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The Astronomical Society of the Pacific
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) is an international scientific and
educational organization, founded in 1889, that brings together professional astronomers,
amateur astronomers, educators at all levels, and interested laypeople. It is the
largest general astronomy society in the world. Members today live in all 50 states and
over 60 other countries; the society's name is mostly a reminder of its California
origins.
Table of Contents
Mercury magazine
The ASP's bimonthly magazine features nontechnical articles on astronomy research,
education, history, and social policy. Regular departments discuss international
astronomy, society activities, book reviews, and controversial issues of the day.
Mercury goes to ASP members, libraries, and leaders in astronomy education.
For a selection of articles, click here.
For more information, contact the Editor.
Publications of the ASP
The ASP publishes a monthly, refereed
technical journal, which
features invited review papers, contributed papers on astronomical research
and instrumentation, and summaries of recent Ph.D. dissertations. To
search for keywords in PASP abstracts,
click here.
Conference Series
The ASP publishes a series of
conference proceedings
and holds technical symposia for its professional members.
Project ASTRO
With the support of the NSF, the ASP runs a pilot program to bring visiting astronomers
(professional and amateur) into 4th-9th grade classrooms. The astronomers don't just give
a one-time talk. After attending a training workshop and receiving a wide range of
hands-on, age-appropriate activities, they set up a genuine partnership with a teacher
involving regular visits and after-school activities.
The project is seeking volunteer astronomers and advanced astronomy students who
would like to participate in the program during 1995-1996.
Astronomers and teachers will participate in a hands-on training workshop,
receive a wide variety of activities and resource materials, and work together
to plan activities and programs for their school.
Participating astronomers commit to make at least four visits to their partner
schools and to keep in touch with their partner teachers between visits.
For more information, contact the
Project Coordinator.
The Resource Notebook for Teaching Astronomy
One outgrowth of Project ASTRO is an extensive loose-leaf notebook of astronomy
activities, resource lists, teaching suggestions, background material, and observing
guides. The final version should be ready in the spring 1995.
Catalog
The ASP distributes its own educational materials, plus the best of what others have
produced, through a nonprofit mail-order catalog sent to 250,000 people
around the world each year. The catalog includes video and audio tapes, books and
teaching guides, slides, laserdiscs, CD-ROMs, software, observing aids, and more.
For a list of our most popular products,
click here. To obtain a full catalog, call the ASP at
415-337-1100 or send email to asp@stars.sfsu.edu.
Slide Sets
Taking advantage of the many spectacular visuals available in astronomy, the ASP has for
many years produced sets of slides for teachers and lecturers. These differ from those
available from many other institutions in that they are accompanied by extensive packets
of background information, captions, teaching activities, and bibliographies -- so that
teachers do not need a science background to use them effectively.
The Teachers' Newsletter
The Universe in the Classroom, a free quarterly newsletter (supported with the
assistance of several other astronomical societies) goes to 13,000 teachers in grades
3-12, focusing on information and activities that can be put to immediate use in the
classroom. The newsletter is translated into several other languages and further
distributed by educational institutions around the world. If you would like to
receive the newsletter, mail us a request on institutional letterhead. For more
information, and the text of recent newsletters, click here.
Summer Workshops on Teaching Astronomy in Grades 3-12
Held each summer at a different university around the country, these workshops, generally
attended by 150-200 teachers, provide participants with hands-on activities,
teaching resources, non-technical introductions to current developments in astronomy, and
a chance to network with teachers from other areas. For more information, contact the
Events Coordinator.
Universe Expo
At each of its summer meetings in recent years, the ASP has held a national astronomy
exposition, with two days of non-technical talks on recent astronomical developments and
dozens of exhibits of astronomical materials, instruments, and organizations. Several
thousand people typically attend the Expo.
Symposium on Astronomy Education
At its 1995 summer meeting at the end of June in College Park, Maryland, the Society will
sponsor a major symposium on the state of astronomy education, with invited and
contributed papers on many aspects of the field. A conference proceedings volume will be
published. For more information, contact the
Events Coordinator.
Information Packets
The ASP produces and distributes information and resource packets, such as:
An Introduction to Black Holes, Debunking Astrology, Astronomy Education, Astronomy
as a Hobby, Software for Astronomy, A Basic Astronomy Library. These materials are
available in single copies, in quantity, or for reproduction in nonprofit educational
publications and kits.
Catalog of National Astronomy Education Projects
The ASP is putting together a catalog of astronomy and space science education projects
to which anyone in the country can apply, or from which anyone in the country can receive
materials. This should be ready in early 1995.
Work with the Media
The ASP staff has for several decades worked with local and national media to help
to explain astronomy in everyday language. The society twice had its own weekly radio
program on science (once in the 1970s and once in the 1980s), produced its own nationally
syndicated weekly newspaper column, and worked with such national radio and television
programs as ``All Things Considered,'' ``Talk of the Nation,'' ``Larry King Live,'' and
``CBS This Morning.'' For more information, contact the
Executive Director.
Awards
The ASP's highest award is the Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal, awarded
for a lifetime of outstanding research in astronomy. Awarded most years
since 1898, the medal has gone to the greatest astronomers of the past century.
A list of the Bruce
Medalists and brief biographies of these outstanding astronomers are
available on the web, together with references to profiles that
have appeared in Mercury.
The ASP bestows the annual Dorothea Klumpke-Roberts Award on those who have
made outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation
of astronomy. Awardees include Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Chesley Bonestell,
Timothy Ferris, Walter Sullivan, and Philip Morrison.
The society recently initiated the Thomas J. Brennan Award to recognize
excellence in the teaching of astronomy at the high-school level in North
America. The winners have demonstrated exceptional commitment to classroom or
planetarium education, as well as the training of other teachers.
The ASP welcomes anyone with an interest in astronomy and a desire to help others
share their enjoyment. Membership allows the society to be larger than its component
parts. Although membership brings direct benefits in the form of Mercury magazine,
meetings, and catalog discounts, the hidden benefits make the ASP special. Membership
contributions allow the ASP to expand its promotion of astronomy through its various
outreach programs.
Regular membership costs $35 per year ($25 for students, $43 for overseas mail).
Technical membership, which includes a subscription to the Publications of the
ASP, costs $80 per year ($40 for graduate students, $95 for overseas surface
mail, $110 for overseas airmail). Institutional subscriptions are also available,
with special rates for schools.
The ASP encourages companies to join on as
Corporate Affiliates.
Feel free to send us email if you'd like
more information. You can write or call us at:
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
390 Ashton Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94112
USA
Internet: asp@stars.sfsu.edu
Telephone: 415-337-1100
Fax: 415-337-5205
The Royal Greenwich Observatory has a series of introductory
online leaflets
to topics in astronomy.
The Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona maintains an
excellent, world-by-world
encyclopedia
of the solar system, as well as an index of
astronomical images.
The Space Telescope Science Institute maintains the
master index of astronomical
resources available on the Internet.
Sky & Telescope magazine has an
astronomy newswire and
makes some of its text available in the
Electronic Newsstand.
The Astrophysics
Data System allows you to search through abstracts of technical papers.
The premier professional association for astronomers is the
American Astronomical Society.
The United Nations Office of
Outer Space Affairs coordinates activities to encourage astronomy in developing
countries. The American Institute of Physics has
FYI bulletins
on recent political developments in Washington.
Young professional astronomers who want to share their concerns about the jobs
situation and other social issues can contact the
Young Scientists' Network.
The ASP is indebted to the Department of Physics
and Astronomy at San Francisco State University for its computer support.
George Musser
Jr / gmusser@stars.sfsu.edu
Last updated 10 April 1995