In recent years there have been a number of efforts across Africa to develop the field of astronomy as well as to reap benefit from astronomy for African people. This presentation will discuss the case of the SALT (Southern African Large Telescope) Collateral Benefits Programme (SCBP) which was set up to ensure societal benefit from astronomy. With African society as the target, the SCBP has embarked on various projects from school level education to public understanding of science to socio-economic development, the latter mainly being felt in the rural communities surrounding the South African Astronomical Observatory (home to SALT). A development plan for “Astronomy in Africa” will also be discussed. This plan has been drawn up with input from all over Africa and themed “Astronomy for Education”. The Africa case stands as a good example for the IYA cornerstone project “Developing Astronomy Globally” which focuses on developing regions.

Broad absorption lines (BALs) in quasar spectra identify high-velocity outflows that likely exist in all quasars and could play a major role in feedback to galaxy evolution (e.g., Di Matteo et al. 2005). Studying the variability in these BALs can help us understand the structure, evolution, and basic physical properties of these outflows. We are investigating BAL variability in a sample of 25 luminous quasars at 1.2 < z < 2.9 with multi-epoch observations that cover time scales from less than around a month to 7.7 years in the quasar rest-frame. We investigate changes in the C iv λ1549 BALs, and we see a variety of phenomena, including some BALs that either appeared or disappeared completely and other BALs that did not change at all over the whole observation period.

We have undertaken CCD photometry in the eight-color Vilnius + I system for the open cluster IC 361 (l = 147.5°, b = 5.7°) located in the constellation of Camelopardalis. Based on multicolor data, estimates of distance moduli, foreground reddening and metallicity have been obtained for individual stars measured in the field of the cluster. This allowed us to eliminate most of the field stars and to identify the probable cluster members, from which we derived the true distance modulus (m − M)0 = 12.7 mag and metallicity [Fe/H] = −0.3 dex. The interstellar extinction is found to be nonuniform across the field, with values of AV ranging from 1.9 to 2.6 mag. A comparison of the color–magnitude diagrams with Padova isochrones yields (m − M)0 = 12.6 mag, or a cluster distance of 3.3 kpc, and an age of 1.0 Gyr. Therefore, IC 361 appears to be a mildly metal-deficient cluster of intermediate age, located as far as, or just beyond, the Perseus spiral arm.

A popular candidate of dark energy, currently driving an accelerated expansion of the universe, is a slowly rolling scalar field or quintessence. A scalar field, however, must couple with other sources of matter. Consequently, its dynamical evolution can result in extra interactions between standard particles, which are mediated by the field, and to a variation in the fundamental parameters. Curiously, it has been reported that observations of a number of quasar absorption lines suggest that the fine structure constant was smaller in the past, at redshifts in the range z=1-3 (Murphy et al. (2003), Murphy et al. (2004), but see also Srianand et al. (2007)). Could this indeed be the signature of a slowly evolving scalar field?

The goal of this work is to map the gas excitation and kinematics in the inner ~ 2 kiloparsecs of the radio-galaxy Arp 102B. Though being classified as an E0 galaxy, Arp 102B shows a nuclear gas spiral (Fathi et al., in preparation). Previous studies of the gas kinematics in nuclear spirals have led to the conclusion that these structures usually trace gas inflows (Fathi et al. 2006; [Storchi-Bergmann et al. 2007; [Riffel et al. 2008). We have used integral field spectroscopy obtained with GMOS instrument of the Gemini North telescope to investigate the nature of the nuclear spiral arms. The spectra cover the wavelength range 4400–7300 Å over a field of view of 5.″5 × 3.″9 (2.7 kpc × 1.9 kpc).

We present BV photometry and the results of a search for stellar variability in the globular cluster NGC 5286, which has tentatively been associated with the Canis Major dwarf spheroidal galaxy. Our results indicate an Oosterhoff type II for the cluster, which is unusual for an object of extragalactic origin.

Astronomy was one of the sciences earmarked for major support by South Africa's first democratically elected government in 1994. This was a very remarkable decision for a country with serious challenges in poverty, health and unemployment, but shows something of the long term vision of the new government. In this paper I give one astronomer's perception of the reasons behind the decision and some of its consequences.

Current theories that seek to unify gravity with the other fundamental interactions suggest that spatial and temporal variation of fundamental constants is a possibility, or even a necessity, in an expanding Universe. Several studies have tried to probe the values of constants at earlier stages in the evolution of the Universe, using tools such as big-bang nucleosynthesis, the Oklo natural nuclear reactor, quasar absorption spectra, and atomic clocks (see, e.g. Flambaum & Berengut (2009)).

The effect of variations of the fundamental nuclear parameters on big-bang nucleosynthesis are modeled and discussed in detail taking into account the interrelations between the fundamental parameters arising in unified theories. Considering only 4He, strong constraints on the variation of the neutron lifetime, neutron-proton mass difference are set. We show that a variation of the deuterium binding energy is able to reconcile the 7Li abundance deduced from the WMAP analysis with its spectroscopically determined value while maintaining concordance with D and 4He.

This paper will argue that astronomical models have long been applied to political theory, from the use of the Sun as a symbol of the emperor in Rome to the application of Copernican theory to the needs of absolute monarchy. We will begin with consideration of astral divination (the use of astronomy to ascertain divine intentions) in the ancient Near East. Particular attention will be paid to the use of Newton's discovery that the universe operates according to a single set of laws in order to support concepts of political quality and eighteenth century Natural Rights theory. We will conclude with consideration of arguments that the discovery of the expanding, multi-galaxy universe, stimulated political uncertainty in the 1930s, and that photographs of the Earth from Apollo spacecraft encouraged concepts of the ‘global village’.

