IYA2009 Closing Ceremony

Preliminary IYA2009 Closing Ceremony Programme

SATURDAY, 9 JANUARY 2010

10:00-13.30 REGISTRATION

Session I. Welcome & the IYA2009

14:00-15:00 Welcome addresses:

Università di Padova Rector; Padova Mayor; W. Erdelen (UNESCO); R. Williams (IAU President); Tommaso Maccacaro (INAF President), Italian University & Research Minister *

15:00-15:30 Catherine Cesarsky: "Overview of IYA2009"

15:30-16:00 COFFEE BREAK

Session II IYA2009 in the World

16:00-16:20 Pedro Russo: "Coordinating IYA2009"

16:20-16:40 Lars Lindberg Christensen: "What Worked Best in IYA 2009"

16:40-18:10 Six 15-minutes talks by SPoCs: "IYA2009 Activities & their Impact"

Dr. Claudio Moises Paulo (Mozambique); Ms. Hoda El-Mikaty (Egypt); Prof. Maria Cristina Pineda (Honduras) Dr. Nguyen Quynh Lan (Viet Nam); Dr. Irina Vavilova (Ukraine); Prof. Ranjeev Misra (India)

18:10-18:20 Reynald Seznec (President and CEO of Thales Alenia Space)

18:30 COCKTAIL

SUNDAY, 10 JANUARY 2010

Session III. Legacy of Galileo

9:00-9:30 Francesco Palla: "Stars & Planets of Galileo"

9:30-10:00 Paolo Rossi: "Galileo and the Development of Scientific Thought"*

10:00-10:30 George Coyne: "Galileo & the Church: Lessons Learned"

10:30-11:00 COFFEE BREAK

Session IV. Science & Society

11:00-11:30 TBD

11:30-12:00 Norio Kaifu: "Impact of Astronomy and IYA2009 on Asian Society"

12:00-12:30 George Miley: "Importance of Science Education to Society"

12:30-14:00 LUNCH

Session V. Astronomy After the IYA

14:00-14:30 Isabelle Grenier: "Astronomy at all Wavelengths"

14:30-15:00 Roberto Gilmozzi: "Large Ground-based Optical Telescopes"

15:00-15:30 Ron Ekers: "Large Radio Astronomy Projects"

15:30-16:00 COFFEE BREAK

16:00-16:30 Antonella Nota: "Future of Space Astronomy"

16:30-17:00 Robert Williams: "The IAU & Astronomy After the IYA2009"

17:05 Closure of the IYA2009

Browse more stuff @ http://www.beyond2009.org/

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9 Days left in IYA2009

There are only 9 days left for this so cherished IYA2009. In fact it was a great year right from the beginning. In Sri Lanka I can recall how the things got kicked off in January 2009.

First we had the partial solar eclipse in January on 26th. Then came the green comet Lulin, then a lot of cornerstone and special IYA2009 projects also came into effect. Afterwards, the Hundred Hours of Astronomy / 100HA was an amazing experience with the heavens.

Meantime a wide range of outreach projects also took place, you can browse the whole archive here and I'm just rushing through the key events that took place locally and globally. We also conducted seasonal Observation Camps for the benefit of school children and amateur astronomers.

Eyes on the skies was also hit with huge attention during the course of popularizing the IYA2009 and Galileo's 400-year-old legacy the Galileoscope. Many countries issued stamps (Malta/ Italy) and even coins (Australian Royal Mint) in celebration of this mammoth milestone of astronomy. Of course you can browse this blog's archive and found out the stories themselves, that I have blogged earlier.

Globe at Night, From Earth to the Universe and other IYA2009 projects were successful although there were some problems from weather.

We had also the chance of witnessing the eclipse which was on last July.

In September 2009 we had the largest IYA project of Sri Lanka which was Star Party 2009, organized by Ananda College and Mahamaya Girls College. It was also a victory that we were able to feature Star Party 2009 as a Galilean Nights project although the majority of Galilean Nights was held in October.

We also did a podcast for 365days of astronomy and it was the very 1st podcast done by Sri Lanka for this podcast series. We also continued the weekly radio program on Astronomy "Taru Widu Saraniya" @ SLBC. SkyLK was the first astronomy resource for Sri Lankans right from the beginning of IYA2009, providing people with astronomy. IYA2009 news and knowledge.

Thus IYA2009 is coming to the end, Only 9 days left and many of the Earthlings were able to observe the skies and get some know-how than they did previously, discovering the universe on their own.

I feel gkad to have blogged for IYA2009 and being the blogger from Sri Lanka for IYA2009, contributing to the internet with updated details on the niche !!!

Long Live IYA2009 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Another Interesting Story for IYA2009 from Jam Jamam

This is such a wonderful story that I came to know yesterday from my Facebook friend Jam Jamam, I thought you guys would also like to hear it and am just gonna blog about it.

The wonderful day was last Friday, to be precise the 11th of December 2009. Jam and his friends have had a wonderful session of observation and analysis with sophisticated equipment. I believe the session had been so exciting and is really appealing to me, who has never been with such high-tech astronomy stuff so far, In his gallery Jam had uploaded those pictures, he's taken during the unforgettable night.

