Over the coming days and weeks, the .Astronomy Conference Archive will begin to fill up. There are a handful of talks available already and more will be added each day.

Each talk that was given as the conference, including the video talks, are available. You can download the presentation slides and watch the video of the talk. Eventually you will also be able to read the conference proceedings with illustrations.

In the spirit of transparency, it has been decided to open the doors to the archive before it is a completed product. As such if you spot any errors or issues then please get in touch and we will correct them. If you are a speaker and would like to make any corrections/amendments, drop me a line using the contact form or via email.

Have fun watching the talks and learning more about networked astronomy and the new media.

Link: .Astronomy Conference Archive

All good things must come to an end. The conference is now over, but in some ways this is the start of other things. The conference proceedings are now going to be written and compiled into a book. You’ll be hearing a lot more about this book in the coming weeks and months on this website. You will be able to purchase it here and to discuss it here.

Over the next few weeks the video from each of the talks will go up here as an archive of the conference. When the proceedings are written, they too will be placed here along with the videos, to enable fuller understanding and discussions. Finally when the book is available, you will be able to purchase it, either personally or on behalf of an institution.

As the organiser, thoroughly enjoyed .Astronomy and would like to thank all those of you that took part. The speakers, poster presenters, attendees and those who watched live via the web too.

For now I am off to struggle with UStream’s non-open source audio codec (grr) and to attempt to crash the market price of a telescope or two by disparaging its worth to other astronomers.

You can watch us this week as the conference progresses in many ways. We are on Ustream, Twitter and YouTube.

Twitter is integrated into the site in the sidebar of the homepage, but if you want to Tweet  a question to us then simply include the text ‘@dotastronomy’ in your message on Twitter.

YouTube videos are going up during the event, but may be delayed. Not all talks are available via YouTube due to technological constraints.

Ustream will be broadcasting our talks live, for the most part. Talks being given via video are not being broadcast but will appear on YouTube later on.

Take a look over the next few days.

Visit our YouTube Channel

I’ve split the Carnival into different sections this week.

• The 433rd spotted a double iridium flare this week.
• The Sun is not so quiet, according the Meade Observatory.
• Altair VI wants to tell you that Uranus is at opposition.
• Simostronomy has some Fall star party fun facts that you might find useful.
• There are images of a Moon halo posted on One Astronomer’s Noise.

• A picture sighting a new world was released this week, and a Babe in the Universe is reporting.
• The Planetary Society would like to welcome to the solar system, Haumea, Hi’iaka, and Namaka.
• Dynamics of Cats tells us about Hubble’s troubles in a notice to NICMOS users.
• The Phoenix Picture gallery is showing us The Trench.
• Martian Chronicles has a lot to sat this week, including reporting the results of a vote on the MSL landing site.
• There are some interesting microscopic images from Phoenix on display at the Meridiani Journal.
• AstroEngine tells us how Greek hackers invaded the LHC… and then nothing happened.

• Music of the Spheres is speaking of space settlements.
• Colony Worlds might consider drilling lunar holes with gas, rather than drills.
• Out of the Cradle is talking about Technology Samples and how space produces some interesting stuff.
• You might read things you didn’t know about our ultimate fate if you check out Astropixie’s post on the Milky Way and Andromeda collision.
• Twisted Physics is getting Lost in Austen as she travels down the rabbit hole.
• Dave at Space Disco is interested in the next colossal collider in the wake of the LHC turn on.
• 21st Century Waves is forecasting the next 20 years in space
• Orbital Hub tells us why spacecraft need annual checkups.

An easy to remember URL, http://tinyurl.com/dotastromap has also been grabbed so you can grab this at a later time if necessary. A link has also been placed in the sidebar of this website.

This map will also be printed and included in the conference packs.

If there are any potential room-mates out there then I have at least one person looking to share. Email me and let me know if you’d like to share the costs of staying in Cardiff during the conference and I’ll put you in touch.

