MR. SZE-LEUNG CHEUNG

In this presentation, the speaker will tell the stories of how the IAU Beyond IYA2009 plan gave birth to the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO) hosted by National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) since 2012 - the strong desire to build infrastructure for making astronomy available for everyone. The speaker will also address the challenges of running the global campaign NameExoWorlds which has more than 500000 public votes, and the Cosmic Light programme of the International Year of Light 2015 which has reached more than 2.5 million people worldwide. To make astronomy reach everyone, the OAO established the National Outreach Contacts (NOCs) network that allow the huge global network of astronomy communities to be connected, so that they can further reach the communities. At India, IUCAA serve the role of the Indian NOC. The OAO support the communities by providing best practices and regular communications on ongoing developments in the astronomy outreach communities.