In 2009 the world celebrates the International Year of Astronomy (IYA 2009) to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Galileo's use of a telescope to stare at heavens and the 40th anniversary of first man landing on the moon.
In this celebration astronomers around the world will hold up various activities directed at all people: you, your friends, your family, and even your little kids, to have a look at the night sky through the telescope and to know more about the vast universe in which we are living.
It was a great delight to announce Syria as one of the participating countries in this historical celebration, and everyone is invited to participate: scientists and public, parents and children, teachers and students, elderly and kids.
In this website we will provide all information about IYA 2009 activities in Syria. We are proud to have this website published in two languages, English and Arabic, of which you can choose the one that best suites you. We are still planning our upcoming events, and Syria 2009 IYA team welcomes all thoughts and suggestions.
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| Recent Activities |
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100 Hours of Astronomy: A huge success!!!
Between 1 and 5 April 2009 Syria witnessed extended activities during the global project 100 Hours of Astronomy. We could make 1,675 persons have their first look ever through the telescope during these days. You can view the detailed coverage of our seven main activities by visiting this link.
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Galileoscope: no stop!
Starting with the activities of 100 Hous of Astronomy, our Galileoscope project is still going. We have continued our night ovservation in public places for the rest of April in five different cities in Syria. Thousands of Syrians had their first look through the telescope. The activities are sure going on for May in our schedule, which was extended to cover seven main Syrian cities. Read the detailed coverage on this link.
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Our Portal to the Universe launches!
So global Portal to the Universe has launched. But we had different plans. We wanted to create a database and reference for all astronomy links on the web, and in arabic languages. This would be done in three steps. So far we have accomplished the first step, which include all astronomy links in Arabic language on the net, including organizations, clubs, news sites, articles, maps, photos, magazines, forums, and a lot more. These sites realy concern the Arabic people and this is why we started our project with this step. We will soon continue our work on this project and make the largest ever links page in astronomy. It is in Arabic language, but you may have a look on this page by clicking here. |
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Our participation in The Position of The Sun and The Shape of the Earth experiment
Under a kind support from prof Udo Backhaus we participated in this project through observation in five different places in Syria. Unfortunately the weather conditions was not suitable in two of these five.
To see our full report with photos (Arabic language): click here please.
To have a look at the golbal results page: click here please.
To know more about this project: click here please.
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First course in astrophotography
As part of the global project From the Earth to the Universe we organized the first course in astrophotography in March 2009. Twelve students participated in this course, which included different topics. To read more about this course please click here.
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| News Archive |
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From Earth to the Universe launches!
Activities will start with a course in Astrophotography, including using telescopes in digital astrophotography and photo processing using graphics software. Project team is also planning for a huge gallery on next June, which is supposed to contain more than 100 printed astronomical photo. |
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Galileoscope starts soon!
Our Galileoscope is aimed at showing the heavens to as much number of Syrians as we can. Activities will start with 100 Hours of Astronomy, and will continue through the rest of the year. Our team is ready to count the number of persons who will look through the telescope for the first time in their lives. We have prepared a special form in order to collect information about ages of the participants. All forms from members of the team will be collected by the end of 2009 in order to make our final statistics.
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Provisional plan of 100 Hours of Astronomy is ready
The celebration will cover all the land of Syria. Between 2 and 5 April our limited number of telescopes will spread over the country in order to show the beauty of the heavens to those who still do not know it. Our program will include lectures, films, discussions, and observational nights. |
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Launching the first astronomy website for kids in Arabic
On 1/3/2009 we celebrated the launch of first Arabic astronomical website for kids ever on the Internet. The website is designed and directed by members of SAAA, and it contains simplified text and lovely animations for the solar system. This is the preliminary design of the site, and it will be further developed and enhanced during the next few months. You can visit the site on kids.saaa-sy.org. Even if you do not speak Arabic, just have a look and tell us what you think!
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Our first participation in TWAN
Ok we are not so good in astrophotography, but at least we are trying. One of our members, Mahmoud Alamir, captured the beautiful triple conjuction over Hama city in northern Syria on last December. This was the only photo from Syria published on TWAN website (www.twanight.org). This may give many of us the motivation to learn and practice astrophotography more and more. The coming months may witness some other photos from Syria. You can have a look at this smart shot by clicking here.
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The Syria IYA 2009 Committee approves the general plan of projects
After many meetings and discussions about the availabe ideas concerning the projects of International Year of Astronomy 2009 the committee approved the final plan which contains twelve projects.
(more)
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| Also in this website |
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IYA 2009 In Syria
In this article we describe the importance of IYA 2009 in Syria and the steps that were recently taken to make this celebration possible in this country.
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Week of Astronomy in October
In this article we talk about the activities that were held in all parts of Syria during the international week of astronomy in the frist week of October 2008.
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Know more about Syria
Read this article to know general information about Syria including geography, population, education, tourism, brief history, and many other aspects of this country.
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Know more about SAAA
Read this article to know more about the SAAA, the sponsor of IYA 2009 in Syria, including establishment, achievements, and activities.
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