AWB Astronomers Without Borders Update - 27APR2013

AWB Updates

As we roll toward the close of Global Astronomy Month, how about preserving your GAM experience in the form of a poem—and submitting it to our GAM2013 AstroPoetry Contest? The world of 2013 is sparkling with poetic ideas, and we’ve already received some 50 poems from 8 countries—China, Indonesia, Ireland, Poland, Romania, Sri Lanka, U.K., and U.S.A.  By the April 30 deadline, let’s double the number of poems and countries, for the best world poetry competition ever! Anything or thought, whether large as the expanding Universe or small as a grain of comet dust, can furnish the content for an astropoem, as the Japanese poet Buson showed us with this haiku more than 300 years ago: “Twilight flower-field… / moonrise in the eastern sky / sunset in the west.”  And just last year, GAM2012 contest winner Christine Rueter followed in Buson’s footsteps with this: “HAIKU FOR SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY / Through your small windows / we saw our fractious planet / blue and white and whole.” Our contest is for everyone, with three categories—children, grades 1-6; young adults, grades 7-12; and adults, age 18 and older.  Submit your poem on the contest entry form.  And for inspiration, check out last year’s contest winners and our ongoing AWB AstroPoetry Blog.

Upcoming GAM 2013 Programs: 28 April:        Cosmic Concert (online live musical) 29 April to 8 May:    GLOBE at Night 30 April:        Cosmic Depths (online observing event)

GAM 2013 Blog: 21 April - AstroArt: Daniela De Paulis 22 April - The Light at the End of the Telescope: Rogel Mari Sese 23 April - Working in Astronomy: Sarah Kendrew 24 April - Getting involved in Astronomy: Raven Yu 25 April - The International Year of Astronomy (STILL?): Ricardo Cardoso Reis 26 April - Fuelling the Fire: The Importance of Teaching Kids Astronomy: Maya Barlev 27 April - My Astronomy Awareness Journey: Fikiswa Majola GAM 2013 Blog will feature 30 bloggers for the 30 days in April. Follow the blog for posts around the world.

Dark Skies Awareness Blog: You Can Change the World’s Skies by Christopher Kyba "The battle against light pollution will only be won once a large fraction of the population can explain in their own words what is wrong with current lighting. To get from here to there, we need everyone who understands the problem to talk about it with their friends, family, and co-workers. So how do you talk about light pollution?" Continue reading... Mount Tai and the Starry Sky by Xiaohua Wang "Mount Tai is located in Shandong Province in eastern China. It is called the "chieftain" among five famous mountains in China. In 1987, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) declared Mount Tai a World Cultural and Natural Heritage Site. However, after 90 years, light pollution has appeared at Mount Tai. The city of Tai’an near the mountain has grown 30-fold; it has a population of nearly 5.5 million and consumes 10 billion KWH of electricity a year." Continue reading... A Statewide Star Party by Amy Sayle "Across a 500-mile swath of North Carolina, from the mountains to the Outer Banks, 45 sites planned skywatching sessions for the public on April 5th, as the kickoff to the 2013 North Carolina Science Festival. Since the star party date fell at the beginning of International Dark Sky Week and during a GLOBE at Night campaign, each site was asked to educate their audiences about light pollution and encourage them to document the darkness of the sky at the star party and later on in their own neighborhoods." Continue reading...

AstroArt Blog: Spaceflight Dolphin - An Art and Technology Payload for the Space Shuttleby Richard Clar "The first real opportunity for individuals or institutions in the world to access space at a very reasonable cost arose from NASA’s Get-Away-Special Program (GAS) that was announced in 1976. Artists were not excluded per se from the GAS Program as long as they could satisfy the basic requirement that GAS payloads must have some human or technical benefit. NASA would not fly art just for art’s sake and was very strict about this requirement. Subsequently, four artists managed to meet this criterion and have their art payloads accepted into NASA’s GAS Program."Continue reading... Shrimp Cocktail – since the Apollo days by Charles Bourland "Shrimp Cocktail has been in NASA food systems since the Apollo days and is still one of the most popular astronaut foods. Shrimp are very conducive to freeze drying. When processed properly, the dehydrated shrimp are very similar to fresh shrimp after water is added. Astronaut Story Musgrave (STS-6, STS-51F, STS-33, STS-44, STS-61, STS-80)  liked shrimp cocktail so much that he requested it for every meal, every day for the duration of the mission." Continue reading... Chocolate Pudding Cake: a favourite at ISS by Charles Bourland "Chocolate Pudding Cake is one of the popular ISS deserts and is easy to make compared to other space food recipes. The recipes are complex because many ingredients start from scratch and are commercial food service products. Some of the more complex space food recipes were not included in the Astronaut’s Cookbook because the ingredients were not available and special equipment is required to process." Continue reading...

GAM 2013 Event Registration: Have you registered your GAM 2013 events yet? Tell the world what you're doing! Below are some new events. Join them! Observação de Saturno, Brazil A Journey into the Universe, Romania Thailand monthly star party, Thailand Saturn and the Solar System at the Ghana Planetarium, Ghana Saturn Watch, Morocco

AWB thanks our sponsors of GAM 2013: Media Sponsor - Sky & Telescope HOTECH Woodland Hills Camera and Telescopes

Connect With AWB Twitter: http://twitter.com/awb_org Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/astronomerswithoutborders Google Plus: http://bit.ly/gplus_awb Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/AstroWB

2013 THE Year of Meteors, Asteroids, Comets, and MORE!!