Family writing IAU100 motto “100 Years Under One Sky” in different languages. Credit: IAU OAO / NAOJ

Even though the IAU100 anniversary is in 2019, celebrations are already taking place worldwide! Mitaka Open House Day 2018 is a special public event hosted by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) and other facilities on campus. This year, this annual open house was held on October 26 and 27, 2018 and introduced the IAU 100 years celebrations to the local community.

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The NAOJ Public Relations Office the host institution of the IAU100 National Committee challenged all its visitors to write the IAU100 motto “100 Years: Under One Sky” in different languages. The visitors could learn how to write in Mongolian, Turkish, Chinese, Urdu, Indi, Thai and many more, while learning its meaning. The IAU100 is a global celebration of the amazing astronomical discoveries from the past century coupled with a powerful message of peace and tolerance “Under One Sky”. 

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Additionally, the Open Day’s nearly 3000 visitors could learn about the IAU Symposium “Astronomy for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion — a roadmap to action within the framework of IAU centennial anniversary”, that will be hosted in Japan on November 12-15, 2019. Following the NAOJ goal of "one family, one telescope" in the IAU100 years celebrations, Japan is developing an inexpensive and small astronomical telescope to distribute at a low cost around the world. 

You can report the IAU100 local events in your community by reaching out to Lina Canas, IAU 100 Communications Manager (lina.canas@nao.ac.jp) and Jorge Rivero, IAU100 International Coordinator (rivero@strw.leidenuniv.nl).