I have been tremendously busy this week with JREF stuff, so I’ve been letting some news and other things slip behind me. I’ll try to put down my thoughts on the gassy Mars news soon, but until then, please feel free to comment on my Pope article, find out how far away the horizon is, or listen to an interview I did with Lab Out Loud, the official podcast of the National Science Teachers Association. Here’s the direct link to the MP3. We talked JREF quite a bit, as well as IYA 2009.

More later. Promise.

If you live in Toronto, you may notice something the next time you take the bus: someone’s trying to teach you astronomy.

That someone is Ray Jayawardhana, who has coordinated a public outreach campaign called Cool Cosmos to get the public interested in astronomy. Along with the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics he has created a series of five posters that will go on buses, subways, and streetcars. They’re cute, simple, and feature a basic but cool fact. I like this one best:

It says, "Having a long day? It will only get longer. Tides caused by the Moon are slowing down the Earth’s spin, making each day a tiny bit longer than the one before."

How cool is that? The others are good too. This is a very clever campaign, and I think at the very least it’ll get people thinking about nifty ideas about the Universe. This is being done as a way to celebrate IYA 2009, too, and it’s an excellent endeavor.

My one complaint: they should’ve talked to the folks at Spitzer first about the name. D’oh!

Cheap Astronomy is hosting the 85th Carnival of Space, just in time to goof off on a weekend. Remember, it’s the International Year of Astronomy now, so you have to read an astronomy article every day. It’s in the intertoobs bylaws.

And somehow I forgot to post about last week’s carnival at Next Big Future. So that’s double your astrogoodness for the week!

Happy New Year!

And what a year it will be: it’s the International Year of Astronomy, a 365-day long celebration of the coolest science there is. The idea is simple: promote astronomy, and increase everyone’s awareness of the Universe around them. A noble effort, and one I support wholeheartedly.

There are a lot of ways you can participate. First things first: go to the IYA2009 website, and spend some time poking around there. That is the central hub of the effort, with a huge amount of information on how you can participate.

My personal suggestion is to throw a star party. Invite your neighbors to see the planets or the Moon through a telescope (if you don’t have one, find someone in your area who does). Joining or just contacting an astronomy club would help. I have links to find one near you on the old site.

A star party might take a while to set up, but there are things you can do right now. There are so many online activities! There are three I particularly like:

Cosmic Diary: "The Cosmic Dairy aims to put a human face on astronomy: professional scientists will blog in text and images about their lives, families, friends, hobbies and interests, as well as their work, their latest research findings and the challenges that face them." There are several posts up already.

365 Days of Astronomy Podcast: "a project that will publish one podcast per day, for all 365 days of 2009. The podcast episodes are written, recorded and produced by people around the world." And by people, they mean you. This is a participatory effort, where anyone who wants to can submit an entry. Head over there, pick a day, pick a topic, and record your cosmic thought! And the first one is already up. I love the intro music; it’s by skeptic and science junkie George Hrab.

Social Networks: IYA 2009 is on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. Join us there, and that way you’ll get updates and be sure to keep up with the latest news.

If you’re a regular reader here, you know how much I love astronomy, and how much I love to share that love. So join me, and join all my friends, colleagues, and fellow sky-lovers. Share astronomy with someone!