Dear Fellow Communicators,
I would like to start this newsletter by expressing my gratitude for all your activities that have helped to make your communities appreciate the Universe and our humble place within it! Whether you communicate astronomy in your home towns or at an international level, your work has contributed to raising the level of our field, and we are lucky to be working with you. Also a heartfelt thank you to the many of you who have directly supported our ESO, ESA/Hubble and IAU missions in 2015! Season’s’ Greetings to you all, and best wishes for the New Year!
Despite the approaching holiday season, December is keeping us busy and there are many news items to share with you!
On 23 and 24 November, Dr Cecilia Scorza (Haus der Astronomie/ESO) delivered a teacher training session on Zeit und Wandel: Erde, Mond und Sonne und der Tages-, Monat-, und Jahresrhythmus organised by ESO Supernova, UNAWE/HdA and the Deutsches Museum. This event took place at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, and it was the third official ESO Supernova event of its kind. The feedback received from the teachers attending was very positive! We invite you to visit the ESO Supernova website and sign up for the education newsletter to find out about such opportunities. You can view a few photos from the event here.
We would like to introduce you to our newest ESO Photo Ambassador, Miguel Claro. Born in 1977 in the north of Portugal, and today based in Lisbon, Miguel Claro is a Portuguese professional photographer, author and science communicator in the astronomy field.
For all the photographers out there, we would like to bring the European Science Photo Competition to your attention. Organised by Wikipedia, the competition is an excellent opportunity to showcase your work or simply to communicate information about your institution’s researchers or scientific results.
Before moving on to videos, we encourage you to consider opening a Panoramio account for your organisation. We have opened one and find it an interesting tool to reach a community interested in travel.
For our planetarium friends we are happy to inform you that many more fulldome videos have been added to our websites, bringing the total to more than 150. We hope you will make use of these clips in your shows. Bookmark our main page for planetarium products.
For all science communicators, don’t forget that until 5 February 2016 you can benefit from an early-bird fee to register for the Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2016 Conference. Most importantly though, until 25 January 2016 you can submit your abstract for a poster, talk or workshop. We strongly encourage you to participate and look forward to meeting you there. This CAP Conference is aiming to be one of the most rewarding ones of the series. Follow the Facebook page, #CAP2016 and the website.
Finally, if you are looking for gift ideas for the Holiday Season, we have a few recommendations:
- the ESO Calendar 2016 will surprise you every month in 2016 with stunning astronomical images and pictures of ESO's telescopes and landscapes;
- our slim fit fleece jackets will keep you or your dear ones warm through the winter;
- Europe to the Stars remains an interesting book about European astronomy;
- our mounted images are also an exquisite, high quality gift with beautiful vistas.
Discover more gift ideas in our ESOshop and if you want to make a gift to astronomy education, consider making a donation for the ESO Supernova Planetarium and Visitor Centre.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Lars Lindberg Christensen (lars@eso.org)
Head, ESO education and Public Outreach Department (ePOD)
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1 December 2015: The De Zeeuw–Van Dishoeck Graduation Prize for Astronomy, established to encourage young talent in astronomy in the Netherlands, has been awarded to Sebastiaan Haffert of the University of Leiden ...
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30 November 2015: The latest issue of the free magazine, Science in School, is now available online and in printed form. This European journal for science teachers offers inspiring articles, fun games and ...
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8 December 2015: Not a single confirmed planet outside the Solar System had been detected before the year 1990. But, remarkably, we now know of thousands and have studied many in surprising detail.
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