This year is packed with special events celebrating the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009), which commemorates the 400th anniversary of Galileo turning the telescope to the heavens. To help us keep track of all the important dates and activities, Andy Fraknoi, executive secretary of the U.S. Program Committee for the International Year of Astronomy, and colleagues have created a calendar for Astronomy to share with you. During the last week of each month, I’ll post a blog summarizing what’s to come in the following month.
February 2009
NASA Theme: Our Solar System
Featured object in the sky: The Moon and its craters
February 7: The 120th anniversary of the founding of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the first national astronomy organization in the United States.
February 14–28: During Great Observatories Image Unveiling, NASA's Great Observatories (the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray Observatory) and more than 100 U.S-based science centers, museums, and planetaria will unveil images to celebrate IYA2009.
February 15: Galileo’s birthday (1564–1642)