2009 The astronomy outreach landscape changed a lot from the celebration of the International Year of Astronomy 2009 ( IYA2009 ). The Total Solar Eclipse on July 22 , 2009 , provided us a great opportunity to connect with the public and policymakers through our programs . Our outreach program held at Nepal Academy of Science and Technology ( NAST ) was attended by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal . IYA2009 created a large momentum in the country with access to more information and resources , which inspired many youngsters in Nepal to engage themselves in astronomy outreach activities . Probably , it was the first time that many Nepali televisions broadcast a solar eclipse live to their viewers . Since then we have had several live broadcasts of astronomical events from different TV channels . It was also a year that we started visiting different cities and villages within the country with our outreach programs . Nepal ’ s participation at the opening ceremony had helped our team to realize the opportunity of our deeper engagement in astronomy outreach and potential supports from the international community that we met during the meeting . This article is one of the results of our friendship that we established with our friends in Brazil and exchanges that we had in the past whether attending a physical meeting in Brazil or via online interactions . 2 . IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach The establishment of the Office of Astronomy Outreach by IAU in 2012 provided some insights to register the Nepal Astronomical Society ( NASO ) for legal status so that we could apply for different national and international projects on astronomy outreach . My visit to the office in 2014 provided me an opportunity to closely work with officials at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan ( NAOJ ) and IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach . It was our first visit after we legally existed in Nepal ! The transition from an informal group to a legally operating organization was a real
challenge for us . We decided to take this challenge and take NASO to a new height in the field of astronomy and space science outreach in Nepal . 3 . IAU General Assembly The IAU General Assembly held in Hawaii , United States of America , was the first official participation of NASO after gaining legal status . Our team decided to attend the assembly to strengthen our network and find collaborators . Manisha Dwa and I attended the event where we had several meetings with our potential collaborators . It was also an opportunity for our new team to share our latest developments among our International friends and IAU officials . We had shown our active participation in the IAU General Assembly held in Vienna , August 2018 . This assembly is a milestone as we saw a change in the leadership of the astronomy outreach community from a non-scientific community to the scientific community in Nepal . Nepal was represented by a non-scientific person at IAU with different volunteering capacities
COURTESY OF Nepal Astronomical Society
Above , a NASO chairperson interacts with the students of one of the colleges in Kathmandu during a solar observation program in 2017 .
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