This talk describes a proposal to set up a series of international institutions in different parts of the world to serve as nodes in a network that links astronomers from the developing nations worldwide. This network, along with its nodes is visualized as an economic way of upgrading the facilities for teaching, research and development of astronomy in the Third World countries. By way of illustration, the modus-operandi of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune, India is described. A network of this kind is suggested as a cost-efficient way of sharing limited resources.

In this paper I report the results of a survey of the astronomical outputs of all 63 IAU member countries as well as several non-member countries, based on an analysis of the affiliations of the authors given for nearly 900 thousand astronomical papers appearing in ADS between the years 1976 and 2005. The results show a roughly three-fold increase in the number of published papers per year over this 30-year interval. This increase is seen both in developed and also in most developing countries. The number of publications per IAU member correlates strongly with gross domestic product. It is over 2 papers per IAU member per year in the countries with the strongest economies but less than 0.5 in the countries with low GDP per capita. Since 2001 there has been a dramatic increase in the number of multi-author multinational papers published. This increase is especially noticeable for authors in developing countries, indicating that astronomers in these countries are increasingly participating in international collaborations for their research activities.

Any international effort to promote astronomy world wide today must necessarily take into account its cultural and historical component. The past few decades have ushered in an age, which we may call the Age of Cultural Copernicanism. In analogy with the cosmological principle that the universe has no preferred location or direction, Cultural Copernicanism would imply that no cultural or geographical area, or ethnic or social group, can be deemed to constitute a superior entity or a benchmark for judging or evaluating others.

In this framework, astronomy (as well as science in general) is perceived as a multi-stage civilizational cumulus where each stage builds on the knowledge gained in the previous stages and in turn leads to the next. This framework however is a recent development. The 19th century historiography consciously projected modern science as a characteristic product of the Western civilization decoupled from and superior to its antecedents, with the implication that all material and ideological benefits arising from modern science were reserved for the West.

As a reaction to this, the orientalized East has often tended to view modern science as “their” science, distance itself from its intellectual aspects, and seek to defend, protect and reinvent “our” science and the alleged (anti-science) Eastern mode of thought. This defensive mind-set works against the propagation of modern astronomy in most of the non-Western countries. There is thus a need to construct a history of world astronomy that is truly universal and unselfconscious.

Similarly, the planetarium programs, for use the world over, should be culturally sensitive. The IAU can help produce cultural-specific modules. Equipped with this paradigmatic background, we can now address the question of actual means to be adopted for the task at hand. Astronomical activity requires a certain minimum level of industrial activity support. Long-term maintenance of astronomical equipment is not a trivial task. There are any number of examples of an expensive facility falling victim to AIDS: Astronomical Instrument Deficiency Syndrome. The facilities planned in different parts of the world should be commensurate with the absorbing power of the acceptor rather than the level of the gifter.

We review the present situation of the formal education in astronomy in the Latin American countries. We have concluded that we can divide the countries into three categories according with the different development of the astronomical careers in astronomy.

In this paper I shall present ways in which professional astronomers in developing nations can aid basic education by using a few things that have been done in Mexico.

Recently the compulsory education in Mexico was increased from 6 to 12 years. An optional subject on astronomy was included in high school; so there are several ways in which one can contribute to the national education system.

I shall give a practical example on ways to teach and mention the importance of magazines and books dedicated to teachers. I will also address the way we have implemented brief courses for educators and organized conferences for science teachers.

It is important to emphasize that we must find ways to train people in a more effective way.

The historical development of astronomy in the Caribbean is reviewed within its cultural and environmental framework. The present status of astronomy in education, research and at the popular level is presented also with the focus being on its development in the island of Trinidad and Tobago in particular. We review what works in small developing islands versus larger developed or developing countries and the peculiar trials and tribulations of our circumstances as well as the rewards of such efforts. The critical role of students and volunteer effort will be highlighted. The psychological and cultural aspect and its role in the development of astronomy in the Caribbean is also explored. The outlook for the next decade will be highlighted with a brief proposal of having a node for TWAN (Third World Astronomy Network) in Trinidad in the Caribbean.