It is now less than a month until the .Astronomy Conference. Spaces at the conference are running out - so if you still have not registered then now is the time.

We have about 10 places left and counting, the conference starts on Monday 22nd September. All participants are welcome to give talks, present posters or simply just attend. Visit our registration page for more information.

Attendees paying by cash or cheque can do so on the first day of the conference.

If you have any questions about payment, or anything else please get in touch.

The .Astronomy Conference is now going full steam ahead and we are trying to move things along this week, so expect more updates as the days go by.

So here’s a list of the blogs of our speakers. You never know, even if you are a regular reader of astronomy online, this may still contain some gem you knew nothing about.

WillGater.com (Will Gater)

Will is a science writer, specializing in astronomy, working for BBC Sky at Night magazine in the UK. He has also written for Astronomy Now as well as being astronomy writer for Devon Life and Somerset Life. He holds a degree in astrophysics from UCL and is currently co-hosting the BBC Sky at Night Podcast.

Star Stryder (Pamela Gay)

Pamela is an astronomer, writer, and podcaster. She can regularly be heard on Astronomy Cast and she sits on the faculty at SIUE. She is a strong science advocate and describes herself as a “nocturnal voyeur, diligently stalking the heavens”.

The e-Astronomer (Andy Lawrence)

Andy is a Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh, located at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh. He studies quasars, observational cosmology, and “big, big sky surveys”. He leads the massive UKIDDS (infrared) survey and the innovative AstroGrid project (the UK arm of the virtual observatory).

Chris Lintott’s Universe  and Space Across the Pond (Chris Lintott)

Chris is most familiar as the co-presenter of the extremely long-running BBC astronomy program The Sky at Night. He obtained his PhD at UCL and now works at Oxford. He also writes an astronomy column for The Times and can sometimes be spotted penning articles on the BBC News website as well. He isalso PI of the Galaxy Zoo project, which he will talking about at the conference.

Astronomy Blog (Stuart Lowe)

Stuart says his blog was “set up as somewhere to write about astronomy and astrophysics related stuff”. He covers a great sample of the astronomy mainstream but admits a bias toward the radio end of the spectrum. He is based at Manchester’s Jodrell Bank telescope and is a big internet voice in matters of astronomy communication and public understanding of science through his blog and as part of the Jodcast.

Bad Astronomy (Phil Plait)

Phil received his PhD in astronomy at the University of Virginia in 1994. He is a full time science writer and internet behemoth, who was blogging about astronomy (and debunking bad science) long before the word blogging existed. He used to work in science education and outreach and continues his passion for this through his website and books.

The Planetary Society (Emily Lakdawalla)

Emily writes for The Planetary Society, which was founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman. Dedicated to exploring the solar system and seeking life beyond Earth, The Planetary Society is non-governmental and nonprofit and is funded by the support of its members. They provide excellent coverage of current space events and engage in more public outreach activities than pretty much any other organisation.

Orbiting Frog (Robert Simpson)

Yeah, this one is me. It is because of my own blog and interactions with the good folks of the internet, that I have decided to run this conference so it really had to make the list. Through Orbiting Frog I have become involved with several projects and it is my own positive experience with the internet that has made me want to spread the word on this exciting and ever-changing new medium.

Carnival of Space (Universe Today)

I will post more preliminary material in the coming weeks before the conference, if you want to find even more blogs about astronomy, I’d recommend checking out the Carnival of Space, a weekly collection of astronomy and space writing taken from blogs all over this fine internet of ours. It is now into its 60th edition, and is a really great way of finding the best picks of the week.

Some of our talks will be given via live video feeds from across the atlantic and interest in the conference has been global. To illustrate this, you can see a map of the last 500 website visitors and how they are spread over the globe. This is pretty representative of the English speaking countries of the world and shows that we have, apparently, a global audience.

If you have any queries about the conference, or would like to attend, please get in touch. For more information see our page about .astronomy.