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4 p.; International audience; In 2000 a new IAU working group was founded (IAU GA, Manchester): Future Development of Ground-Based Astrometry (FDGBA). It was revised in 2003 during the IAU GA in Sydney. A new one replaced it in 2006 (IAU GA, Prague): Astrometry by Small Ground-Based Telescopes (ASGBT). It was renewed for other three years during the IAU GA in Rio de Janeiro. The main aim of the working groups followed the Newsletter No. 1 of the IAU Commission 8, which says: The post-Hipparcos era has brought an element of uncertainty as to the goals and future programs for all of ground-based astrometry The purpose of the WGs was "to update and maintain information on astrometric programmes and activities carried out by small telescopes, to diffuse news through these pages and e-mails, to facilitate the collaborations and to help for the coordination of the activities, when possible, in astrometry from ground-based telescopes".

The sky and its lore have been always a historical heritage common to all the peoples and thus must be considered as an important cultural element. The European Union Institutions have considered a significant issue locating, studying and keeping for the future the historical places that have had an astronomical cultural relation, considering the information about the sky as a natural and cultural relation that has to be preserved. El cielo ha sido siempre un referente universal común a todos los pueblos, por lo que debe ser considerado como un importante elemento cultural. Las instituciones de la Unión Europea entienden que son significativos, y por ello dignos de preservar, los lugares que históricamente han mantenido alguna vinculación astronómica, propiciando su localización, estudio y protección.

L’astronomie est l’une des sciences les plus anciennes. Chaque peuple, chaque nation a sa propre histoire. Leur héritage culturel garde des traces des connaissances du ciel depuis les plus anciens temps. Le ciel a été depuis toujours le ciel de tous. Il y avait une époque sans frontières, quand les échanges matériels et spirituels entre voisins se faisaient sans aucun formalisme et la richesse des informations et idées acquises par les uns étaient au bénéfice de toute l’humanité. Des siècles après, la globalisation est de nouveau acclamée comme la seule solution d’une entente générale. Le rôle de l’héritage astronomique pour garder la diversité des cultures dans la globalisation de l’humanité devient donc de plus en plus important. L’identification, l’inventaire, l’analyse, la dissémination de toute preuve de la richesse de la culture astronomique va démontrer une fois de plus que le monde est si varié mais toujours le même que les astronomes peuvent contribuer à leur manière à garder pour l’avenir une planète propre, matérielle et spirituelle., Stavinschi Magda. L’astronomie entre la diversité culturelle et la globalisation. In: Concepts, cultures et progrès scientifiques et techniques : enseignement et perspectives. Actes du 131e Congrès national des sociétés historiques et scientifiques, « Tradition et innovation », Grenoble, 2006. Paris : Editions du CTHS, 2009. pp. 173-177. (Actes des congrès nationaux des sociétés historiques et scientifiques, 131-1)

International audience; The future European space astrometric mission GAIA will map the Galaxy in the 2011-2015 period. Global astrometry of billions of astrophysical objects will be performed during this survey. Among them, many new Solar System objects, in particular fast moving objects, will be discovered. We thus expect to discover several hundred of thousands of small moving objects. But several problems appear: the need to get a fast identification and to be able to discriminate between the well-known objects and the new ones, the need to quickly compute accurate orbital parameters for these ones in order to be able to identify them in the following observations by GAIA and to avoid their loss. For these goals we propose to carry out actions before the mission, mainly the development of accurate ephemerides of all objects of the solar system, and the set-up of a dedicated network of observers and automatic/robotic stations for observations on alert in the framework of a follow-up program. Archives, data mining and Virtual Obervatory facilities will play a fundamental role for these actions.

Ünlü Stonehenge veya Camac'dan, tapestrilere (Bayeux), arma sembollerine, güneş saatlerine, eski gözlemevleri ve elyazmalarına kadar tüm dünyada astronomik kültürün kanıtları vardır. Hepsi, evren ve gökyüzü hakkında yüzyıllar boyu birikmiş bilgiyi; ta, tahta, seramik, metal veya kag1t eklinde korumuştur. Bütün dünyaya yayılmışlardır. Bazen iyi kataloglamış, araştırılmış ve korunmuşlardır. Yine de nadiren çok az bilinirler ve çok kötü korunmuş hatta yok olmak üzeredirler. Belli bir epoktan bir güne saatinin nerede olduğunu bulmak isteyebilirsiniz ancak nasıl bilmezsiniz. Bazı olayların ilk kez ne zaman kaydedildiğini bilmek isteyebilirsiniz ve bu çaba için araştırmalar zordur. Astronomik amaçlar için de kullanılmış bir tapınağın restorasyonuna destek vermek isteyebilirsiniz ve böyle bir operasyonun gerektirdiği bazen çok yüksek masraflar karşılayacak yeterli kanıtımız yoktur. Tüm bu bilginin içerisinde toplanacağı bir veri bankası, uluslararası boyutta bir elektronik kütüphane; araştırmayı kolaylaştırmak ve bu gezegendeki uygarlığın hazinelerini oluşturan sanat, bilim ve tarih anıtlarının korunmasına destek vermek için en doğru ey olacaktır. İşte bunlar kısaca, "Arkeoastronomik Miras" adında yeni bir çalıma grubunun oluşturulmasının sebebi. (http://www.archeoastronomy.org/) Bu zengin mirası tanımlamak ve korumak isteyen herkes bu etkinliğe katılmaya davetlidir. In the entire world there are proofs of astronomical culture, from the famous Stonehenge or Camac, up to tapestries (Bayeux), heraldic symbols, sundials, old observatories or manuscripts. All of them preserve in stone, wood, ceramics, metal or paper the knowledge gathered throughout the centuries concerning the sky, the cosmos. They are spread all over the world. Sometimes they are well catalogued, researched or preserved. Nevertheless, very often they are very little known and very badly preserved, sometimes about to disappear. You want to find out where there is a sundial from a certain epoch and you do not know how. You want to know when some phenomena were recorded for the first time and researches to this effect are difficult. You want to support the restoration of a sanctuary, also used for astronomical purposes, and you do not have enough proofs to motivate the sometimes very high expenses required by such an operation. A data bank in which all this information should be gathered, an electronic library of international size, would be the exact thing to facilitate research, to support the conservation of the art, science and history monuments, which together make up the thesaurus of civilization on this planet. This is shortly the reason why a new working group "The Archaeoastronomical Heritage" (http://www.archeoastronomy.org/) was set up. Everyone interested in identifying and preserving this rich heritage is invited to contribute to its activity.

International audience