Astronomy Outreach in the South Pacific
Christian Veillet
International Year of Astronomy in French Polynesia
The people who made it possible
This first voyage to French Polynesia was organized on site through a very efficient collaboration between the Société Astronomique de Tahiti (SAT) and the association Proscience. Many helped to make of this trip a real success, but two people played a major role: Lyvonne Lau, science teacher at Collège Notre-Dame des Anges and SAT member, and Raymond Bagnis, a retired physician and the president of Proscience. Lyvonne has been the mainspring of the overall organization! Roland Santallo, a friend who is an amateur astronomer as well as an amateur radio operator, helped me in the early days when the idea of a visit to Tahiti for IYA came to my mind. He was also for me the link with the ham community and welcomed me at his place for my last nights on the Fenua. Last but not least, Lucette Tareo organized all the activities on Rurutu and Tubuai and made of my first trip to the Austral Islands an unforgettable experience.
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Many wonderful people participated in the adventure one way or another. I know I will forget some of them, but here they are:.
- From Proscience, Raymond and Lyvonne, already cited, and Carol Raoulx.
- From SAT, so many helped! Lyvonne onviously, Claude Lamotte, Philippe Savriacouty, Eric Gauducheau, Hong-My Phong, ...
- On the education side, on Tahiti and Raiatea, Lyvonne (encore!), Pascal Martinent, Marereva Aumeran, Guy Bensoussan, Eric Lavis, Gilbert Archier, Tahia Vanessa Yan,
Véronique Adolphe, Christian Richide, Joel Bergeron, Daniel Margueron, Monique Franc de Ferrière, Joël Bergeron, Christian Laille, Hina Putoa,
...
- On the education side, for the Austral Islands, Lucette Tareo, Philippe Leglize, St$eacute;phane Czybaj, Jean François Kuspert, Noa Sam You, Nuupure Riveta, Chantal Grimald, and Maheata Tapu.
- In the ham world: Roland, Michel Huin (FO5QB), ...
The activities
You can read an overview of the visit here (pdf).Details and pictures can be found browsing the links on the left navigation menu.
In the media
Thanks to the wonderful organiation led by Lyvonne, the media covered the activities very well!
Here are links to newspaper articles:
Nouvelles de Tahiti - Sep 5, 2009
La Dépèche de Tahiti - Sep 9,2009
La Dépèche de Tahiti - Sep 16,2009
The TNTV station has also helped in advertising the event though inteviews in the evening news:
TNTV evening news - Sep 6, 2009
TNTV evening news - Sep 7, 2009
TNTV evening news - Sep 19, 2009