- Image via Wikipedia
Astronomers world wide celebrated the 400th anniversary of the very first observations made using a telescope, by Galileo Galilei, by declaring 2009 to be an International Year of Astronomy. Organized by the International Union of Astronomy (the IUA), this event was intended to educate the citizens of earth about the fantastic cultural contributions that the science of astronomy has made over the last four centuries.
Collaborative committees comprised of professional and amateur astronomers were formed to manage most of the IUA events, called “sidewalk astronomy events,” which took place at planetariums and public Observatories across the globe. Individuals could also contribute privately, assessing for themselves where the need was greatest. However, the most successful element of the IYA was probably the eleven so called, “Cornerstone projects.”
One of these projects, called “Dark Skies Awareness,” was to measure, and to provide education about, light pollution. This project was broken up into three separate programs (GLOBE at night, the Great World Wide Star Count, and How Many Stars) that all did essentially the same thing, though at different times during the year. These programs provided people first hand experience dealing with light pollution through “star hunts” or “star counts.”
A year later, in 2010, it seems clear that all the effort that was expended to create fun and accessible projects has not been wasted. Knowing that the science of astronomy is one of the few sciences that amateurs can make a significant contribution to has inspired some ambitious amateurs to make important advances in astrophotography. Perhaps because of this new interest and these amateur contributions some fantastic new websites about the science of astronomy, such as such as this one, show that the public’s interest has been peaked.
It looks like the International Year of Astronomy was a resounding success.
