IYA2009 UK Update Ian Robson

Top-level organisation   Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) the lead organisation   Initial seedcorn funding (£2k) approved   Single Point of Contact agreed (self)   Chair of the UK IYA2009 Working Group agreed (self)   Report directly to RAS Council   Web-link established and user forum in place

Kick-off Meeting   Kick-off meeting on October 6 th 2006   13 organisations represented – ranging from amateur societies, education, museums, through to funding agency (PPARC). The ‘uniformed groups (scouts guides), the producers (professional astronomers and observatories) were not represented  ’  Presented the ‘overview’ and requested organisations to consult with the managing bodies and grass-roots members and come back with ideas for UK events and ‘global’ events before Garching meeting today   Strong hint of financial support from PPARC for events – looking to see consolidation of ideas and themes.

UK ideas   ‘MoonWeek 2009’ (National Astronomy Week) late March early April to:   Focus activity on observations of the Moon and Saturn   coincide with 400 th anniversary of Thomas Harriott telescopic observations of the Moon in July 1609 – events, observations,   Family day-event and exhibiton etc at Syon House   A telescope in every secondary school – very ambitious and complex, two contrasting ideas currently – one needs prototyping   Card telescopes for museums/planateria/VCs   Magazines and cartoons for children

Notes, questions and thoughts   Would there be a single focus (like Galileo) cf Einstein for Year of Physics?   Could we use the confusion between astronomy and astrology to our advantage?   2009 is also Darwin year, which could be big competition within the UK   If we want a special postage stamp set we need to act very quickly   Must capitalise on the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing   The longest solar eclipse takes place (albeit in China)   Jupiter is not well placed in 2009, but Saturn is   Space should also be included in ‘astronomy’   Use the current ‘Science Festivals’ and events and expand and re-focus   Local science festivals spring up and could be useful venues   Major ‘alternative events’ like Glastonbury should be considered as a potential audience   Alternative audiences, such as ‘proms’ at stately homes might also work as events, especially with Holst themes   National launch event must have something special as a hook for the media   Robotic telescopes should be in a much stronger position by then

Next steps   Use this meeting as a springboard to energise the communities – next UK meeting is on March 14 th   Have not yet involved the professional community – will tackle at the National Astronomy Meeting (April 16-20)

Problems so far   Inertia – hard to ‘drive’ the organisations   Some of the organisations do not seem to have pushed the question down to their grass-roots – maybe timing?   The education side is going to be very difficult to crack

Global ideas  24-hours around the world via great observatories – TV spectacular featuring the icons (telescopes, spaceprobes and people) of astronomy, linked with expanded culture, science, technology for local consumption

ObservationsObservations  Interesting publicity just seen for the ‘polar year’ and IHY within the UK  Do we need a ‘Royal’ patron ?  Need to gear up feeding into CAP2007 – this could be a very good incentivising focus