IAU DIVISION XII Commission 55

COMMUNICATING ASTRONOMY WITH THE PUBLIC

It is the responsibility of every practising astronomer to play some role in explaining the interest and value of science to our real employers, the taxpayers of the world.

Mission statement

• To encourage and enable a much larger fraction of the astronomical community to take an active role in explaining what we do (and why) to our fellow citizens.
• To act as an international, impartial coordinating entity that furthers the recognition of outreach and public communication on all levels in astronomy.
• To encourage international collaborations on outreach and public communication.
• To endorse standards, best practices and requirements for public communication.

Working Groups

The Commission has at the moment six Working Groups:

1. Washington Charter (Chair: Dennis Crabtree)
2. VAMP - Virtual Astronomy Multimedia Project (Chair: Adrienne Gaulthier)
3. Best practices (Chair: Lars Lindberg Christensen)
4. Communicating Astronomy Journal (Chair: Pedro Russo)
5. New Ways of Communicating Astronomy with the Public (Chair: Michael West)
6. Communicating Astronomy with the Public conferences (Chair: Ian Robson)