Are You Ready For the International Year of Astronomy? Let’s get the world looking up! Download articles, activities, sky maps, videos and more with free monthly IYA Discovery Guides: www.astrosociety.org/iya/guides.html Month NASA Topic: Explore the Universe Observe This! Activities and Demonstrations and IYA Event Dates http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/topics.htm Ready To Observe? January Telescopes and Space Probes: Venus Understanding what you will see 10 — IYA Opening Events Today’s Starry Messengers at the telescope Our Solar System Spotting Craters: February Moon (storyline includes extrasolar planets) When is the best time to view the Moon? March 16–28 — GLOBE at Night Light Pollution and Shielding: Observing at Night…and in the Day Saturn 20 — Sun-Earth Day Good lighting for the Earth 28 — Earth Hour April Whirlpool A Universe of Galaxies: 2–5 — 100 Hours of Astronomy Galaxies and the Distant Universe Galaxy Where we fit into the Universe 4 — International Sidewalk Astronomy May Our Sun The Sun Modeling the Sun and Earth 2 — Astronomy Day Trip Around the Triangle: June Clusters of Stars Hercules Cluster What will you see tonight? Find out all about IYA events in the US here: http://astronomy2009.us Month NASA Topic: Explore the Universe Observe This! Activities and Demonstrations and IYA Event Dates http://astronomy2009.nasa.gov/topics.htm Black Hole Star Maps: July Black Holes The Milky Way What and where are they? August Cook Up a Comet: Rocks and Ice in the Solar System Perseids 1 — IYA Summer Moon Party Find out what comets are made of Pocket Solar System: September Planets and Moons Jupiter Model the distances to Solar System orbits October Telescopes as Time Machines: 4–10 — World Space Week What is the Fate of the Universe? Andromeda Look back in time! 9–23 — World Wide Star Count Lives of Stars: November The Lives of Stars Crab Nebula From a stellar nurseries to explosive deaths December What is the “Habitable Zone”? 31 — “Once in a Blue Moon” local Discovering New Worlds Orion Nebula Where we are looking for life around other stars IYA Closing Events The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) designed the IYA Discovery Guides for use by astronomers and the public worldwide. The ASP is grateful for the support from NASA Science Mission Directorate, Space Telescope Science Institute, JPL, the Origins Forum, and the National Science Foundation to make these Discovery Guides and other IYA activities possible. You can learn more about all of the ASP’s IYA activities and programs online at: www.astrosociety.org/iya/.