In the School of Science of the Universidad de Los Andes (ULA), in Mérida, Venezuela, a very successful event focused on elementary and high school students, was founded in 2000. The name of this event is “Encounter with Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Biology” (hereinafter “Encounters with Science”), and it integrates these disciplines, as well as Astronomy. Its main purpose is that young minds can become familiar with the methods of science inquiry and reasoning, and can understand the concepts and processes of the sciences through thoroughly prepared experiences.

“Encounters with Science” has grown each year in an exponential way. As a matter of fact, in its sixth edition (2005), the number of elementary and high school students coming from all over the country, has reached the outstanding number of approximately nine thousand. Among all the experiences that the students could be engaged in, were many involving Astronomy. These experiences were prepared by professors, together with graduate and undergraduate students, who are pursuing their degrees in all branches of science, including Astronomy. Although there is this incredible team of faculties and graduate and undergraduate students working together; the target is the students of the high and elementary schools. We certainly focus on the engaging and encouraging of students to experience scientific work at first hand.

This flourishing program is continuing to grow and to become strong. It has matured in the sense that now our professors have prepared an excellent didactic material that can, together with the hour/class teaching, prepare high school and elementary school students for a better understanding of science; particularly, helping in this way for a better education in Astronomy.

The main event of the Encounters lasts five days in the School of Science of ULA, but subsidiary events are spread all over the year and around the country through trips that our faculty members undertake with our students. Thereby, they reach places where students perhaps cannot attend the main event during its celebration. As a successful program, it can be interesting to see if other countries can adopt this method to recruit or to trigger the interest of students to pursue their studies in the Sciences.

The development process of astronomy in Cuba is analysed from the point of view of a person actually working in astrophysics. It is concluded that the key word for astronomy development is “engagement” between a mature partner and the new developing group. It can not be forgotten that only astronomers do astronomy and that should be the main goal: to develop people working in astronomy.

Astronomical education in Cuba is not widespread in the educational system; nevertheless the public interest in sciences in general but particularly in Astronomy issues is very high, as it has become reflected by the attention paid to educational and scientific program broadcasts in the national television channels. The “Planetario Habana” Cultural Centre for Science and Technology, which is under construction, is aimed at guiding the interest towards basic sciences and astronomical formation of the people, in the most populated and frequented area of the country. A key objective of this project shall be serving as an instructive motivation and entertainment for the casual or habitual visitors to these facilities, offering them the possibility to enjoy vivid representations, play with interactive amusement equipment and listen to instructive presentations on astronomy and related sciences, all guided by qualified specialists.

Another fundamental purpose shall be the establishment of a plan for complementary education in coordination with schools, in order to allow children and young people to participate in activities enabling them to get into the fascinating world of Astronomy, Exploration of Outer Space and Life as a Cosmic Phenomenon.

The setting up of the Planetario Habana Cultural Centre for Science and Technology is under the general administration of the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana, and methodologically is being led by the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment, and will show in operation the GOTO Planetarium G Cuba custom, obtained under a Japanese Cultural Grant Aid. It will develop into a an unparalleled centre in the national environment for scientific outreach and education of these sciences.

Surrounded by the attractiveness of the colonial “ambience’, it shall become a centre for dissemination of information about new discoveries and scientific programs developed at national and international level. Here we present a general view of the project, and its present and future development.

