Sky's Up Global Astronomy Magazine December 2020 | Page 56

from 2006-2018 . It did hinder the growth of the astronomical community in the country as a person could not coordinate with the scientific community as demanded by his role / s . Since I joined IAU as IAU National Outreach Coordinator , the first thing I tried to correct is the gap and misunderstanding about astronomy and astrology in the country . To address the sentiments of these people , we decided to extend our collaboration with them in positional astronomy and cultural astronomy . I hope , it will help us to connect with all and at the same time help people to understand the difference between astronomy and astrology . 4 . IAU100 : Under One Sky 2019 marked the 100th anniversary of the establishment of IAU which was another milestone in the history of astronomy outreach in Nepal . We organized physical outreach events in all seven provinces and , at the same time , collaborated with different digital platforms to strengthen our outreach activities . The year 2019 remained special as we organized the first-ever public event of the Name ExoWorlds project and provided the Nepali names to the star and a planet of an exoworld assigned to us . Our journey has had many ups and downs from 2007 as we transitioned from an informal group to a leading astronomical organization privately run in Nepal . We have created an environment in Nepal where people started finding astronomy as the greatest tool to encourage people to do science . The number of astronomy clubs and other organizations established over
COURTESY OF Nepal Astronomical Society
Above , volunteers conduct Public Solar Outreach at the Kathmandu Durbar Square during 100 Hours of Astronomy as a part of our 100 years of IAU celebration in Nepal . Below , NASO volunteers posing for the group photo at our stall at the Science Street Festival organized by Nepal Academy of Science and Technology ( NAST ) at Jawlakhel Football Ground in 2019 .
the period in Nepal is evidence of our knowledge transfer to the younger generation as well as an elder generation in Nepal . To accommodate feedback and our new ideas to be implemented from this year , we had some changes in our team recently . We hope , this will help us to contribute more to the astronomical community in Nepal and abroad with our activities .
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