Fiami Sent me a Christmas Gift for IYA2009 : The Lives of Galileo

This was the most amazing bit of highlight that I've got at the moment. It is all about Fiami and his generosity. Yep, he send me a hard copy of his book "Lives of Galileo". I received the English version during this Christmas week, and I was very delighted to have received it. I'm sure I'll never ever forget this in my life. I've also attached the images of the book and you can browse them here. Credit should go to my Uni friend Lakitha for photos.I have been trying to get this amazing science, astronomy much popularized among all. Therefore I believe Fiami's this exceptional service should be highly valued and appraised, for Fiami, himself...

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Merry Christmas with IYA2009

This is the Christmas season, and it's so much special because of this is IYA2009 !!A Christmas in the International Year of Astronomy, However these are late wishes from me to you all !!This was due to my absence in online during the Christmas season, In fact I went to Southeastern Sri Lanka for the small break I had. I went with my friends down to Tangalle, a coastal area some 220Km far from capital Colombo.And I have good NEWS, The skies in Tangalle were clearer and less polluted. I looked at the the heavens so eagerly grabbing the pure sight which is not polluted with human activity, as in Colombo. We also enjoyed the beaches and had a fine...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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 blo...

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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 97.3Except Chinthaka Weerakoone, himself...

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1st Anniversary of IYA2009 Astronomy Sri Lanka Blog

Happy Anniversary !!!Guys, I'm so happy today as today marks the 365th day since the start of this blog. In other words, this IYA2009 blog celebrates its 1st anniversary today. Yes, literally I started this task of blogging on 10th December 2008. You can refer to the archives in this blog for verification !! It's been a whole year full of exciting IYA endeavors throughout !!I feel it's exciting to be a blogger of astronomy as you have updated news regularly to blog about.Initially this blog was started as a my own idea and I tired to blog as frequent as possible updating you people with regular news regrading IYA2009. Right from the beginning...

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CH4 on Red Planet; Mars has origins of life or water, or both: Researches Suggest

According to a latest research Methane (Chemical Formula CH4; where 4 is sub-scripted) on Mars comes as a result of a meteorite impact taken place many eras ago, is no longer valid. New hypotheses include either of following candidates or both may be.The first idea is that CH4 could be a by-product of some metabolism, happening with animalcules on Red Planet and the other suggestion of the research says it could be a consequence of Martian seismic activity. Initially Methane on Mars was detected a decade back in 1999 and again at regular intervals. However there was not strong suggestion earlier about the origin of the organic gas CH4 on Mars.The...

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2009 Geminids Meteor Shower: A Chance not to be missed in IYA2009

Guys, Get ready have your stuff arranged outdoors, Make the Binos ready !!!Well, you might ask me what's the hack's going on and what I'm so much impressed about, Yes it's a big thing.. A bigger thing compared to past years, The Geminids on the Way, Hopefully as per the calculations the Geminids 2009 will likely to be more happening. Yep the best meteor shower in whole IYA2009, is about to show off.Conditions will be ideals for you if you're located in North America, nut if you aren't don't give up I say. It would be a long cold night probably there in the US during next few days. As per the Bill Cooke of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office,...

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Galileoscope Another Legacy of IYA2009

It seems like that IYA2009 is leaving us with a lot of legacies left behind. I think many of you guys have experienced Galilean moments and funny moments in this IYA2009. However for us Sri Lankans it was unable to get Galileoscopes and even IYA2009 Firstscope as a legendary tool and as well as a souvenir to cherish the International Year of Astronomy 2009. I tired to get them down via the national node but the efforts didn't succeed.However I believe that there are ample of people with Galileoscopes with them at the moment,Therefore I'm posting this youtube video to show you how how to assemble and utilized, mount the Galileoscope out of the...

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Bringing Astronomy to Galle : Another Outreach Project in IYA2009

IYA2009 is now almost at the end. Already more than 11 months have passed my leaving ourselves with amazing legacies to cherish. I'm publishing this post as the 119th post of this IYA2009 blog. In fact this is an update about the latest outreach project I contributed.I got in touch with this through the Department of Physics, University of Colombo, where I'm reading for my B.Sc at the moment. Especially I would like to thank Ms. Monika Madhavee, Mr. Buddhika Priyasad, Ms. Chethya Vidanapathirana of MAS (Mathematical & Astronomical Society) of UoC (University of Colombo) who made me aware of this outreach project and encouraged me in many...

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