Astronomy in Colombia has been done since the beginning of the nineteenth century, when in 1803 one of the oldest (or maybe the oldest) astronomical observatories of America was built. This is a very beautiful, historical and ancient building. A small dome with a small telescope is also inside the university campus. The observatory marks since then the development of astronomy in Colombia as a professional science. At the present time a Master's programme and a Specialization programme are successfully carried out with a good number of smart young students. The observatory has a staff of eleven professors, all with a master's degree in sciences; two of them have a PhD and in a couple of years five staff members will have a PhD in physics. With some international collaboration, they will introduce in a few years a doctoral astronomical program. There are several research lines mainly in the fields of astrometry, Galactic and extragalactic astronomy, cosmology, astro-statistics and astrobiology. Three research groups have got recognition from the governmental institution that supports the research in sciences COLCIENCIAS. Several papers have been published in national and international journals. Besides the professional line in astronomy, the observatory sponsors several non-professional Colombian astronomical groups that work enthusiastically in the field of astronomy.

With relatively low funds, the Departamento de Astronomía de la Universidad de Guanajuato, in Mexico, has successfully carried out the modernization of a rustic astronomical observatory. At this site, once it is fully refurbished, it is planned to hold not only public observations, but also to have an ambitious programme of science popularization devoted to scholars.

Beginning in 2001, the Gemini Observatory began the development of an innovative and aggressive education and outreach programme at its southern hemisphere site in northern Chile. A principal focus of this effort is centered on local education and outreach to communities surrounding the observatory and its base facility in La Serena, Chile. Programmes are now established with local schools using two portable StarLab planetaria, an internet-based teacher exchange called StarTeachers and multiple partnerships with local educational institutions. Other elements include a CD-ROM-based virtual tour that allows students, teachers and the public to experience the observatory's sites in Chile and Hawaii. This virtual environment allows interaction using a variety of immersive scenarios such as a simulated observation using real data from Gemini. Pilot projects like “Live from Gemini” are currently being developed which use internet video-conferencing technologies to bring the observatory's facilities into classrooms at universities and remote institutions. Lessons learned from the implementation of these and other programmes will be introduced and the challenges of developing educational programming in a developing country will be shared.

We present and discuss in this work the motivations, goals and strategies adopted for its creation and launch of the e-journal Latin-American Journal of Astronomy Education (RELEA). We identify and present the difficulties encountered for the achievement of the proposed objectives and operational issues in this period, together with the adopted solutions (refereeing procedure, periodicity, etc.).

The Observatorio Astronómico Los Molinos (OALM) is the only professional observatory in Uruguay. Its research activity is dedicated to the study of Small Bodies of the Solar System, i.e. comets and asteroids. It is one of the few observatories in the southern hemisphere dedicated to this topic. The observational programmes that we are conducting at present are described, putting especial emphasis in the results obtained last year.

In 1984 an INTELSAT antenna of 32 m of diameter was constructed at 3 370 metres above the sea level on the Peruvian Andes. At the time Entel Perú the Peruvian tele-communications company managed the antenna station, of almost 12 hectares in extension. In 1993 the government transferred the station to the private telecommunications company Telefónica del Perú. Since transoceanic fiber optics replaced radically satellite communications in 2002, a beautiful 32- metre parabolic antenna was finished its tele-communications mission and become available for other use. So in cooperation with the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan we began coordination to transform the antenna into a radio-telescope.

Researches on interstellar medium around Young Stellar Objects (YSO) are possible using methanol maser that emits at 6.7 GHz, so initially we will monitor and survey maser sources at the southern sky. An ambient temperature receiver with Trx = 60 K was developed at Nobeyama Radio Observatory and is ready to be installed. The antenna will be controlled by the Field System FS9 software installed in a PC within a Linux environment. An interface between antenna and PC was developed at Kashima Space Research Center in Japan by Mr E. Vidal.

In the near future S-band (2 GHz), X-band (8GHz), 12 GHz and 22 GHz observations are planned.

The peculiar position and altitude of the Peruvian Radio Observatory will be useful for VLBI observations with the VLBA for astronomical observation and geodetic measurements. For Peru where few or almost non astronomical observational instruments are available for research, implementation of the first radio observatory is a big step to foster sciences at graduate and postgraduate levels of universities.

Worldwide tele-communications antennas recently tend to finish their role as tele-communications antennas. Several of them are transformed into useful observational instruments.

