Astronomical Ale

There was a request for a photo of the bottle of Galileo's Astronomical Ale:

From Women In Astronomy

You probably can't read it, but it says "theoretically the best beer in the universe" in white there at the bottom.  I can't say I particularly like beer at all, but my friends who do claim it was good.

AAS 213th Meeting: IYA Opening

Tonight, I went to the opening reception for the IYA kick-off in the US. They gave out free beer: Sierra Nevada Galileo's Astronomical Ale. "Theoretically the best beer in the universe." I got one just so I could keep the bottle.

There were speeches made, and the opening of some island in Second Life, which they showed for us on one of the screens up front. I'm too busy with my first life to want a Second Life, so I'm not following any of the Second Life stuff, but you can at secondastronomy.org.

Then followed a screening of the movie 400 Years of Galileo's Telescope, which features an awful lot of white guys, with the exception of Wendy Freedman, Claire Max, and Catherine Cesarsky. (Also, one of the white guys was my friend John D, who's in there for all of two seconds, so now I'm going to tease him mercilessly about it.) I couldn't help but feel like maybe they could have featured more women in it. And talked more other subfields of astronomy than cosmology. For instance, they went on and on about dark energy, but never once dark matter. Then they could have interviewed Vera Rubin!

Some day, I'd like to see a video on popular astronomy, filled with interviews with experts who happen to be women. I bet it could be done.

She is an Astronomer

Speaking of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA), one of its projects is She Is An Astronomer, which has its own Facebook page. So, if you're on Facebook, join up!

Upcoming Women in Astronomy Meeting

Mark your calendars for the next Women in Astronomy Meeting! From the website:

Women in Astronomy and Space Science: Challenges of gender, generation,
and minority status in an increasingly diverse scientific work place
Oct 21-23, 2009, College Park, MD

Goddard Space Flight Center, along with co-hosts National Science Foundation, University of Maryland, AAS, STScI, NGST, and others, will be hosting a meeting October 21 - 23, 2009 at the University of Maryland Conference Center on the topic of women in astronomy and space science with a focus on not only gender, but also on generation and minorities. This meeting follows up on the "Women in Astronomy" meeting hosted by Space Telescope Science Institute in 1992 and the Pasadena meeting hosted by CalTech in 2003. The topics include: 1) statistics on the state of the field, establishing trends over the last 15 years including the "longitudinal studies" of age vs. makeup of the field and identifying areas for celebration or for concern; 2) research on the impact of gender/ generational/ cultural differences in the science workforce with a focus on practical solutions, 3) issues concerning the work environment and best practices for success of scientists in a diverse work force, and 4) special sessions on the issues of minorities in science, and women in Earth Science.

There is evidence for considerable success in increasing the percentage of women in the field of science and so we aim here to focus more on issues concerning the success of those in the field and solutions for managing a diverse workforce. This meeting will highlight best practices to help the diverse scientific work force to succeed, and will address both the junior members of the field, as well as those who mentor and manage today's diverse scientific workforce. We hope you will join us. More information will be posted on our website as it becomes available.

1992 Baltimore Meeting resulted in the Baltimore Charter and the 2003 Pasadena Meeting resulted in the Pasadena Recommendations. The timing for this year's meeting is to coincide with the International Year of Astronomy.