Apparently 2009 is now the official International Year of Astronomy as dubbed by the UN to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Galileo pointing a telescope up instead of through window of the neighbor girl. Sounds like it should be pretty fun. Not that astronomy's not fun without getting a bit of extra recognition, but this is a bit of welcome news given that the UK astronomy program has been hit with budget cuts and our administration isn't well known for its support of science. Hopefully, this will dredge up a bit of public support.
