IYA 2009 at the Winter Solstice

Way to go everybody! In late October the partnership between CASCA, the FAAQ and the RASC passed our goal of 1,000,000 Galileo Moments by Canadians!  Moreover, millions more Canadians have experienced some impact of astronomy in their lives from activities that didn’t fall under our Galileo Moment guidelines.  Some 3,300 events are currently registered on our website, www.astronomy2009.ca.  If you have unregistered events or unreported attendance, please enter them into our database at www.astronomy2009.ca so that our final report (being readied for 31 January) will be as complete as possible.

These gratifying statistics  cannot convey the impact of activities delivered by the 100s, even 1,000s, of volunteers from our partnership and our many collaborators.  To get a better sense of some of the successful activities, please see the IYA2009 Committee Report submitted to the Board for their Dec. 2009 meeting.

Planning for ‘Beyond IYA’ activities is now underway, both at the IAU level and nationally.  From the outset in Canada we sought to ensure that the momentum in improved education and public outreach established by IYA would become legacies reaching far into the future.  Your ideas, comments, suggestions on IYA2009 itself, as well as on Beyond IYA opportunities, are welcome!

For readers looking for an unusual gift idea, I can recommend three Canadian IYA2009-related items: 

1.      For kids, award winning Canadian science writer Jacob Berkowitz’ new book, “Out of this World: The Amazing Search for an Alien Earth” (Kids Can Press);

2.      Diane Nalini’s CD, ‘Kiss Me Like That,’ of beautiful jazz vocals with astronomical themes http://www.dianenalini.com/buyCDs.html  (Diane is a Guelph University physicist under her second surname, de Kerckhove) ;

3.      the Royal Canadian Mint’s IYA2009 commemorative coin: http://www.mint.ca/store/coin/30-sterling-silver-coin-international-year-of-astronomy-2009-prod650001 

Have a great winter with clear skies and the joy of sharing your astronomy knowledge and enthusiasm with your neighbours in collaboration with our generous IYA partners.

Jim Hesser