Regional Offices Activities: Jul – Sep 2025

Andean

  • The Andean region have an updated website, please visit: https://andean.astro4dev.org
  • The Diploma in Astronomy and Territorial Education for teachers from indigenous communities in southern Colombia has successfully concluded. This diploma was offered by the University of the Peoples, an indigenous university in Colombia. Further updates available on the Andean region website.
  • The Andean Office successfully hosted the 5th Astronomy Workshop in the Andes. This event brought together all members of the Andean office in Pasto, Colombia, from September 22nd to 25th 2025.
  • Next Astronomy in the Andean Region Workshop VI will be in Argentina, February 6, 2027. This will align with the annual solar eclipse, visible in Chile and Argentina, on the shore of the Buenos Aires Province.

Arab World and Arabic Language

  •  The 7th Middle East and Africa Regional IAU Meeting (MEARIM7) that will take place at the University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan, from November 11th to 13th, 2025. For more information, visit here.

East Africa

  • Advising and directing the EastAfrican astronomical community how to revive and relaunch its East Africa Astronomical Society (EAAS) on board by making serious of meetings with the adhoc committees,

Tanzania

  • Astronomy Teacher Training Workshop were conducted at Mount Meru Astronomical Observatory, – Arusha
  • Multiple sessions of Public and Students Night Observations were carried out by Secondary students, teachers using MMAO’s telescopes.
  • Curriculum Support and Mentorship were carried out in reviewing national curriculum materials for astronomy content.

Europe

North America

  • Zooniverse program (Zoorniverse Train the Trainer program ZTTP)
    • Total of 52 expressions of interest, 8 Researcher Ambassadors + 28 Educator Ambassadors selected for pilot. (participant from OAE, OAO, OAD and others)
    • Proposal in development for Simons Foundation ($250k/year for 3 years, submission Oct 2). 
    • Zooniverse: Train-the-Trainer program pilot this 2025-2026
    • Fall 2025 (three 1.5 hour training sessions in Oct, Nov, and Dec)
      • 22 Educator Ambassadors across 8 regions enrolled
      • 6 Researcher Ambassadors across 4 regions enrolled
    • Jan-June 2026
      • Ambassadors will implement regional trainings
      • Participation in whatsApp group and virtual meetup in Feb and June
    • July-Sept 2026
      • Continued regional trainings and support of their trainees
      • Continued participation in whatsApp group and virtual meetup in Sept
      • Seeking funding for Educator Ambassador Program to scale beyond pilot
  • NA ROAD is actively conducting a Needs Assessment with support from Advisory Board members, with interviews with key stakeholders across the region scheduled to conclude by early December 2025. The results will inform the update of our Strategic Plan (https://naroad.astro4dev.org/strategic-plan/) in 2026.
  • WGAP 2025 Cohort includes 10 selected projects out of 34 applicants across the North American Region with a mini stipend of $2000 thanks to the Heising Simons Foundation grants.
    • The welcome meeting was held 16th, September at 11:30 a.m to 1:00 p.m ET. Project regions: 1 Puerto Rico, 1 Jamaica, 4 USA, 3 Mexico and 1 Canada. 

 Fundraising (Recurring Activities)

  • For our 3 programs (WGAP, Accessible Astronomy for All (AAA)  and Zooniverse): Actively pursue funding opportunities for 2026.
  • NA ROAD partnered with Astronomers Without Borders (AWB) and AUI and have been submitting grant proposals for Accessible Astronomy for All and WGAP.

Creating partnerships (Recurring Activities)

  • We continue to seek synergies for collaborative partnerships, including co-developing programs, launching joint initiatives, and designing innovative new activities. As an example, we explored a partnership with Astronomers Without Borders (AWB).

