GAM 2019 Blog

by Christie McMonigal

Global Astronomy Month is over for yet another year and what a party it was! This was the 10th year of GAM and we had some very special events to celebrate.

We kicked off the celebrations with a video by our founder Mike Simmons about his personal reflections on 10 years of Global Astronomy Month. You can watch it here:

We also presented two more exciting videos through our Facebook page; OpenSpace: Making Astronomy Accessible for All and Exploring the Stars of the Southern Hemisphere. These are both fantastic resources and we loved how many of you joined in the conversation when the videos aired live.

We also ran our two annual competitions. AstroArts and AstroPoetry. We received so many amazing entries from people of all ages, all over the globe. I am so excited to see who the winners are in each category. The winners should be announced by the end of May.

Global Astronomy Month is all about community.  To close out the month and this blog, I want to share some of my favourite photos, shared with us on social media and via member reports on our website.

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This image from the Pokhara Astronomical Society was bounced off the Moon during our OPTICKS presentation. I love that by using an image of students engaged in learning about the solar system, it really nicely brings together elements of both science and art, which is what OPTICKS is all about!

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SPACE India held so many exciting events throughout the month. This collage shows just how varied and wide-reaching their events were! You can read more about their activities in their event report here.

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The Association  of Young Astronomy held a telescope viewing in the grounds of the International Maarif School in Erbil, Kurdistan. It looks like they had a great turnout! You can see more pictures of their event in the event report here.

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This time to Nigeria. Our Nigerian national coordinator Olayinka Fagbemiro, shared some great photos of the programs they ran during Global Astronomy Month. You can see the rest of the photos here.

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And lucky last, this amazing photo by the Gunstar team in Goias. They held a lunar viewing and celebrated 50 years since the Moon landing. The Gunstar team is an incredibly active astronomy group, holding many events throughout the year. They share lots of their photos with us via member reports and on social media. Follow them on Facebook to keep up with their activities.  

This is just a few of the amazing activities our wonderful community has shared with us. You can find more stories and photos in our member reports and on social media by searching for the hashtag #GAM2019 (@awb_org).

 

Christie McMonigal is the coordinator of Global Astronomy Month and an Australian science communicator with a strong focus on astronomy. She has worked in education and outreach with a number of organisations, including Questacon - The National Science and Technology Centre and Sydney Observatory. Christie currently works at EdTech startup Grok Learning as the Outreach and Marketing Manager.  Christie has a passion for sharing her love of science with the general public. She feels science, in particular physics and astronomy, is a vital part of our everyday lives and she loves to use science to engage and inspire people of all ages.

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