From his location @ DSO, Normandy, France Jam conducted all this stuff and here are the images of them.

The above image is the conrtol room and here you can see Jam is more concentrating on the screen on left rather than the other, which portrays the Facebook page. The left screen features the Rosette nebula and see guys, what an incredible photo it is !!


Above is the chamber allocated for the telescope and as per Jam the temperature inside was 4 degrees Celsius.


And next is a raw image that Jam's taken featuring Rosette Nebula.
I hope that it won't take Jam a long time to process and decipher the valuable data embedded in those images.. Jam's smart !!

Below is the famous Orion nebula through Jam's equipment. (Focus on the belt to see the nebula, not the whole constellation)

Here you go through the Horse Head nebula, wonderful !! (Rotate it 90 degrees anticlockwise to get the usual image)


However the analyzed data will be featured on Jam's website at http://www.deepskyjam.com/ and you are encouraged to pay a visit and browse a lot of astronomy data !!

Thank you again Jam for sharing the story !!

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Celebrating Sir Arthur C Clarke's 92nd Birth Anniversary

I believe he's the person of the last century. The mastermind who revolutionized the process of communication, while visualizing about a realistic futurism. Sir Arthur Clarke has already left his legacies behind for all of us, for the whole humanity. Sri Lanka is today proud to have had such a person as a resident throughout many decades. However I believe that it's the time we paid tribute to him in memory of his contributions and ideas in this context, where the 92nd birth anniversary of Sir Arthur Clarke falls on next 16th. (Just 4 days left).

Sri Lankabhimanya Sir Arthur Charles Clarke was born on 16th December 1917 in Minehead, England. Then onwards he led a "diverse career" in his own words, being a space promoter, science popularizer, underwater explorer, and a Sci-Fi author. Well, I don't mean to plagiarize what wikipedia has. If you want the bio, go here to wikipedia.

However I'm happy that Sir Clarke's last wish (Achieving lasting peace in Sri Lanka) out of his 3 wishes on his 90th birthday, has today come true. May the other 2 will come true sooner rather than later !!

As I guess, locally there would be some programs to celebrate the 92nd birth anniversary of Sir Clarke. Especially as this is IYA2009, there could be interesting turnouts to happen in felicitating Sir Arthur Clarke. Arthur C Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies, (ACCMT) should lead this ceremonies as far as I'm concerned. However it doesn't matter whoever pays tribute as long as Sir Clarke is cherished.

So guys, my wish in the end is that you blog about Sir Clarke on your blogs during this week.
Let as many people as possible to discover the importance of contributions that he had rendered.
I encourage everybody to blog about Sir Clarke celebrating his 92nd Birth Anniversary.

And let me know you idea on that suggestion as well.

Here is Sir Clarke making his speech on his 90th B'day (16th December 2007)




More information:

http://www.clarkefoundation.org/

http://sirarthurcclarke90.blogspot.com/

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FYOSA Ends with Success Achieved

As you have been aware from my previous posts, FYOSA (Forty Years of Space Age & Beyond) took place at the premises of Royal College, Colombo as one of the key IYA2009 projects of Sri Lanka. The FYOSA proved to be a magnificent collaboration of astronomy and had a massive multitude of 6000+ visitors during its 2-day duration from 8th to 9th December.

FYOSA was basically conducted with 3 segments which were a workshop, a Sci-Fi competition and a Moon rock exhibition, which showcased stardust from legendary Apollo 11.


Here you can watch the trailer of FYOSA and you can watch it here...



More details would be found here at Thilina's blog..

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Recording Taru Widu Saraniya The Astronomy Colloquium on Radio @ SLBC

Apart from the special happening of my blog's celebrating its 1st anniversary there was also another news to blog about. It was the recording session we had @ SLBC (Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation) yesterday evening.

I think you guys are aware of Tharu Widu Saraniya, of which I've blogged before in a previous post, which is here.

The radio broadcast is conducted by Chinthaka Weerakoone, a 3rd-year medical student of University of Sri Jayawaradanepura, Colombo. Tharu Widu Saraniya is broadcast once a week on Wednesdays from 4:30 pm onwards in the local radio channel "Swadeshiiya Sewaya" via FM 90.3 and 97.3

Except Chinthaka Weerakoone, himself there were 3 other contributors for the recording of radio broadcast including me. We were Prasanna Deshapriya, (me) Hasitha Karunarathne and Madusha Dedigamuwa from SkyLK. I represented Mathematical & Astronomical Society of University of Colombo.

Altogether there were about 6 recordings and we talked about modern trends of astronomy such as the up coming Sir Clarke's 92nd birth anniversary on 16th December 2009. We also discussed about the latest finding that reveals that CH4 / Methane of Mars is originated from a metabolic process of existing life. We also shared our ideas about 2012 hoax of word's end and lot of stuff.

So guys, you too can listen to the radio broadcast at above mentioned time lines. Then let us know what you think and moreover you can stand a chance to win an "Ahasa ' magazine for yourself if you answer the question asked at the end of the program.

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