- Created: Saturday, March 14 2020 18:39
14 March, 2020
With only a few weeks from the April 1 start of Global Astronomy Month – the largest astronomical celebration in the world, Astronomers Without Borders is taking a forward-looking position to address the coronavirus crisis.
Due to concerns involving the spread of the new coronavirus disease, COVID-19, AWB strongly advises that event organizers, including those for Global Astronomy Month, take precautionary measures and cancel or postpone their scheduled on-site public events. These events include all local community gatherings such as star parties, public lectures, school visits, and other in-person outreach programs.
Therefore, during this year’s Global Astronomy Month (GAM2020) and beyond, AWB will not be accepting registration or promoting any event that involves gathering of people, until further notice.
We understand that this will result in inconveniences to many people and organizations that have put a lot of hard work and time in arranging their events. However, our primary concern is the health and well being of our community, friends, neighbours, and the public at large.
With the current situation in mind, AWB will instead move forward with an online celebration exclusively with remote outreach programming. Keep an eye out for our growing schedule of our virtual GAM2020 events.
We would like to encourage our community members to hold their own online events through social channels (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter) and register them on our website.
We will continue to update the AWB community about online events as they are being registered so that as many people can enjoy the night sky as possible. We invite you to visit our social channels and talk about what is happening with astronomy outreach in your area.
While this is a challenging time for us all, we, at AWB look forward to you sharing your view of the sky, your passion and knowledge. Even though we may be isolated – more so than usual, we all still share the stars. Keep in mind we are “One People, One Sky”.
Astronomers Without Borders Staff
