IAU NOC Corner

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is a body of astronomers from all over the world, with a mission is to promote and safeguard the science of astronomy in all its aspects through international cooperation. It also works to promote astronomy education, research and public outreach actions. Realising the need of a central coordination point for outreach activities taking place around the world, it has set up the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach (OAO), presently hosted by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. To support projects at a national level, OAO is creating a network of IAU National Outreach Contacts (NOC): volunteers with extensive experience in public outreach, acting as a single point of contact for a country.

For India, Mr. Samir Dhurde is the current IAU NOC. The activities under this position are endorsed by the Astronomical Society of India.

Updates from IAU NOC, India

Event / Resource Description and Link
NAME EXOWORLDS (2022) CONTEST
Submit by 11 November, 2022
The IAU has announced a contest for anyone, including students and teachers, astronomy enthusiasts, amateur astronomers and exoplanetary scientists. They may form a team and propose names for 20 exoplanetary systems, each of which consists of one known exoplanet and its host star.

Web link: https://www.nameexoworlds.iau.org/2022edition

COMMUNICATING ASTRONOMY WITH THE PUBLIC - 2022 Conference
12–16 September 2022, Sydney, Australia and Online
The CAP Conference series is organised by the IAU, and facilitates the exchange of ideas and best practices between the local community of astronomy outreach professionals by connecting them to the global network.

This year, the world’s largest conference on astronomy communication: Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2022 (CAP 2022) will be hosted from September 12-16, 2022 at the Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia (with provisions to attend in-person and online).

Professionals from science communication, informal education, planetaria and science centres, as well as professional and amateur astronomers, journalists and creative personalities, are invited to attend the conference to exchange ideas and best practices.

Web link: https://capconferences.org/2022/

Content updated as recieved...

 

Meet the NOC

Samir Dhurde, IAU NOC.
Trained as a radio astrophysicist, Samir Dhurde has been actively into outreach for more than 20 years. He is the scientific officer for public outreach at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics and conducts or helps conduct many activities across the country.
His social media posts can be found with #NOCIndia and via https://www.facebook.com/IUCAASciPOP
Email : Email ID of NOC India

Join our Astro-Outreach mailing list

Register and get our regular emails with sharing related to Astronomy outreach in India and abroad. Fill in the linked form to let us know your details and share this page with anyone else who may like to register.

 

What we offer…

  • Regular updates about national / international outreach events.
  • Regular information about activities / workshops / meetings etc. that you can participate in.
  • Bringing all the unique efforts from India to the notice of the IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach.
  • Get these reported in the IAU OAO fortnightly newsletter.
  • Coordination of collaborative intra- and inter-country astronomy observation / outreach events that include India.

What you may do …

Share with us some details if you are organising any large scale special Astronomy outreach event or are creating some special resource in your capacity.

Examples of things you might do that will be good to share:

  • Organise large scale public events like special “Days”, festivals, a local / national level campaign etc.
  • Design and set up large scale public exhibitions.
  • Organise social media events like hangouts, tweetfests etc.
  • Run a Citizen Science project.
  • Organise workshops / meetings for people doing outreach.
  • Write a book / Make a film.
  • Create unique resources online / offline.
  • Translate some open resource.

You may scroll below to report or use this online form for your reports → https://goo.gl/tU4gmR

Share your work

The India NOC office welcomes all sharing related to Astronomy outreach in India for better reporting, in the IAU OAO fortnightly newsletter, in particular and for other records in general. Preference will be given to early reports of upcoming events & original resources.

One Comment

  1. In a Govt college(Govt Madappally college ,Vadakara,Kerala) by their physics Department we are conducting a public outreach programme such as sky watch and a astronomy class with Software STELLARIUM and Dobsonian Telescope 200 mm aperture on 5th Jan 2018. We hope that a seizable number of publics students and teachers will be participating.

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