Portuguese Language

  • Celebrating 10 years of PLOAD. Many postcards were received in response to the Mail Art call, which had the theme ‘Astronomy for Development’ and was held in celebration of PLOAD’s 10th anniversary. All of the postcards are available to view on Facebook and Instagram. (Complete information is available here, include a photo gallery, in Portuguese.)
  • Cultural Astronomy talks. PLOAD, in collaboration with the Porto Planetary, the University of Évora and the Lago de Alqueva Observatory, organised three talks by Walmir Cardoso on cultural astronomy. The talks focused on indigenous astronomy cultures and the diversity of countries where Portuguese is an official language. They took place on 2nd, 5th and 7th September. (Details available on Facebook and Instagram in Portuguese)
  • XXXV National Meeting of Astronomy and Astrophysics – ENAA. On September 12, PLOAD presented an oral communication entitled “PLOAD 10 Years of Astronomy for Development in Portuguese” at the XXXV ENAA in Portugal (https://indico.global/event/13951/Overview). The presentation was given by Joana Latas.
  • PLOAD Newsletter. PLOAD has started sending out a monthly newsletter  to let members and other interested people know about the latest developments in each member country. Like many other PLOAD contents, the newsletter is available in Portuguese. A mailing list was also created.

Southern Africa

  • Astrolab workshop was successfully held in August 2025 at Sol Plaatje University in South Africa.
  • The office is working on establishing Astronomy Societies in member countries. Active efforts are underway in Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, and Zimbabwe. The main challenge remains securing funding from the governments of our member countries.
  • The office is encouraging member countries to utilise the Astro-tourism flagship as a fundraising tool. We are developing a working guide on incorporating industry for Astro-tourism.

Namibia

  • Actively participating in the Dark Skies project
  • Conducted planetarium outreach activity in which the central government has continued to show interest.

Kenya

  • Conducted a workshop to prepare graduates for industry integration, dubbed Astro-STEM training
  • Conducted an astro-tourism guide training to help Tour guides incorporate astronomy into their line of work.
  • The EMEJA project for inspiring young girls to pursue science-related careers, especially in Astronomy, is ongoing.

South East Asia

  • Registered 16 more dark sky sites to Thailand darksky program (https://darksky.narit.or.th/). There are now over 64 dark sky sites registered to our network.
  • Hosted two international teacher training workshop: One in Kathmandu, Nepal with 53 participants, and one in Buon Ma Thuot, Vietnam with over 120 participants made up of students, teachers, and university students.
  • Hosted K-12 Astronomy Education Conference in Asia. This was attended by over 137 participants from 17 countries. It was widely well received by the participants, with many countries expressing desire to host the next ones.
  • Held an “Astro Challenge” competition to reward students with astronomia trivia. It was attended by over 3,000 students (we had to close the registration due to venue limitation). The final round was a live, on-stage with 8 teams that concluded in August.
  • Brodcasted a live viewing of the total lunar eclipse over facebook live (our most popular social media platform). It received 30k “likes” and the total views was around 290k.
  • Held a special exhibit in collaboration with JAXA. We displayed a sample from the asteroid Ryugu taken by Hayabusa2. This was the first subsurface sample of the asteroid ever taken, and the first time outside of Japan that this sample was ever displayed in Asia. Over the few weeks, some few million people frequent the MHESI fair and NST fair area, which the sample was exhibited.
  • Held another iteration of Astronomy camp for the visually impaired, a camp where we fly blind students and bring them stargazing on top of Thailand’s highest peak.

South West and Central Asia

  • IAU SWCA 4th Regional Astronomical Summer School (4RASS) (8-12 Sep 2025) (HESC, Armenia)
  • International Symposium “Astronomical Surveys and Bid Data 3” (ASBD-3) (15-19 Sep 2025) (HESC, Armenia)
  • UNESCO Conference “Astronomical Heritage of the Middle East 2” (AHME-2) (6-10 Oct 2025) (UNESCO)
  • Byurakan Fest 2025 (8 Oct 2025)
  • Office to host the IAU Division C Communicating Astronomy with the Public Conference 2026 (CAP-2026) – 25-29 May 2026