We are in the process to transform a 32m antenna in Peru, used for telecommunications, into a Radio Telescope to perform Radio Astronomy in Peru. The 32m antenna of Peru constructed by NEC was used for telecommunications with communications satellites at 6 GHz for transmission, and 4 GHz for reception.

In collaboration of National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) Japan, and National Observatory of Japan we developed an Antenna Control System for the 32m antenna in Peru. It is based on the Field System FS9, software released by NASA for VLBI station, and an interface to link PC within FS9 software (PC-FS9) and Antenna Control Unit (ACU) of the 32 meters antenna.

The PC-FS9 controls the antenna, commands are translated by interface into control signals compatibles with the ACU using: an I/O digital card with two 20bits ports to read azimuth and elevation angles, one 16bits port for reading status of ACU, one 24bits port to send pulses to start or stop operations of antenna, two channels are analogue outputs to drive the azimuth and elevation motors of the antenna, a LCD display to show the status of interface and error messages, and one serial port for communications with PC-FS9.

The first experiment of the control system was made with 11m parabolic antenna of Kashima Space Research Center-NICT, where we tested the right working of the routines implemented for de FS9 software, and simulations was made with looped data between output and input of the interface, both test were done successfully.

With this scientific instrument we will be able to contribute with researching of astrophysics. We expect to into a near future to work at 6.7GHz to study Methanol masers, and higher frequencies with some improvements of the surface of the dish.

About 1.5% of the world's professional astronomers are based Africa, yet in terms of research output, African astronomers produce less than 1% of the world's astronomical research. The advent of new large-scale facilities such as SALT and HESS provides African astronomers with tools to pursue their research on the continent. Such facilities also provide unprecedented training opportunities for the next generation of African astronomers. This paper discusses recent efforts to develop astronomy education and research capacity on the continent. Various capacity-building initiatives are discussed, as well as the lessons learnt from those initiatives.

The African perspectives of astronomy are explored from the point of view of using indigenous knowledge of the night sky for purposes of addressing local challenges such as food insecurity and periodic natural weather phenomena such as droughts and floods. The local ethnic groups use stellar positions, and plant and animal behaviour changes for purposes of forecasting the weather and climate for the coming seasons. These traditional indicators give rise to an interdisciplinary discourse that could benefit the community in environmental protection measures and boost the tourism industry in some countries in Africa.

Astronomy education in Morocco, as in many developing countries, is not well developed and lacks the very basics in terms of resources, facilities and research. In 2004, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) signed an agreement of collaboration with Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane (AUI) to support the continued, long-term development of astronomy and astrophysics in Morocco. This is within the IAU programme Teaching for Astronomy Development (TAD). The initial focus of the programme concentrated exclusively on the University's Bachelor of Science degree programme. Within this programme, and during two years, we were successful in providing adequate astronomy training to our physics faculty and few of our engineering students. We also offered our students and community general astronomy background through courses, invited talks and extra-curricular activities. The project is now evolving towards a wider scope and seeks to promote astronomy education at the high school level. It is based on modules from the Hands on Universe (HOU) interactive astronomy programme. Moroccan students will engage in doing observational astronomy using their personal computers. They will have access to a worldwide network of telescopes and will interact with their peers abroad. Through implementing astronomy education at this lower age, we foresee an increasing interest among our youth not only in astronomy but also in physics, mathematics, and technology. The limited astronomy resources, the lack of teacher experience in the field and the language barrier are amongst the difficulties that we will be facing in achieving the objectives of this new programme.

Two Moroccan sites have been selected to be characterized for the ELT telescopes. Those sites are in the Atlas, between Oukaïmeden (where the national observatory is situated) and the Canary Islands. For this preliminary study, we have used the Nimbus-7 TOMS aerosol index to derive the astronomical extinction. This work builds on the findings of an earlier study which established the link between these two parameters over the Canary Islands.