keen to express their support for the Year.
The President of the Portuguese Republic, Prof. Dr. Aníbal Cavaco
Silva, personally presided over the Portuguese IYA2009 Honour
Committee. The President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr. Danilo
Turk, became the patron of IYA2009 in Slovenia. Lech Kaczynski
presided over the Polish IYA2009 Honour Committee, while Prince
Felipe of Spain (Prince of Asturias) did the same for the Spanish
IYA2009 Honour Committee. The former Belgium Prime Minister and
current President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy,
voiced support of astronomy during an IYA2009 event in Belgium held
in April 2009. The former European Commissioner for Science and
Research and present European Commissioner for Environment, Janez
Potočnik, expressed his support of astronomy during the European
opening of IYA2009 in Prague, Czech Republic. In the US, the event
celebrating IYA2009 at the White House with President Obama and the
First Family on 5 October 2009 made headlines. In Nepal the total
solar eclipse observation event on 22 July 2009 was attended by the
Prime Minister of Nepal, Madhav Kumar together with thousands of
members of the public. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pointed
that IYA2009 provided a chance for young scientists to develop a
more vivid vision of man's future during his inaugural speech of
the 3rd International Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad in
Tehran, Iran. Pope Benedict XVI gave an eloquent speech in which he
said "The International Year of Astronomy is meant not least to
recapture for people throughout our world the extraordinary wonder
and amazement which characterised the great age of discovery in the
sixteenth century."
IYA2009 was a huge event not only on Earth, but also above
it.
In March the space shuttle Discovery launched towards the
International Space Station. On board was the Japanese astronaut
and IYA2009 supporter Koichi Wakata. He took a special flag with
the IYA2009 logo with him. Another IYA2009 enthusiast, Canadian
Space Agency Astronaut and Expedition 20/21 crew member Bob Thirsk,
recorded a special IYA2009 message during his long-term mission on
board the International Space Station, to remind the marvels of the
night sky and propose once more a rediscovery of interest in
astronomy and the Universe.
In May the space shuttle Atlantis was launched to refurbish the
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, carrying on board a replica of
Galileo's telescope that was used 400 years ago to change our view
of the Universe and our place within it. May also saw the launch of
the highly anticipated European Space Agency missions Herschel and
Planck, which are probing the origins of our Universe. The IYA2009
logo was proudly displayed on the Ariane 5 launcher that lifted the
two spacecraft into space.
Several IYA2009-affiliated movies were made during the Year, and
received critical acclaim. More than 300 000 Eyes on the Skies
DVDs, a film documenting the story of the telescope in 33
languages, were distributed worldwide and received a MEDEA 2009
Jury Award. Another film, 400 Years of the Telescope, has been seen
by over 2.5 million individuals. The film has garnered four
peer-reviewed Telly awards for animations, writing, cinematography
and documentary production. Naming Pluto, the film about Venetia
Burney Phair, the most influential 11 year-old in the history of
science, has won cinematic and scientific acclaim in different
festivals, including the prize for Best Documentary, second place
at the Palm Springs SHORTFEST, the Best Short Documentary at the
Rockport Film Festival, Best UK Documentary at the Falstaff Film
Festival, a Remi Jury Award at the Houston Worldfest and the
Festival Award at the Paso Robles Festival.
Some projects crossed country borders in a literal sense.
The GalileoMobile was a science education itinerant project that
spent two months bringing life-changing experiences and the
excitement of astronomy to young children in Chile, Bolivia and
Peru. In total the GalileoMobile visited around 3000 children in 30
schools, covering a distance of 7000 km.
Tunisia's Astro-Bus was a similar project. From January to
September the Astro-Bus visited around 60 regions all over the
country, crossing approximately 15 000 km, sharing its content with
100 000 Tunisians of all ages. Telescopes have also travelled more
than 20 000 km across Argentina, providing thousands of people with
the opportunity of observing the firmament through a telescope.
The International Year of Astronomy 2009 was never seen as a
"one-off" event lasting just one year, but as a means of creating
structures for collaboration, lasting self-sustaining activities
and innovative concepts for the communication of astronomy.
Most of the IYA2009 Cornerstone projects will continue beyond
2009 unchanged or in a slightly changed form.
The maintenance of the IYA2009 networks is one of the priorities
of the IYA2009 legacy and the global networks will continue to
operate and engage millions of people.
Robert Williams, the current IAU President, considers that
"IYA2009 may be over, but it leaves an important legacy for us
to continue. The groundwork has been laid for astronomers and
enthusiasts around the world to use the momentum gained from
IYA2009 to ensure that the Universe is still ours to discover far
into the future."
More info is available here (IYA2009 Closing
Ceremony website), here
(IYA2009 website), and
here (The IYA2009 Legacy document).