Congratulations to our friends from the Star Peace project (in particular the group in Qeshm Island, in Iran that joined us in "Dawn"), which have been given the status of IYA2009 Special Project.
Just to remind you, from the webpage of the IYA2009:
"The category of IYA2009 Special projects is intended to give large global projects (which satisfy the vision of IYA2009) greater international recognition and an opportunity to link with celebrations worldwide."
Well done, and I hope the project is a success.
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Cold "Dawn" in Spain
Jose Cerezuela had little luck watching the Sun as well. Here is his report:
"It was cloudy on the 1st, and we couldn't observe anything.
To the people that passed by, I explained what was the Internaitonal Year of Astronomy, and how they could safely observe the Sun. Even so, I showed them a few posters about the Sun and explained the sunspot phenomenon.
Overall, I had about a dozen people interested, because it was a cold morning, with cloudy weather and a holiday, when people don't get up early and it was very unpleasant outside."
"It was cloudy on the 1st, and we couldn't observe anything.
To the people that passed by, I explained what was the Internaitonal Year of Astronomy, and how they could safely observe the Sun. Even so, I showed them a few posters about the Sun and explained the sunspot phenomenon.
Overall, I had about a dozen people interested, because it was a cold morning, with cloudy weather and a holiday, when people don't get up early and it was very unpleasant outside."
Monday, 26 January 2009
Dawn at the SAAO - South Africa
Due to Eclipse activities, Lolan Naicker, the Coordinator for the Development of Astronomy of the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), only now had a little time to talk about his "Dawn" event, which was integrated in the Sutherland Star Party 2008:
"For Dawn of Astronomy 2009 we included a viewing of the first sunrise of 2009 into our Sutherland New Year Starparty program.
Around 30 attendees of the starparty on new years eve braved the cold Sutherland night on the top of the telescope plateau to see the sun rise for the first time over the Karoo Desert on IYA2009. It was a beautiful red orange sunrise - an awe inspiring experience on this very restricted plateau . We followed up the sunrise viewing with an observation at noon 1 January 2009 with the few remaining attendees - seen through a H-alpha filtered coronado PST.
The sunrise viewing pictures are located at http://astrocast.org/star_party_IYA2009/"
Here are some photos from the SAAO event:
"For Dawn of Astronomy 2009 we included a viewing of the first sunrise of 2009 into our Sutherland New Year Starparty program.
Around 30 attendees of the starparty on new years eve braved the cold Sutherland night on the top of the telescope plateau to see the sun rise for the first time over the Karoo Desert on IYA2009. It was a beautiful red orange sunrise - an awe inspiring experience on this very restricted plateau . We followed up the sunrise viewing with an observation at noon 1 January 2009 with the few remaining attendees - seen through a H-alpha filtered coronado PST.
The sunrise viewing pictures are located at http://astrocast.org/star_party_IYA2009/"
Here are some photos from the SAAO event:
Canada "Dawn" for one
Kim Hay, from the Solar Section of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO), went on her own to try and find the Sun. She had this to say:
"January 1, 2009
Temperature -9º C
wind sl S/SW
cloud cover less than 10%
(...)I haven't quite perfected the imaging aspect yet of the sun, and I have issues with the central obstruction in the SCT(...)."
Anyway, since she couldn't send us an image of the Sun, so she sent a photo of her setup instead:
"January 1, 2009
Temperature -9º C
wind sl S/SW
cloud cover less than 10%
(...)I haven't quite perfected the imaging aspect yet of the sun, and I have issues with the central obstruction in the SCT(...)."
Anyway, since she couldn't send us an image of the Sun, so she sent a photo of her setup instead:
January 26th Solar Eclipse
The IYA2009 Solar Physics Task Group lend a helping hand to the South African National node in the eclipse webcast.
Please check the wonderful photos taken along the path of the Eclipse, like this one, from Helpmekaar College, Braamfontein:
Please check the wonderful photos taken along the path of the Eclipse, like this one, from Helpmekaar College, Braamfontein:
Thursday, 22 January 2009
Measuring the shadow, from South Africa
Who says science and religion don't mix?
Here is a report from Dr. Abdurrazak Ebrahim, from Cape Town:
"There was a very small turnout – about 22 persons. We observed the sun per filters. As the majority of the attendees were of the Muslim faith I explained the shadow of a stick and we made various measurements for approximately 2 hours. Muslims use shadows and upper atmosphere light to compile their daily compulsory prayer times."
