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Editorial (page 03)
Sze-leung Cheung

Editorial

Since publication of the last issue of CAPjournal, there have been two significant conferences of relevance to our community. The first was the Communicating Astronomy with the Public conference (CAP2018) which was held in Fukuoka, Japan, in March with more than 400 participants in attendance. More recently, the IAU 30th General Assembly (GA) was held in Vienna, Austria, in August.

As part of the IAU GA the new IAU Strategic Plan for the 2020–2030 period was launched. The plan lists actions on how the IAU will engage the public in astronomy including the establishment of a new IAU office — the Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE). The full plan is available on the IAU website, if you have any ideas on implementing these actions, please feel free to contact us.

As we know, astronomy research can drive technological advancement and, at the same time, technologies create new ways for us to communicate research. In this issue, you will find articles exploring these uses of technology, including the use of virtual observatories, virtual reality technologies, video and animations.

With the IAU 100th anniversary celebrations in full swing now is an excellent time to conduct outreach activities, don’t miss it and don’t forget to tell us what you are doing to contribute. I would also like to ask once more for your help in providing feedback on CAPjournal by filling in a survey (see page 24). Your opinions and inputs are much appreciated. In the meantime, happy reading.

Clear skies,

Sze-leung Cheung
Editor-in-Chief of CAPjournal