Space Applications for Disaster Relief: The Haiti Earthquake Brief

Space-based applications and services are extremely important for emergency preparedness and recovery efforts. International organisations, space agencies, universities, and the people they serve have much interest in working together to bring space-based technology innovations to the service of communities that were, are or will inevitably be affected by disasters.

Following the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the SGAC SPIDER Group has produced a document that reviews and emphasizes these benefits of space-based applications in disaster management.

You can access the full paper or read the detailed news on SGAC website.

The Public Face of Space

Whether you are referring to public...relations or public....awareness, the next ISU symposium is bound to address these issues at its fourteenth edition, taking place in Strasbourg, France, between 16 and 18 February.

The symposium aims to set a new meaning to education efforts - going beyond attracting young people into studying science to developping the full human potential of the broader population. Add public outreach and managing expectations together with work force development and capacity building and you can catch a glimpse of the fabulous discussions taking place these days in Strasbourg. Check the full program!

Desenul Astronomic/ Astronomic Drawings

On Saturday, January 30, the Romanian Amateur Astronomers Conference took place in Bucharest. Organised by Astroclubul Bucuresti it aimed to gather amateur astronomers to present their scientific results and observations during IYA2009.

For a group of people living in the light-polluted Bucharest, a quite impressive number of presentations were submitted. We had three major categories: scientific observations, telescope manufacture and astrophotography & drawings, all of which included topics such as: photometry, PHEMU, Lunar oculatations, variable stars and observations on Epsilon Aurigae, solar observations, video observations at meteor showers, manufacture of telescopes, the briefcase mount (!), the micromount, automatic telescopes, astrophotgraphy and astrophotography with DSLR, astronomic drawings.

The last one was done by me and you can see bellow here an attempt to make amateur astronomers turn back to drawings alonside with astrophotography! The presentation is in Romanian, but my very modest drawings are universal language :P

Desenul Astronomic

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