Greek - Iran Astronomy for Peace Project

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Aug 05

2013

by Christos Sotiropoulos

connecting the sky between Greece and Iran

We are very happy to have been approached by Ahmad Alasti seeking cooperation and joint projects between our two countries. We have already spent more than an hour talking through Skype and building a relationship, exchanging information on Astronomy and culture. We both feel very proud that most nothern sky constellations have greek names and most stars persian names and that is a very strong bond for joint astronomy projects.

Just for the History relations between the two people date back from the antiquity and before Persian invasion of Greece. There is also the report of Strabo of an Athenian delegation to Persia in 432 BC. The relations have evolved from sworn rivalry during the Greco-Persian wars, to strong cordiality, which is seen in the Greco-Persian culture created later on. 

In the next few weeks we are planning our first joint project, a common astronomy presentation ran at the same time in both countries and exchanging Q&A through Skype. Other projects will include presentations of ancient Greek and Persian astronomers, Mythology of the constellations and more.