One aspect of the IAU Symposium 260 was to look at the intersection between astronomy and the arts. And the examples are numerous, whether in paintings, music, architecture, and so on. One session was devoted to literature and music.
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Thursday afternoon saw the second session at the IAU Symposium 260 on Astronomy and the Arts, with a series of most interesting contributions. Two were particularly interesting to me.
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Although we all know how astronomy has led to several scientific revolutions, it is perhaps much less known that there is a dialogue between astronomy and the organisation of society, i.e. politics, which have mutually influenced them. This was the topic of a very interesting talk by Nicholas Campion from the Centre for the Study of Cosmology in Culture at the University of Wales, UK.
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In a session devoted to astronomy as a tool for development and technologies, Laurent Vigroux from the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, France, considered the relation between astronomy and technology. Astronomy, he said, has now become a big science, using big machines, requiring big budgets and a big organisation. And as all big sciences, astronomy has developed complex relationship with the industry for their mutual benefits. Astronomical observatories require many industrial contracts for construction and operations, such as site infrastructure (road, buildings, power supply, …), mechanical structures of telescopes and domes, mirror manufacturing and polishing, and control equipments and software, while some developments require more specialised companies (cryogenic systems, space instrumentation, and high accuracy metrology system). Usually, these activities require a collaborative effort between astronomers and industry or can be performed by industry alone after a first step of technology transfer. On the other hand, for the most challenging parts, for example very low noise electronics or very low temperature experiments, the developments remain inside laboratories with strong technical groups. Read the rest of this entry »

An important aspect of interaction between astronomy and society is the problem of light pollution. As many speakers of the conference have mentioned, humanity is loosing a very large cultural asset because of light pollution: people do not have anymore the chance to admire the night sky in its full glory or even to simply see the constellations. Only in very few places on Earth are we still able to see the sky in the same way as our ancestors. But these places are also starting to be in danger of being light polluted, including the professional astronomical observatories and their very sensitive large instruments. As the aim of the International Year of Astronomy is to connect the people with the skies, light population is a crucial problem. A session at the conference was dedicated to this.
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