Recent work (Baskin & Laor 2004; Dong et al. 2009a, b) suggests that the Eddington ratio (l ≡ L/LEdd) is the origin of all the significant first-order object-to-object variations of quasar spectral properties from the zeroth-order similarity of AGN spectra; specifically, this includes the PC1 of Boroson & Green (1992), the classic or inverse Baldwin effect (Baldwin 1977), and even blueshifting (i.e., blue asymmetry) of high-ionization emission lines (Dong et al. 2009c).

Multiple XMM–Newton observations of the mini-BAL QSOs PG 1351+640 and PG 1126–041 revealed dramatic and complex spectral variability on different timescales, providing clues about the physical mechanism responsible for outflows in quasars.

The effect of variations of the fundamental constants on the thermonuclear rate of the triple alpha reaction, 4He(αα,γ)12C, that bridges the gap between 4He and 12C is investigated. We follow the evolution of 15 and 60 M⊙ zero metallicity star models, up to the end of core helium burning. They are assumed to be representative of the first, Population III stars undergoing a very peculiar evolution due to the absence of initial CNO elements (zero metallicity). The calculated oxygen and carbon abundances resulting from helium burning can then be used to constrain the variations of the fundamental constants.

Astronomy has been at the forefront among scientific disciplines for the sharing of data, and the advent of the World Wide Web has produced a revolution in the way astronomers do science. The recent development of the concept of Virtual Observatory builds on these foundations. This is one of the truly global endeavours of astronomy, aiming at providing astronomers with seamless access to data and tools, including theoretical data. Astronomy on-line resources provide a rare example of a world-wide, discipline-wide knowledge infrastructure, based on internationally agreed interoperability standards.

We discuss the creation of the World's largest homogeneous telescope network. We summarize both the scientific and education programmes, and outline why this organization provides unique opportunities for anyone interested in astronomy, whether they are professionals or amateurs, experienced or novice.

Murray & Chiang (1997) developed a model wherein broad emission lines come from the optically thick base of a rotating, outwardly accelerating wind at the surface of an accretion disk. Photons preferentially escape radially in such a wind, explaining why broad emission lines are usually single-peaked. Less well understood are the observed shifts of emission-line peaks (from 1000 km s−1 redshifted to 2500 km s−1 blueshifted in C iv, with an average 800 km s−1 blueshift).

We have studied the role of fundamental constants in an updated recombination scenario. We focus on the time variation of the fine structure constant α, and the electron mass me in the early Universe. In the last years, helium recombination has been studied in great detail revealing the importance of taking new physical processes into account in the calculation of the recombination history. The equations to solve the detailed recombination scenario can be found for example in Wong et al. 2008. In the equation for helium recombination, a term which accounts for the semi-forbidden transition 23p–11s is added. Furthermore, the continuum opacity of HI is taken into account by a modification in the escape probability of the photons that excite helium atoms, with the fitting formulae proposed Kholupenko et al 2007. We have analized the dependences of the quantities involved in the detailed recombination scenario on α and me. We have performed a statistical analysis with COSMOMC to constrain the variation of α and me at the time of neutral hydrogen formation. The observational set used for the analysis was data from the WMAP 5-year temperature and temperature-polarization power spectrum and other CMB experiments such as CBI, ACBAR and BOOMERANG and the power spectrum of the 2dFGRS. Considering the joint variation of α and me we obtain the following bounds: -0.011 < < 0.019 and -0.068 < < 0.030 (68% c.l.). When considering only the variation of one fundamental constant we obtain: -0.010 < < 0.008 and -0.04 < < 0.02 (68% c.l.). We compare these results with the ones presented in Landau et al 2008, which were obtained in the standard recombination scenario and using WMAP 3 year release data. The constraints are tighter in the current analysis, which is an expectable fact since we are working with more accurate data from WMAP. The bounds obtained are consistent with null variation, for both α and me, but in the present analysis, the 68% confidence limits on the variation of both constants have changed. In the case of α, the present limit is more consistent with null variation than the previous one, while in the case of me the single parameters limits have moved toward lower values. To study the origin of this difference, we have performed another statistical analysis, namely the analysis of the standard recombination scenario together with WMAP5 data, the other CMB data sets and the 2dFGRS power spectrum. We see that the change in the obtained results is due to the new WMAP data set, and not to the new recombination scenario. The obtained results for the cosmological parameters are in agreement within 1 σ with the ones obtained by the WMAP collaboration, without considering variation of fundamental constants.

Peru and France are to conclude an agreement to provide Peru with an astronomical observatory equipped with a 60-cm diameter telescope. The principal aims of this project are to establish and develop research and teaching in astronomy. Since 2004, a team of researchers from Paris Observatory has been working with the University of Cusco (UNSAAC) on the educational, technical and financial aspects of implementing this venture. During an international astronomy conference in Cusco in July 2009, the foundation stone of the future Peruvian Observatory was laid at the top of Pachatusan Mountain. UNSAAC, represented by its Rector, together with the town of Oropesa and the Cusco regional authority, undertook to make the sum of 300,000€ available to the project. An agreement between Paris Observatory and UNSAAC now enables Peruvian students to study astronomy through online teaching.