In this contribution I will briefly introduce the concept and objectives of the Open Universe Initiative, as well as describe the first steps of its implementation by Brazil, in conjunction with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), aiming to encourage new interested parties to join the Initiative.

The impressive transition from an era of scientific data scarcity to an era of overproduction has become particularly noticeable in archaeoastronomy. The collection of astronomical information about prehistoric societies allows the accumulation of global data on: – the oldest traces of astronomical activity on Earth, emotional and rational display of celestial phenomena in astronomical folklore, “folk astronomy” and timekeeping, in fine arts and architecture, in everyday life; – the most ancient applied “astronomy” – counting the time by lunar phases, accumulation and storage of ancient databases in drawings and pictographic compositions in caves and artificially constructed objects; – “horizon” astronomy as an initial form of observational cult astronomy, preserved only in characteristic material monuments (the oldest cult observatories) with indisputable astronomical orientations. The report shows the importance of collecting the maximum number of artifacts and monuments from prehistory associated with the early emergence of interest in celestial phenomena. Spiritual, emotional and rational (including practical) needs that have aroused interest in Heaven are discussed. The huge variety of activities in realizing the regularity (cyclicity) of celestial phenomena as a stimulus for their use for orientation in space and time is shown.

Students took an assembly-type telescope kit from a public elementary school and brought it to their homes in 2019. Three classes attempted to observe the Moon at home using the Kaifu-NAOJ Telescope Kit. As a result, all children observed the Moon at home using the kit. From their observations, around 90% identified the existence of craters and understood the reflection of sunlight on the Moon’s surface. As Covid-19 prevention measures in education, we propose the introduction of at-home telescopic observations for STEAM activities.

We shall describe the various activities done by us in Covid Times including outreach and educational workshops in Physics and Astronomy. We shall discuss the caveats in virtual teaching of Astronomy and the lessons learnt in the process.

Children in elementary and middle school learn fundamental concepts of science in their local language. There seems to be some discrepancies between what they learn in school and up-to-date terminologies because academic terminologies are usually updated and shared only in English by each specific academic society. We introduce the online dictionary called as “The Internet Encyclopedia of Astronomy” compiled and provided by the Astronomical Society of Japan as an efficient solution for such terminology problem.

Girls’ under-representation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education is deep rooted and puts a detrimental brake on progress towards sustainable development. Both education and gender equality are an integral part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, as distinct Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UNESCO Report: Cracking the code: Girls’ and women’s education in STEM provides a global snapshot of this underrepresentation and the factors behind it. The fight against stereotypes to ‘crack the code’, or to decipher the factors that hinder or facilitate girls’ and women’s participation in STEM (and particularly in Astronomy) education must take into account the persisting dichotomy between the so called two cultures.

The US astronomy/astrophysics community comes together to create a decadal report that summarizes grant funding priorities, observatory & instrumental priorities as well as community accomplishments and community goals such as increasing the number of women and the number of people from underrepresented groups. In the 2010 US National Academies Decadal Survey of Astronomy (NRC10), it was suggested that having to move so frequently which is a career necessity may be unattractive to people wanting to start a family, especially impacting women. Whether in Europe or elsewhere, as postdocs, astrophysicists will relocate every two to three years, until they secure a permanent position or leave research altogether. Astrophysicists do perceive working abroad as important and positive for their careers (Parenti02); however, it was found that the men at equal rank had not had to spend as much time abroad to further their careers (Fohl12). By implication, women need to work abroad longer or have more positions abroad to achieve the same rank as men. Astrophysicists living in the United Kingdom prefer to work in their country of origin, but many did not do so because of worse working conditions or difficultly finding a job for their spouse (Fohl14). In sum, mobility and moving is necessary for a career in astrophysics, and even more necessary for women, but astrophysicists prefer not to move as frequently as needed to maintain a research career. To gather more data on these issues and to broaden the discourse beyond male/female to include the gender diverse as well as to include other forms of diversity, the ASTROMOVES project was created which is funded through a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship. Though slowed down by COVID-19, several interviews have been conducted and some preliminary results will be presented.

We shall present with examples how analysis of astronomy data can be used for an educational purpose to train users in methods of data analysis, statistics, programming skills and research problems. Special reference will be made to our IAU-OAD project ‘Astronomy from Archival Data’ where we are in the process of building a repository of instructional videos and reading material for undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as interested participants. Virtual Observatory tools will also be discussed and applied. As this is an ongoing project, by the time of the conference we will have the projects and work done by students included in our presentation. The material produced can be freely used by the community.

The report shows the current opportunities for obtaining astronomical knowledge in school and outside it, through the use of non-formal education. These are school and extracurricular activities, schools, astronomical competitions and Olympiads, observation expeditions. For 25 years Bulgaria has been participating in the International Olympiads in Astronomy and Astronomy and Astrophysics with National Teams. The role and place of the system of Public Astronomical Observatories and Planetaria in the system of non-formal education in astronomy are discussed (In Bulgaria there are 7 Public astronomical observatories with a planetarium). Specialized activities in their school forms allow the formation of sustainable astronomical knowledge and observational habits.

The IAU is like an old house: Each of the IAU General Secretaries brings her/his individual skills, trying to fix it up. After the collective efforts of several General Secretaries, the house is hopefully kept in reasonable overall shape. But each General Secretary is also in principle responsible for everything, which means that priorities for the way you spend your time must be set – remembering that surprises may occur at any moment.

