The blog: A window for popularising astronomy in Indonesia The blog: A window for popularising astronomy in Indonesia Avivah Yamani, Aldino A. Baskoro, Dewi Pramesti Rigel Kentaurus,.com (avivah@langitselatan.com) Abstract The number of internet users is rising in Indonesia, even though it is still an expensive choice for most of our people. Some local astronomy sites exist, but foreign sources are preferred since sites on astronomy in Indonesian are a rarity. Current Indonesian sites on astronomy are either private sites or run by institutions. 1 is an educational service teaching a basic knowledge and understanding of astronomy to the people of Indonesia. In March 2007 we changed our service to a blog as this would give us the opportunity to discuss topics with our readers. Through the blog, we are also developing a community and making a collaborative network amongst the amateur astronomy community in Indonesia. Introduction.com is an astronomy blog in Indonesia. Indonesia is the world s largest archipelagic state with 17,508 islands and a population of over 234 million people. Why do we need an outreach service for astronomy? In Indonesia, most daily newspapers have a science section, but print media that specialise in astronomy are virtually non-existent. Internet astronomy resources in Indonesian are also a rarity according to Nataresmi et al. (2005). Current Indonesian sites on astronomy are either private or supported by an institution. The need for an astronomy outreach service is increasing for several reasons. Firstly, visitor numbers to Figure 1 Centaurus magazine, our first magazine published in 2005 Figure 2 blog 1 Langit Selatan means Southern Sky in Indonesian. Langit means sky and selatan means southern. 352
Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2007 planetariums and observatories are rising, especially after special events like the Mars opposition in 2003, lunar eclipses and the like. Secondly, many false ideas about astronomy are still current and thirdly, a means to counter false information about certain events, such as the Mars Hoax is necessary. About us Opportunities abound for the aspiring graduate with an educational background in astronomy to publish a popular astronomy magazine on the web. In 2004, five young astronomers started a group named Rigel Kentaurus as an astronomy resource in Indonesian, to act as an educational service to teach people a basic knowledge and understanding of astronomy, and to build awareness of astronomy in Indonesia. In the same year, Rigel Kentaurus started its first online venture, centaurusonline, and published its first magazine under the name Centaurus. Unfortunately, Centaurus failed in the market. In March 2007, as blogs became more popular, we changed our service to a blog, and our name to (southern sky). We chose as a name as it is a familiar one and also the Astronomy Department, Bosscha Observatory and Rigel Kentaurus are located under the southern sky in Bandung, at 6 57 S and 107 34 W. Why blog? Internet use in Indonesia has increased significantly since 2002 from 4.5 million users to 20 million users 2 (Figure 3). Blogging is one of the most highly touted features of the Web 2.0 era, and is on the increase in Indonesia. According to blog-indonesia 3, the total number of registered blogs is 4408, mostly personal blogs (70.51%), while popular science blogs contribute only 2.63%. Among all popular science blogs, there are 30 astronomy weblogs, with 20 private blogs, four community blogs, six institution websites and one outreach service (langitselatan.com). Figure 3 forum Figure 4 Number of blogs in Indonesia per category Source : http://blog-indonesia.com/ 2 http://www.apjii.or.id 3 http://blog-indonesia.com/blog_indonesia_statistics.html (4 October 2007) 353
The blog: A window for popularising astronomy in Indonesia A blog is the best way to share resources and information, because it can facilitate collaboration and sharing between users. Through our blog, we can communicate interactively with our readers and are building a community. Another advantage of the blog in popularising astronomy is that we can reach most people throughout the country at low cost. With RSS feeds, our readers are notified every time the page changes. Indonesians will visit an astronomy website if there is an event or news about astronomy. In August, visitors came to to find out about the Mars Hoax and the total lunar eclipse Star Party. In September, our visitors were looking for the time of the crescent moon to predict the Muslim fast and also for the sun halo that appeared on 28 September. People in Indonesia still think of a sun halo as a sign of disaster. Since March 2007, the top posts or topics in the blog have been the heliocentric vs geocentric