.Astronomy 2: Leiden 2009

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Leiden, 2009

"Astronomy is facing a paradigm shift. The huge quantities of data that will be generated by a new generation of surveys and instruments require new ways of thinking. At the same time, an ever more connected world is bringing astronomy to the masses by the vast possibilities of the web, via  blogs, podcasts, social networks and more.
Google Sky and Microsoft’s Worldwide Telescope have taken astronomy into the home with stunning elegance. Exciting citizen science projects enlist the general public into world-class astronomy research. Data mining, robotic telescopes and virtual observatories will soon take petabytes of data to a global audience of professionals and amateurs. Communication and networking technologies are changing science, for both researchers and the public alike."

The 2nd .Astronomy conference was hosted in the Lorentz Center, at Leiden University in the Netherlands, from 30 November to 4 December 2009. It was the first to follow the ".Astronomy format", with a hack day. 

Themes and topics

  •  Citizen Science
    •  Galaxy Zoo
    • Web-based platforms for citizen science projects
    • Future citizen science projects
  • New media for outreach and communication
    • IYA 2009 and the web: 100 Hours of Astronomy, The World at Night, Cosmic Diary, UNAWE, Portal to the Universe)
    • Podcasting and blogging astronomy
    • Microblogging
  • Networked technologies for research
    • Virtual observatory
    • Literature tools
    • Data mining
  • Visualisation concepts
    • Google Sky, Microsoft Worldwide Telescope
    • Visualisation as a research aid

Invited speakers

  • Dr. Michael Nielsen, author of Reinventing Discovery
  • Dr. Arfon Smith, Oxford University
  • Dr. John Taylor, Google
  • Prof. Andy Lawrence, Edinburgh University

Sponsors

.Astronomy 2 was generously supported by the Lorentz Center, Astron, the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), the British Council, NWO, RadioNet and the Platform Bèta Techniek.