Astronomy Outreach Program At The Astronomy Group Of Universidad Diego Portales

Abstract

The main objective of this project is to start an outreach program within the astronomy group of Universidad Diego Portales (UDP), intended to be effective and dynamic at promoting astronomy within the University, local schools in Santiago, and the general Chilean public. In order to accomplish this, we plan to: 1) hire an outreach program coordinator that will work full time on the project; 2) establish a series of talks with the latest news in astronomical research, open to the general public, that will be given by the astronomy faculty and postdocs at UDP, as well as invited speakers from other Chilean universities and international observatories; 3) create an astronomy outreach website that will be updated frequently with the latest news on astronomical research (supported with articles in Facebook and real-time updates in Twitter), including supporting material (e.g., videos in Youtube) that will be developed to reach a wide range of the general public and different age groups; 4) organize public viewing nights in downtown Santiago with a telescope purchased with funds from the project.