"Star Quest 09" Won by Mahinda College, Galle | IYA 2009

The second stage of the "Star Quest 09" islandwide Annual Astronomy Quiz Competition concluded today evening at the V.K. Samaranayake Auditorium, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. After the hot & astounding Grand Finals, Mahinda College, Galle emerged Champions, grabbing the elegant trophy of "Star Quest 09"Today the Quarter finals, started at 11.00 am with the participation of 8 schools, that qualified for the further competition, at the end of the 1st Stage of "Star Quest 09", held on last 24th.The Quarter Finalists of "Star Quest 09" Ananda College, Colombo 10.Mahinda College, GalleDe Mazenod College, Kandana.Sirimavo Bandaranayake Vidyalaya,...

Read More

"Star Quest 09" Annual Astronomy Quiz 2nd stage to be held today, updated | IYA 2009

Hello everyone!The second stage of the "Star Quest 09" islandwide Annual Astronomy Quiz Competition will start in a short while today (31st May) at 11.00 am, local time, Colombo, Sri Lanka ( 01:30h EDT) at the V.K. Samaranayake Auditorium, University of Colombo. I, as the blogger of IYA 2009 - Astronomy Sri Lanka, is attending the event to give you precise updates on what is going on there. There are 3 rounds supposed to be held today, featuring the Quarter Finals, Semi Finals, Grand Finals and a lot of competent students, qualified for the 2nd Stage, are expected to attend.By the way, I'm hoping to do a live feed as the quiz is in progress,...

Read More

IYA 2009 Special Projects

The IYA 2009 Cornerstone Projects are backed up by a set of different projects which are called as IYA 2009 Special Projects. The Special Projects play a vital role in contributing to integrate IYA 2009 related global bodies and thus making it easier to achieve common goals of International Year of Astronomy 2009. In fact they are there to further boost the upheaval of heavenly year 2009. At the moment there are 10 approved Special Projects, contributing to IYA 2009. Please find below the Special Projects.The World at Night400 Years of the TelescopeGalilean SatellitesAround the WorldExoplanet Hunters1919 EclipseThe Sky - yours to Discover"BLAST!"...

Read More

IYA 2009 Cornerstone Projects

There are 12 Cornerstone projects that all together contribute to the International Year of Astronomy 2009. Each Cornerstone project is a unique worldwide project and most are aimed at achieving specific goals, that fall into the arena of IYA 2009 missions. These 12 Cornerstone projects determine the whole project success of International Year of Astronomy 2009. Here is a list of projects endorsed by the International Astronomical Union for the IYA 2009.100 Hours of AstronomyThe GalileoscopeCosmic DiaryThe Portal to the UniverseShe is an AstronomerDark Skies AwarenessAstronomy & World HeritageGalileo Teacher Training ProgrammeUniverse AwarenessFrom...

Read More

IYA 2009 Astronomy Sri Lanka now has Google PageRank 4

Hello everybody!This is just to update you about the latest Google PageRank update. Well This is for those who might not know what Google PageRank is."The Google PageRank is the qualitative measurement of the value of a website page or in technical words, it is the algorithmic analysis of a URL and assignation of a value to it. Actually the trademark Google PageRank is named after millionaire Larry Page, who is one of the c0-founders of Google Inc. and is patented to the Stanford University. Larry Page initially developed this algorithm at the Stanford University and later Sergey Brin joined this venture and they carried out this as a research...

Read More

"Star Quest 09" Annual Astronomy Quiz 1st stage held | IYA 2009

The first stage of "Star Quest 09" All Island Inter-school Astronomy Quiz Competition, organized by the Mathematical and Astronomical Society, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka concluded successfully, yesterday (24th May 2009) at the university premises. In the 2009's episode of this annual quiz competition, there were more than 25 school from different parts of the island.Basically a school was asked to produce 2 teams for competing. There were 2 rounds (preliminary and second round) yesterday and however at the end of the day 8 schools were selected for the final stage which would be held on the 31st of May 2009. The final rounds will be held...

Read More

Italian Endeavors for IYA 2009 - 10th National Astronomy Week

In celebration of the 10th National Week of Astronomy(from 18th to 24th May 2009), a series of initiatives has been arranged to be offered to public. The week in organized by the Italian Astronomical Society, in co-operation with Ministry of Education and the Virtual Telescope. A whole lot of experience is there to be felt by teachers and students, thus sharing the beauty of the heavens. The direction towards proper observation will be carried out by the staff of respective authorities, while explaining the science behind observational astronomy.Please find below the schedule of planned events.- May 19, 21.30 pm: "Galaxies of Spring"- May...

Read More

Around the World in 80 Telescopes : 100 Hours of Astronomy

How wonderful and amazing it is to observe the sidereal skies from any location that you like real time! "Around the World in 80 Telescopes" was a great webcast that covered the heavens on both hemispheres, providing anyone one Earth, the access to online observation. A paramount endeavor of IYA 2009 Cornerstone Projects, 100 Hours of Astronomy, thus unfolds. The observations were carried out with an integration of telescopes, based on and off the terrestrial territories. The live webcast was available from 100HA channel on Ustream.tv. Astronomers provided a variety of resourceful presentations from different observatories featuring a wide range...