Here is a report from Dr. Abdurrazak Ebrahim, from Cape Town:
"There was a very small turnout – about 22 persons. We observed the sun per filters. As the majority of the attendees were of the Muslim faith I explained the shadow of a stick and we made various measurements for approximately 2 hours. Muslims use shadows and upper atmosphere light to compile their daily compulsory prayer times."
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
Fundão - Portugal
In Fundão, Paulo Sanches had bad weather, but in the true spirit of the IYA2009, decided not to be stopped by a bit of rain. This is his report:“We setup the telescope despite the bad weather, with no luck. I ended up going inside and did a little “lecture”
about the Sun to my family, with the material I had in my laptop. Of course the more excited ones were my son and my nephews (the oldest is turning into a real astronomy enthusiast). On the laptop we also saw what we could have seen outside, and much more, because the children’s curiosity has no bounds. Even with bad weather we still ended up spending a nice “Dawn of IYA2009”, with happiness and satisfaction.”
Monday, 19 January 2009
"Dawn" in Scotland
The Scots are here!
Robin Baxter, a Member of the Wigtownshire Astronomical Society decided to travel from Newton Stewart to the Mull of Galloway, Scotland’s most southerly point. He thought this would be the ideal location for his "Dawn" activity. He had this to say:
"It was overcast during our visit to the Mull of Galloway and the temperature was zero Celsius. The Meade telescope, bottle of Scotch whisky, 2 drinking glasses, piece of tartan material along with sign containing IYA logos and Scottish and Portuguese flags were placed beside the information sign and photographed for posterity."
He also sent these photos:
Robin Baxter, a Member of the Wigtownshire Astronomical Society decided to travel from Newton Stewart to the Mull of Galloway, Scotland’s most southerly point. He thought this would be the ideal location for his "Dawn" activity. He had this to say:
"It was overcast during our visit to the Mull of Galloway and the temperature was zero Celsius. The Meade telescope, bottle of Scotch whisky, 2 drinking glasses, piece of tartan material along with sign containing IYA logos and Scottish and Portuguese flags were placed beside the information sign and photographed for posterity."
He also sent these photos:
"Dwan" in Iraq - impacts on the media
Sorry for not sharing this earlier, but the work flow from my "day job" has suffered a bit with coordinating "Dawn", and I'm playing "catch-up".Azhy Hasan, from the Iraqi Kurdistan sent me this:
"Issue #3064 (Jan.07.2009) of Khabat Daily Newspaper on Erbil put the photo of (Farid) the smallest Iraqi kid whom looked at the Sun on Jan,01.2009, also a p
hoto of the blog of DAWN in the left upper side.Issue #492 (Jan.13.2009) of the (Region Weekly Magazine) also published a news on the File of Science about DAWN in Iraq, under the title "The DAWN of IYA2009 Launched on Iraqi Kurdistan Region", with a nice photo of amateur astronomers
and sidewalk people waiting for their turn to observe the Sun P.S.T. Coronado.
Still there were more impacts of that 1st wonderful IYA2009's activity of DAWN.
There was a 50 minutes live radio meeting with Azhy Hasan, the president of Amateur Astronomers Assosiation of Kurdistan-Iraq, on Jan.11.2009, in Jehan FM Radio. It was really a great chance to explain the whole IYA2009 and especially "DAWN of IYA2009" and "100 Hours of Astronomy", and the world wide participatation on these events."
Saturday, 10 January 2009
Dawn in Jakarta - The Peace from Indonesia to IYA 2009
As a project of Dawn of IYA 2009, Jakarta Amateur Astronomers Association (or HAAJ) invited several amateur astronomy communities in jakarta to do the sun observation together in the new year 2009 started at 12.00 noon. The communities that were Participated in this activity are:
1. "SIRIUS" Astronomy Club, State of Senior High School 89 (SMAN 89), East Jakarta.
2. "POLARIS" Astronomy Club, State of Senior High School 38 (SMAN 38),South Jakarta.
4. Science Club, State of Senior High School 25 (SMAN 25), Central Jakarta
3. Forum of Scientist Teenagers (FOSCA).
Since this Activity was held during the school holiday, we could not send formal invitation to the other network of amateur astronomy communities. And also, Because The Public Holiday, The Jakarta Planetarium & Observatory was close. Even with the constraints on participants, observation instrument and weather, this activity went well.
Here are the fotograph of this event:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)