Telescope Reviews: Communicating Astronomy on the Web

One of the main goals for the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA) is communicating astronomy with the public. This means going out with your scopes or giving a talk to entertain the general publics interest in astronomy. Well, nowadays people are addicted to technology (I am not saying thats a bad thing) and they don not want to go outside and "leave" their beloved computers. So why not bring the astronomy to their computers and internet devices?

There are already many great online astronomy services out there such as the www.astrocast.tv and the new large community on U-Stream.
(these are not the only online sources, there are many more but those sources are for another post)
If you have not already seen the Ustream webcasts I highly recommend you do.

Now I believe as a fellow "Astronomical Outreacher" that we should use all of these amazing online communication site for public outreach. Be it giving speeches, showing videos, or explaining and answering astronomical questions.

So here is what I Have started and I highly recommend you start one too. I have been broadcasting the local astronomy club meetings on ustream, not only for the public but for members who are not able to attend. The I have been using Twitter, Yahoo! Answers, Youtube and Flickr for astronomical updates answering questions and posting my astronomical photographs. These are all amazing tools for helping communicating astronomy and I believe it has helped many young people understand the basic concepts.

I have just started, today using Skype. I think that this tool will be a great addition to communicating my astronomical knowledge with others. I will be able to have video conferences with people all around the world and show them real time images through the my telescope via webcam.

I hope that this persuades you to try and start online astronomical outreach, and I would like to hear from you on how you communicate astronomy with the public (either online sources or not)

Thanks and Clear Skies!
Elias Jordan

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