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Arabic Version Added to Worldwide Distribution of Telescope Poster
April 19, 2011
Every year Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) promotes Science and Technology Week and distributes a "One Per Household" poster in museums all over Japan during that week. In 2009, Subaru Telescope's scientist, Kumiko S. Usuda, led a project that developed a poster for the event; it was entitled "400 Years of the Astronomical Telescope". Over 230,000 copies of the Japanese version of the poster were distributed in Japan during the week of April 13th to 19th, 2009.
The poster's theme, "From Galileo to the Subaru Telescope, and Moving Toward the Future", related to the global celebration of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA) 2009, the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s first observations with his telescope. The authors of the original Japanese version translated the poster into English (MEXT's release page, Subaru Topics on January 14, 2010), and it was then introduced on IYA 2009 international website. Since then, it has been requested by and distributed to a wide variety of astronomical and educational organizations around the world. Subaru Telescope often gives the English or Japanese version of the poster to its special guests.
An Arabic version further extends the range of this popular and informative poster's distribution. After viewing the poster, Dr. Jamal Mimouni of the Sirius Astronomy Association in Algeria contacted Dr. Usuda about translating it into Arabic. Collaboration between Kumiko S. Usuda, Hidehiko Agata (NAOJ), Masaya Kawaguchi (AstroArts Inc., a software and magazine publisher), and the Sirius Astronomy Association resulted in an Arabic version of the original poster, which was disseminated to the public at an event called "The Ninth National Festival in Popular Astronomy" in Constantine, Algeria in 2010. The poster has also been distributed at various schools and educational institutions in Algeria. This version can also be downloaded from the Sirius Astronomy Association website on a page entitled "The 400 Years Poster".
Regardless of differences in language and culture, all people share curiosity about what is going on in the universe and want to know more about it. The authors hope that this poster will stimulate people around the world to look up into the sky as a part of their daily lives.
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