IYA2009 Galilean Nights awards
The IYA2009 Cornerstone project Galilean Nights ran during October 2009 and saw thousands of individuals and organisations host a wide range of events to popularise astronomy and highlight the importance of Galileo's legacy. Now that event reports have been collated the Galilean Nights awards can be announced. There are six categories, each with a winner and two highly commended entries.
Highest attendance at a single registered event
Winner: “Exposição de Telescópios” run by Clube de Astronomia de Brasília, Brazil. More than16 500 people observed Jupiter and its moons with their own eyes over the course of seven days. http://www.galileannights.org/events/reports/gn835.pdf
Highly commended: “Cosmic Landscape”, Brazil. This public exhibition was held at the biggest shopping mall in Maceió (Brazil), and was swamped with 15,000 attendees. http://www.galileannights.org/events/reports/gn665.pdf
Highly commended: Sidewalk astronomy night around Bangalore, India. Run by the Bangalore Astronomical Society in India, this non-stop astrofest lasted for 30 consecutive nights and was experienced by 10,277 people. http://www.galileannights.org/events/reports/gn1,237.pdf
More details on other awards - refer http://www.astronomy2009.org/news/updates/829/
I would like to thank all the event volunteers for their contribution for Galilean Nights who made this happen. Congratulations to all of you.