question, the Mars hoax, the total lunar eclipse Star Party, the Moon hoax, the Islamic calendar, habitable planets, and why Pluto is not a planet anymore. In Indonesia, astronomy is the most searched topic on the internet to counter false explanations triggered by particular events, e.g. the Mars Hoax, or the heliocentric vs geocentric question, which are still hot topics. Social impacts As a result of, Rigel Kentaurus has also grown as an event organiser, including: Science Camp Salman ITB (Muslem Mosque Children Group in ITB). Rooftop Star Party at Mitra Hotel (7/7/07), with roof top café. Source : Indonesian Internet Service Provider Association (http://apjii.or.id) Figure 5 The rise in the number of internet users in Indonesia with time Figure 6 Visitor numbers by month to langitselatan. Figure 7 Observing the sky at the Roof Top Star Party at the Mitra Hotel Source : http://langitselatan.com 354
Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2007 Astronomical Gathering: Southern Sky Star Party 2007 in cooperation with the student body of Astronomy ITB and Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space (LAPAN). Birthday star party. The star party goes to school and Aidil Fitri camp cooperate with Indonesia UNAWE. At each event, the astrokids session is the favourite with several activities like origami, water rockets, drawing, and fizzing rockets. has also had publicity from several local and national newspapers. The papers have also chosen us as one of their resources for astronomy events, such as the total lunar eclipse and the sun halo. The publicity for in the national media has made people more aware of us and they come to our blog and have contacted us to arrange local events. Challenge and problem Being an educational service doesn t mean that we have no problems. Funding and human resources are our major problems. Equipment is also a problem, but it can be resolved by collaborating with several other institutions. Another problem for is to find the best methods to share knowledge with children. We are trying to make our own curriculum based on age and culture and linked to the Indonesian education curriculum. We also try to make all fields of astronomy interesting, and do not just concentrate on current issues. Results, future work and conclusion Since we changed our service to a blog, has tried to correct misconceptions and hoaxes, act as a reference for beginners, and as a resource of astronomy news and public education. The blog has also given us an opportunity to collate 4 other astronomy blogs and resources. Through, Rigel Kentaurus has a chance to be an astronomy educator and event organiser at schools and other venues. Figure 8 People hang out at the roof top cafe during the Roof Top Star Party 4 http://langitselatan.com/aggregator 355
The blog: A window for popularising astronomy in Indonesia This is just a beginning. In the future we plan to build an astrokids club to educate children about astronomy. To support our educational service, we will also make a mobile planetarium to visit schools and other locations, give telescope training, and collaborate with Indonesia Universe Awareness. Another project, in conjunction with Bosscha Observatory, is a planned Star Party in Indonesia in 2009 during IYA2009. It all began with a blog, and this has opened up so many opportunities for us to communicate astronomy with the public. We have also learnt about the fundamental difficulties that many people in Indonesia have with astronomy. Without the internet and the blog we wouldn t have known that the heliocentric-geocentric question was still a problem in Indonesia. Acknowledgement Dr. Iratius Radiman, Dr. Cynthia L. Radiman, and Sungging Mumpuni for their help during the preparation of this material. References Nataresmi A.H., Laksmana T., Yamani A., Satyaningsih R., Simatupang F.M. (2005), Building An Amateur Astronomical Community by Popular Astronomy Magazine Publishing. In: Sutantyo W., Premadi P.W, Mahasena P, Hidayat T, and Minishige S. (eds.) Proceeding of the 9 th Asian- Pasific Regional IAU Meeting 2005. ITB Press. Indonesia. pp 358-359. O Reilly Media What is Web 2?, http://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20. html?page=1 Figure 9 (a-c) Astrokids and water rocket session in Astronomical Gathering: Southern Sky Star Party 2007 (SSAG) Figure 10 Group photo in Astronomical Gathering: Southern Sky Star Party 2007 (SSAG) Figure 11 Observing the sky during Idul Fitri (Ied Mubarak) Star Party in At-Taqwa kindergarten. 356
Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2007 Figure 12 Storytelling using stellarium and portable planetarium in a tent on Idul Fitri (Ied Mubarak) Star Party in At-Taqwa kindergarten Figure 13 in national newspapers and media 357