A Victoria, B.C, coin design company has released the International Year of Astronomy 2009 geocoins to Commemorate this special year. These coins feature two notable telescopes: the Anglo-Australian Telescope from the Southern hemisphere, and Gemini North from the Northern hemisphere. The night sky scenes feature the southern constellation Crux, and the Big Dipper asterism. These coins are 42mm x 4.5mm and have a unique die under the translucent paint so that the official logo colour-fade could be accurately depicted.

Further information can be found online at http://www.landsharkz.ca

Hello!

My name is Julie Bolduc-Duval and I was recently hired as the new Education and Public outreach coordinator for IYA in Canada, thanks to the generous support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. Like many of you, I am someone who is passionate about astronomy, especially astronomy education and outreach. Thanks to our work, thousands (millions?!?) of Canadians marvel at the beauty of the night sky and at the vastness of the Universe

It is becoming more and more obvious to me that excellent ressources and varied expertise already exist within the Canadian astronomical community (from amateurs through professional astronomers, science centres...). My goal is to play an active role in getting these ressources known to the general public, especially among youth and underserved communities. I also hope to help in the development of greater projects which will require us to share our expertise.

If you feel like sharing your ideas and projects, I would be happy to know about them. And if you think I can help you with anything, please do not hesitate to contact me! This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

I look forward to collaborating with you,

Julie

One of the global goals for IYA is to improve educational opportunities for people in all parts of the world. Various indicators demonstrate clearly that Africa is well behind all the other continents. One of the best practices that the International Astronomical Union advocates is the twinning or partnering of an educational institution in Africa (or other less developed areas) with one in a more developed country.  For the past two years a wonderful example of this practice has been underway as part of an innovative Canadian and French initiative.

At the request of the Minister for Higher Education of Burkina Faso, we have started an Astrophysics program (Bachelor, Master & PhD) at the Université de Ouagadougou at the end of 2007. A small Observatory (ODAUO: Observatoire d’Astrophysique de l’Université de Ouagadougou - http://astro.univ-ouaga.org/) for teaching purposes has also been built. The idea is to provide the teaching for 4-5 years (astronomers from the Université de Montréal and the Université de Provence) while we are forming 4 Burkinabè PhDs in Astrophysics (2 in Montréal and 2 in Marseille) that will then take over the program. As part of our activities for the IYA, we are also in the process of moving (next October) the Marly telescope from Chile to Burkina Faso in order to have a research facility in the country.

This Best Teaching Prize is an initiative put forth by MyTelescope.com to commemorate the International Year of Astronomy. 400 hours of student telescope time awarded primarily on the basis of teacher submitted ideas.  The telescopes are remotely accessible, and are 10" Schmidt-Cassegrains equipped with mega pixel monochrome CCD cameras. They also all have focusers, filter wheels, and spotting cameras.

For more information, click here