In my case, I’d like to single out five major initiatives taken during my term, which have probably proved useful in the longer term.

The IAU was founded in 1919 “to facilitate the relations between astronomers of different countries where international co-operation is necessary or useful” and “to promote the study of astronomy in all its departments”. These aims have led the IAU throughout the century of its existence, but the way it has tried to fulfil them has changed. We have tried to trace the changing role of the IAU in the international astronomical community through the twentieth century and into the twenty-first. The IAU has striven – occasionally struggled – to protect international scientific cooperation across the deep political divides that characterized the 20th century, while maintaining an important function in the context of the rapidly evolving science itself and the changing fabric of institutions involved in astronomy. We especially argue how the emphasis of the IAU’s activities has shifted from the first aim – facilitating collaboration by organizing meetings and defining common standards – to the second aim: promoting astronomy by outreach and development programs.

We briefly discuss the history of membership and the current position of Serbia inside the International Astronomical Union. We give an overview of astronomy education, research and public outreach in Serbia. Some statistics are presented concerning the number and gender of BSc, MSc and PhD students that graduated/obtained their degree in astronomy/astrophysics from the Department of Astronomy, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Belgrade. Due attention is paid to the most important scientific/educational institutions in Serbia in which the majority of astronomers are employed as well as various research topics investigated.

The first hundred years of the IAU have witnessed scientific and technological progress in astronomy beyond anything imagined at the time the IAU was founded in 1919. What will the next hundred years bring? How do we engage with other sciences, now that our field is becoming more multidisciplinary? How do we convince governments to continue funding our field, in particular the ever more powerful telescopes? And how do we continue to inspire and involve people worldwide in our exciting adventure through space? A brief forward look into the next decade and beyond is presented, with some challenges highlighted.

Of all the sciences, astronomy is by far the most border-less in its activities, and the most advanced in its concepts of collaborating across borders. In their dealings and in their needs, today’s teams are mature enough to ignore gender differences and ethnic differences, and across the past 50+ years of IAU membership which I personally can chalk up, the IAU personnel, Commissions, and other bodies have come to reflect more nearly the same – albeit small – gender ratios as found in its member institutions. In the IAU there has always been space for the individual, and if one recalls the early contributions to the IAU by major players like Edith M¨uller, Giusa Cayrel, Anne Underhill and Charlotte Moore, I think it can be said that astronomy was, and knew it was, better off by giving such people the latitude that they deserved as scientists, rather than because they were women. When a meeting in Baltimore in 1992 was called to discuss “Women in Astronomy”, the pressure came from the younger generations, who feared that the low percentages of tenured women in astronomy would be allowed to continue unnoticed, so they created the Baltimore Charter to draw attention to what certainly appeared to some as discrimination. Even though there could be no quick fixes to the situation, and the winds of change have been more like zephyrs than the cleansing gales that some hoped for, the percentage of women now rising through the ranks is definitely on the increase, and is witnessing growing ethnic diversity. Those are a matter of pride for the IAU, and must be highlighted in this its Centenary Year.

This summary captures, in the broadest sense, some of the achievements, challenges and spirit of the astronomy for development community at the 30th General Assembly of the IAU.

Several problems contribute to difficulties in interpreting transient celestial phenomena as described in Chinese records. Frameworks are an overarching problem. Tianwen, the modern Chinese term for astronomy, in pre-modern times included meteorological phenonemena and was concerned with omenology. Manuscripts that include star charts and comets but also meteorological phenomena and omen reading texts were routinely reframed in modern scholarship to appear as if they included only astronomical content. The scope of pre-modern tianwen, however, was broader than its modern sense. Pre-modern celestial phenomena had political and religious significance. Apparent ambiguity arises from the presence of both meteorological and astronomical phenomena in a single category and from features of the classical Chinese language. Accounting for these problems is essential for research into transient phenomena using historical archives.

This proceeding summarizes the highlights of IAU 329, “The Lives and Death-Throes of Massive Stars”, held in Auckland, NZ from 28 Nov - 2 Dec. I consider the progress that has been made in the field over the course of these “beach symposia”, outline the overall content of the conference, and discuss how the current subfields in massive stellar astrophysics have evolved in recent years. I summarize some of the new results and innovative approaches that were presented during the symposium, and conclude with a discussion of how current and future resources in astronomy can serve as valuable tools for studying massive stars in the coming years.

A brief description of International Aerospace School (IASS) is given.

At the 2012 General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the Office of Astronomy for Development announced a number of exciting new partnerships to assist with the IAU's decadal strategic plan (2010--2020). These landmark decisions included establishing a new coordinating centre that aims at using astronomy as a tool for development in East Asia. The agreement covers two important functions. One is known as a Regional Node, which entails the coordination of astronomy-for-development activities in countries within the general geographical region of East Asia. The other is known as a Language Expertise Centre which deals with all aspects relating to (mainly) the Chinese language and culture. The impact of the latter may obviously spread well beyond the geographical region to other parts of the world. Here we provide an update of the achievements and aims of the East Asian Office of Astronomy for Development.

Supporting the use of astronomy as a tool for development in specific regions and languages, the International Astronomical Union's (IAU) Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD) has established a Portuguese ‘Language Expertise Centre for the OAD’ (PLOAD), hosted at Núcleo Interactivo de Astronomia (NUCLIO), in collaboration with the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA) in Portugal. The centre is one of the new coordinating offices announced at the IAU General Assembly in Honolulu, Hawaii on 13 August 2015.