Eight years have elapsed since the first IAU Colloquium (No. 105) on astronomical education “The Teaching of Astronomy”. In that time there have been substantial changes in the world of education – not just astronomical education. On the one hand, there has been erosion of funding, while on the other there has been an unprecedented opening up of access to information: there has been a change from educational experiment towards more regulation of curricula and determination of standards. But, as a reading of this volume will clearly show, there is still a healthy creativity in astronomy education. There is much important new work being done – there are adventurous schemes in public education, there is new detailed research on how our students and pupils may learn and on the portfolio of misconceptions under which they may be labouring when first confronted with astronomical teaching. One of the new features since 1988 is access to the Internet. An overwhelming variety of information is now readily available from the latest Hubble Space Telescope picture to the Web Page of the local astronomy society. But it is also clear that the sheer richness and variety of the Internet offering creates yet another problem – how to organise that information to maximum teaching and learning benefit. The North American continent is once again in a period of curriculum renewal and it is of great interest to see the interaction between that renewal, electronic media and the Internet. Such enterprises are receiving support in particular from the National Science Foundation in the USA. It is encouraging to see that the Internet is being used to support undergraduate projects.

What Is An Amateur Astronomer?

Let us begin by defining “amateur astronomer”. According to a dictionary, an amateur astronomer is “someone who loves astronomy, and cultivates it as a hobby”. At IAU colloquium 98 (The Contributions of Amateurs to Astronomy), Williams (1988) discussed this issue at length. He proposed that, to be an amateur astronomer, one must be an astronomer – able to do astronomy with some degree of skill; he then defined an amateur astronomer as “someone who carries out astronomy with a high degree of skill, but not for pay”.

Unfortunately, the word “amateur” has negative connotations to many people. This is partly because of the unfortunate choice of the word; “volunteer astronomers” might be a better choice. It is partly because there are indeed a few amateurs whose ideas and attitudes might be judged rather bizarre – but the same is true for some professionals. There might even be a hint of snobbery, especially in cultures in which qualifications (as opposed to ability) are paramount. Professionals certainly respect the contributions of the “superstars” of amateur astronomy: Prank Bateson, Robert Evans, Patrick Moore and the like. We tend to hold these people as examples, though very few amateurs are willing or able to contribute at this level. There are thousands of “rank-and-file amateurs” worldwide. They can and do contribute significantly to the advancement of astronomy.

I prefer to define amateur astronomer extremely broadly. In this case, their education, knowledge, skills at instrumentation, computing, observing, teaching and other astronomical activities could be anything from zero to PhD level in astronomy or a related field. Many amateur astronomers are professionals in other scientific or technical fields.

As the first speaker at this Colloquium, it is my pleasure to welcome the participants (and the readers of these Proceedings), on behalf of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and its Commission 46 (Teaching of Astronomy). It is also my pleasure to thank our hosts University College London, and The Open University; the Scientific Organizing Committee, chaired by Lucienne Gouguenheim, and especially the Local Organizing Committee, chaired by Barrie Jones and Derek McNally. They have made this meeting most enjoyable and successful.

Eight years ago, many of us were in Williamstown, USA, for the first IAU Colloquium on astronomy education. Since then, there have been enormous changes – political, economic, and technological – which have affected our work. There have also been about 100 IAU conferences on research topics, but this is only the second on education. We all agree that we must work to correct that imbalance!

We are here to catch up on what has happened in astronomy education in the last eight years. We are here to teach and learn, through lectures, posters, and discussions – both formal and informal. We are here to renew old friendships, and make new ones. These human dimensions of this Colloquium are only hinted at in these Proceedings, but I assure you that they occurred.

Why is Astronomy Education Important?

Education is important to astronomers because it affects the recruitment and training of future astronomers, and because it affects the awareness, understanding and appreciation of astronomy by taxpayers and politicians who support us. We have an obligation to share the excitement and the significance of our work with students and the public.