International Year of Astronomy



The Universe, Yours to Discover

The International Year of Astronomy was a year-long celebration of astronomy, that took place in 2009 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the first recorded astronomical observations with a telescope by Galileo Galilei and the publication of Johannes Kepler's Astronomia nova in the 17th Century.

IYA2009 Cornerstone Projects



 * 100 Hours Of Astronomy
 * The Galileoscope
 * Cosmic Diary
 * The Portal to the Universe
 * She is an Astronomer
 * Dark Skies Awareness
 * Astronomy and World Heritage
 * Galileo Teacher Training Program
 * Universe Awareness
 * From Earth to the Universe
 * Developing Astronomy Globally

Wikiversity projects

 * Create multilingual resources on multiple wikimedia projects - see the coordination page at International Year of Astronomy
 * Wikinews - write an article announcing the IYA to coincide with the opening ceremony on Jan. 15-16, 2009
 * Dark Skies - an opportunity for citizen-scientists to monitor light pollution worldwide
 * GLOBE at Night (March 16 - 28, 2009)
 * Earth Hour - A Global Event on Climate Change (March 28, 2009)  Earth Hour
 * The Great World Wide Star Count (October 9 - 23, 2009)


 * 100 Hours of Astronomy (April 2-5, 2009)
 * Research Experiences for Students, Teachers and Citizen Science
 * Observe the eclipse of Epsilon Aurigae