Galilean Nights: New IYA2009 Cornerstone Project: Following the unprecedented success of IYA2009's 100 Hours of Astronomy, another weekend of astronomy events has been highlighted for 23-24 October 2009. This new IYA2009 Cornerstone Project is called Galilean Nights and will see amateur and professional astronomers around the globe taking to the streets, pointing their telescopes to the wonders that Galileo observed 400 years ago.

IYA2009 News Round-up: IYA2009 is making some headlines!

2009: A year full of astronomical stamps! : IYA2009 promises to have a number of astronomy related items released. Especially so since the annual PostEurop EUROPA series (with its 40+ member agencies) has selected "Astronomy" as its theme.

United Nations support space science education: The UN Office for Outer Space Affairs has congratulated staff and students on the successful conclusionn of the Sixth Postgraduate Course on Space and Atmospheric Science at the UN-affiliated Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific (CSSTEAP). The Course is a contribution to IYA2009, and emphasises the importance of education and research in astronomy and space science.

Touching the Edge of the Universe: world premiere: ESA will present the world premiere of Touching the Edge of the Universe, a stunning new planetarium show, starting 7 May 2009 at 30 planetaria in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Galileo Mobile: GalileoMobile is an itinerant science education project bringing the Year of Astronomy to young underprivileged people across South America, to foster a will of learning by exciting wonder about our Universe.

Cosmic Diary Features the Hottest Topics in Astronomy: The Cosmic Diary Cornerstone Project encourages professional astronomers to talk with the public about their work. The bloggers have each been challenged to write a feature article about their area of expertise, using easy-to-understand language to translate the nuts and bolts of their scientific research. A new feature article is released every two weeks!

Third Falakyati Mela in Okara, Pakistan: More than 1,500 attendees, an hour of presentation and another for live lunar and planetary views, extremely enthusiastic students with their parents and teachers, very well organized and publicized..and a wonderful host! This is the KSS’ third Falakyati Mela in the city of Okara. Those who were there, would agree that we will probably not see any better this whole year.

IYA2009 Boosts GLOBE at Night to Record Number of Dark-Skies Observations: The global citizen-science campaign GLOBE at Night 2009 recorded 80 percent more observations of the world's dark skies than the program's previous record-including double the number of digital measurements-thanks in large part to active participation and publicity from the network of 140 countries currently celebrating the International Year of Astronomy 2009

29 May 2009: The 90th anniversary of the 1919 solar eclipse: In May 1919, Astronomers launched an historic expedition to observe a total solar eclipse. Historians now recognise this expedition as a major achievement of 20th century science.