Read More

Japanese Sand & Flower Festa 2009 themed after Galileo & IYA 2009

The 22nd Japanese Sand & Flower Festa 2009 in Minamisatsuma was held from May 2 to 6 at Fukiage Beach in Kagoshima Prefecture. The festival has a such a beautiful story that relates how the city was determined to activate with efforts of making gigantic sculptures from the sand of Fukiage beach. The inaugural festival was held back in 1987 and the festival continued to be held annually thereupon. This has also become a major tourist attraction of Japan as there were some 150 thousand visitors to the Fukiage beach during previous episode of the festival, held last year.Well, one might wonder what this has to do with astronomy and IYA 2009....

Read More

Sri Lanka Astronomical Association AALK

Sri Lanka Astronomical Association was earlier known as Ceylon Astronomical Association. The Ceylon Astronomical Association was founded in June 1959. The Association is a non-profit association, founded by late Sir Arthur C. Clarke and late Herschel Gunawardane. It is for the purpose of popularizing and enhancing Sri Lankan expertise on education of astronomy and other related studies.The AALK is headquartered at SLAAS (Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science) , Colombo, Sri Lanka.The association conducts occasional lectures and observation camps to educate the people on latest issues of astronomy. Thus during the course of 59 years...

Read More

IYA 2009-themed phone cards of Slovenia

I was glad to see many items being issued in collaboration with IYA 2009 - the International Year of Astronomy. In Slovenia, there have been a set of six astronomical phone cards, issued to celebrate IYA 2009. These six cards will definitely be a valuable collection of souvenirs, for anyone, who is interested in Astronomy and IYA 2009 in general.Impulse capacity :100 imp. Copies printed :5,000 Date :April 2009 Design :Borut Berič Print :Tiskarna VeselThe company behind the issue is "Telekom Slovenije...

Read More

Ongoing IYA 2009 projects of Malta

May 2009 8th May Girl's Junior Lyceum, St Benedict's College, Sta Lucia "The Amateur astronomer and his telescope" Mr Ray Pace DVD Eyes on the skies Audiovisual presentations by Mr Leonard Ellul Mercer "Moon Encounter" "Taste of the Universe"8th May to 5th June Basic Astronomy course (Astronomical Society of Malta)9th May Launch of Maltapost Europa stamp set featuring astronomy12th May St Martin's College Swatar Italian week commemorating Galileo Galilei18th May St Augustine's College, Pieta ...

Read More

IYA 2009 Stamps Issued by Italy and Luxembourg, Europe

This set of stamps are also dedicated to International Year of Astronomy 2009 { IYA 2009 } and is issued by Italy. In recent times, a good thrend is developing towards the IYA 2009, as many countries are publishing stamps in celebration of IYA 2009. The thrend is especially dominated by Europe, most of whose countries have now published stamps with the label IYA 2009 on them. To find you lot more on the issue, please visit this blog on European stamps.Priced at 0.65 and 0.60 Euros, the stamps look pretty good and are appelaing not only for a niche-related philatelist, but for anyone involved in IYA 2009 and Astronomy as alike.And this stamp is...

Read More

IYA 2009 Interactive Stamps of Malta

The number of stamps, published for IYA 2009 is fast growing at the moment. A lot of countries and states have already published many valuable and beautiful stamps for International Year of Astronomy 2009. However I though of publishing this new set of stamps that I came acr0ss in the blogosphere, despite my previous post on stamps at http://iya2009sl.blogspot.com/2009/04/iya-2009-official-stamps-issued.html on the very IYA 2009 stamps. But before begin, give a warm round of applause for Galileo Galilei, the fundamental figure behind the IYA 2009.Long Live Galileo!The following two stamps were to be issued on the 09 th of May 2009 by the Maltese...

Read More

IYA 2009 Cornerstone Project: Cosmic Diary

As you know there are many Cornerstone Projects of International Year of Astronomy 2009.The Cosmic Diary Project is bit vivid among them and is contributed by a worldwide community of astronomers, all of whom are competent in the field and their niche. This blog post discusses about them and their respective institutions, collaborating with IYA 2009 and its Cornerstone Projects.Diarists from ESADetlef KoschnySalim Ansari Giuseppe RaccaTeam INTEGRALMark KidgerDiarists from ESONadine NeumayerHeidi KorhonenAnnalisa CalamidaDiego GarciaGaitee HussainGayandhi de SilvaGerard van BelleLinda SchmidtobreickMariya LyubenovaMichael DumkeNando PatatSuzanna...

Read More

IYA Coins Issued by Australia

I just thought of making available some information on IYA coins, that have been issued by Australia back in 2008, as they have not received some reputation. This post will give you some idea of those coins. In fact two coins were launched by Australian Royal Mint on 7th November 2008, as an effort to highlight IYA 2009 events, which were coming alongside the International Year of Astronomy, in collaboration with the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope. Janine Murphy, Chief Executive Officer of the Royal Australian Mint was quoted saying "In 2009 the world celebrates the exploration of our universe. It marks the 400th anniversary of...

Read More