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.Astronomy 2009: Workshop on Astronomy and the New Media

Next week, from 30 November to 4 December, an unconventional workshop takes place in Leiden, The Netherlands, to discuss novel concepts of thinking and working in astronomy today. Participants of the .Astronomy conference (read: dot astronomy) will explore new ways of exploiting the data deluge that will be produced by upcoming surveys and instruments for the benefit of their science and of society as a whole. Novel ways of communicating science to a wide audience have burst onto the scene in recent years: the web 2.0, blogs, podcasts and social networking.

Google Sky and Microsoft’s Worldwide Telescope have brought astronomy into the home with stunning elegance. No science is better suited to engaging the general public in real scientific research and discovery than astronomy. Examples of this are the hugely popular Galaxy Zoo project, or the increasing number of robotic telescopes made available to citizen scientists for scientific and educational purposes. Online communication and network-based technologies are changing the face of science, for professional astronomers as well as for the general public.

In 2008 the first .Astronomy conference took place in Cardiff. The second edition is taking place at the Lorentz Center of Leiden University. Some of the themes covered during the meeting are citizen science projects, new media for outreach and communication, network-based research tools and data visualisation. One day of the meeting is a dedicated ‘Astronomy Hack Day’ where the topics above will be explored in a hands-on way. Developers will brainstorm about new ideas and applications. One of the objectives of the meeting is to come up with a new citizen science project, where the general public is invited to be directly involved in producing new scientific results. The morning talks of the .Astronomy workshop will be streamed online.

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Contact:

Dr. Carolina Ödman
Tel: +31 (0)71 527 58 16     Mob:  +31 (0)6 41 275 298
E-mail: odman@strw.leidenuniv.nl

Dr. Sarah Kendrew
Tel: +31 (0)71 527 84 56
E-mail: kendrew@strw.leidenuniv.nl

Robert Simpson
Tel: +44 (0)7929 508961
E-mail: robert.simpson@astro.cf.ac.uk

.Astronomy 2009 is an event of the International Year of Astronomy 2009.

.Astronomy 2009 is supported by the Lorentz Center, NWO, ASTRON, the European programme RadioNet, the British Council/Platform Beta Techniek’s Partnership in Science programme and the Royal Astronomical Society.

Links:
http://www.dotastronomy.com/
http://www.lorentzcenter.nl/
Twitter: @dotastronomy
Blog: http://www.dotastronomy.com/

Original press release on http://www.astronomie.nl/
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