|
|
Introduction
The World Space Week
(WSW) this year in Algeria has been celebrated in a rather vivid
way. A National Salon on Popular
Astronomy was held in Constantine which brought
together associations from the various parts of the country to
celebrate the Week. Sirius Astronomy Association a prominent youth
association decided a year ago to hold a National Salon in celebration
of World Space Week 2002. Under the hospice of the Cultural Consultative
Committee of the City of Constantine, it started planning a series
of events, with a decision in a late stage to involve several
well known Astronomy Associations, each representing a part of
Algeria.
Early
Start, but Unfortunate Timing!
 The
Salon was held on the week next to the WSW due to the Nation wide
Municipal elections held on the 10th of October with no public activities
tolerated during the period prior to that date. Yet the various  school
districts were informed of the WSW celebration directly, and tens
of various educational institutions in the Constantine area actually
displayed the WSW celebration poster during the weeks prior to the
event. A particularly vigorous media campaign was initiated in early
September, and since late September till the week itself, ads were
read on the air put graciously by the Cirta FM radio station, a government
owned station, informing the public of the various events planned
for the occasion. All in all, close to 1000 posters were distributed
and posted at various public places, including some 150 buses and
minibuses, the various Youth Centers…It is to be noted that
almost all the major newspapers notified the public of the event,
especially since the APS (Algerian Press Service), the official press
agency put two wire bulletins on the events.
Getting
the Ball Rolling and Having a Good Time
The Salon was held at the al-Khalifa Cultural Center,
an imposing Center in downtown Constantine, and was inaugurated by
the Governor of the Constantine 
province on October 16.
Hundreds of visitors has walked through the various aisles and inquired
at the different stands during the two days of theevent. It was well
covered by various local and national newspapers (el-Khabar,
el-Chourouk, el-Watan,Al-Açil...), and by live broadcast
by the Cirta-FM radio station.
In addition to the various stands on the space conquest including
models of Sputnik, Apollo 11, the Hubble Space Telescope, many explanatory
panels focused on this year's theme, namely Space
and Daily Life on Earth, were displaying the
various applications of space. In addition, the AlSAT1 satellite,
the first Algerian satellite expected to be launched during the next
few weeks as part of the DMC set of satellites (Disaster Monitoring
Constellation) was given particular preeminence.
A prominent area of the Salon was also the Smarties corner which was drawing
a large crowd of young people at all times. Live demonstrations of
air powered rockets were taking place on a continuous basis, as well
as on going puzzle competition with many small prizes given away for
the winners. That made many tens of young people happy.
A
National Event
The stands
of the various other astronomy associations have also seen anunending
flux of visitors. We mention in particular al-Battani Association
from Oran in Eastern Algeria with their slide show of their various
astronomy trips in Sahara and foreign lands. The Mountada Association
of Medea in Center Algeria stand displayed in particularthe various
scientific activities among the youth. The Amnir Club from Beni Isgen
in the heart of the M'zab Valley in the far South focused on their
Astronomical observation program of eclipses, meteor showers... The
Cirta Philatelic Club displayed through numerous panels, the history
of the space adventure with thousands of stamps to show from those
celebrating the launching of Sputnik to those on the ISS building.
The
Starshine Special Corner
The involvement
of Algerian Schools
with the NASA Starshine program was
highlighted through a special stand giving all the details on this
School's satellite which has seen the involvement of some 50 educational
institutions, public and private, with the Starshine2-3-4 satellites,
arranged and coordinated by the Sirius Astronomy Association. For
a look at an earlier involvment of Sirius with 12 Schools with the
Starshine 2 and 3 satellites, check the Starshine
2 special page on it at the association's site.
Food
for the Mind, and Kid's Competition
 A
set of four lectures were given during the Salon (Two each afternoon),
given by  professionals
of the Space and Astronomy community and held in a large auditorium
next to the exposition hall. In particular, the Thursday
afternoon program was very well attended with hundreds of participants,
mostly young people. The lecturers were Dr.S.Kahlouche, head of the
scientific applications division at the National Center of Space Technology
(CNTS) at Arzew who talked on "The National Space
Program and AlSAT1". Check a related article
on AlSAT1 written by the CNTS scientists. The other lecture
was given by  Dr.N.Segouani
head of the
Astrophysics Department at the Bouzaréah Observatory near Algiers
on the "Astronomy of the Future"
...
In
addition, it was held a special competition for young people "One
slide, one question",
with 150 participants from the audience divided according to two levels.
Eight prizes were distributed to the winners, graciously donated by
the DIDACTAL/ELECTROSON company,
the official sponsor of the Sirius Astronomy Association. Participants
to the Salon were also honored accordingly.
  A
Web Site for the Salon
The
Association created a special Web site forthe Salon, the one you are
at now! Itwas activated two weeks before the Salon and is updated
regularly. It covers the various activities held during WSW2002, and
contains various documents including the Poster of the Salon, the
program of lectures, various articles on space sciences, the UN General
Secretary's statement for WSW2001 in both English and Arabic, and
various multimedia documents.
Sirius Voice,
the Salon’s Gazetteer
 We
note further that a special
issue of Sirius Voice was published containing eleven
articles on all the aspect of the space science, written by Algerian
professionals on Space and Astronomy in and out of Algeria, as well
as members of the Association. It contains the first non technical
article released to the public to our knowledge, on the AlSAT1 Algerian
satellite. It contains also an extensive article written by Dr.N.Guessoum
from the American University in Sharjah on the various applications
of space, in tune with this year WSW's theme. Many of those articles
were put on Salon's Web site.
Conclusions
The
Salon was very successful by all standards. It really went a long
way to make the World Space Week and its objectives better known nation
wide.
We expect to make next year's Salon an even larger event and truly
nation wide. We have started contacting some potential sponsors. Recognition
from the WSW steering committee will certainly help in that respect.
|
