International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009)

The IAU initiated a process to have 2009 declared the International Year of Astronomy at its General Assembly in Sydney Australia in 2003. A proposal was made by the Italian Government to UNESCO, the UN organization regarding Educational, Scientific, and Cultural matters. This proposal was accepted during the 33rd session (2005) of the UNESCO General Conference, and a recommendation was made to the United Nations General Assembly to approve this declaration. There are now intense efforts underway to have the United Nations approve this declaration. Only the UN can officially approve International Year of designations.

Meanwhile, the IAU has decided to forge ahead assuming that the UN will approve the declaration either this year or next. The IAU Executive Committee has formed an IYA2009 Working Group chaired by incoming IAU President Catherine Cesarsky. At the moment the only other members of the IYA2009 WG are Lars Lindberg Christensen ( Denmark ), Dennis Crabtree ( Canada ) and Ian Robson (UK) but the membership will be expanded to approximately 15 members very shortly.

The IAU will play a leading role as a catalyst and coordinator for IYA2009. While the majority of the events will be organized at the local and national level, the IAU will take the lead on a small number of international or global events. For example, we expect there will be an opening event in January 2009, possibly at UNESCO headquarters in Paris , a closing event in Italy and at least one special event during the General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in August 2009.

In Canada , CASCA formed the International Year of Astronomy Canada Committee (IYACC) to lead Canadian efforts in celebrating astronomy during 2009. IYACC has reached out to the amateur community and the IYACC Steering Committee consists of the following:

• Dennis Crabtree (NRC-HIA)
• Jayanne English (U. of Mantoba/Chair of CASCA EPO Committee)
• Jim Hesser (NRC-HIA/Past President of CASCA)
• Peter Jedicke (Fanshawe College/Past President of the RASC)
• Rémi Lacasse (President of the FAAQ)
• John Percy (U. of Toronto )
• Scott Young (Manitoba Museum/President of the RASC)
• Andy Woodsworth (NRC retired - ex-Director General)

IYACC has a draft mission statement:

The "IYA2009 Canada Committee" (IYACC), a partnership of organizations in Canada involved in communicating astronomy as a science and hobby with the public and students, organizes and coordinates Canadian endeavors to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy in 2009 (IYA2009) by

• defining, developing, coordinating and/or managing national programs
• providing a bilingual website that serves as the central resource for Canadian IYA2009 activities and as a clearinghouse of local and regional IYA2009 activities to encourage, inspire and support broader participation at the local level
• raising funds for the definition, development and management of national     programs and activities for IYA2009
• promoting IYA2009 through our website, the media and our member organizations

The Steering Committee is working very well together and we've had two telecons (July 31 and Sept 5) plus numerous e-mail exchanges. IYACC has established a TWiki for the group to work collaboratively. We've made contact with CSA, Canadian Association of Science Centres, and other groups (and individuals such as Bob McDonald) that promote science. In addition we've contacted Cheryl Bartlett at Cape Breton University . Cheryl has a CRC in “integrative science”, which merges western scientific knowledge with traditional knowledge of Canadian aboriginals. Cheryl is very keen to get involved with the IYA activities and offered to help lead the aboriginal segment of it.

We've registered (and CASCA has paid for) the domain astronomy2009.ca which will be the Canadian IYA2009 bilingual website.

A couple of long lead time projects that we are pursuing include special issue stamps and a commemorative coin.

Besides the steering group IYACC will have three working groups: Programs, Resources, Media Relations. We will attempt to appoint two (one from Quebec ) honorary co-chairs to help raise the visibility of our efforts.

Dennis Crabtree for IYACC