Mr Asghar Kabiri,2006 ASP Annual Award Winner

Las Cumbres Amateur Outreach Award

Mr Asghar Kabiri
Sa'adat-shahr, Iran

Asghar Kabiri is a teacher in Sa'adat-shahr, a small rural town in the Fars Province in southern Iran, about 400 miles south or Tehran, a type of town to be found throughout the world, off the main roads and quite isolated in appearance to the rest of "civilization." But this is an astronomy town, one with a community wide passion for astronomy and for astronomy education, truly unique. Kabiri has brought this amazing creation to life since 1991.

He introduced astronomy to his students, and to the whole town, organizing star parties, lectures, slide shows. The local imam even announces these events and as well as current events in the night sky. The town turns off all of its electricity during these star parties and for special events -- truly a way to cut light pollution to zero. He has helped the town to create its own observatory. Locals donated to create this facility, from teacher and construction workers to the local women selling their jewelry to raise funds for the construction.

He has been recognized not only in Iran but in the international press for his achievements. A national conference as held in the town in 2001, and since then his and the town's story has been told in articles in Iran and beyond, in an article for Mercury from example, in the Jan/Feb 2003 issue, by Michael Simmons, who has visited Iran on a number of occasions, and by Reuters, CNN (October 13, 2005 on CNN.com), Yahoo, AOL, and others. Several astronomers have visited the town, on the occasion of the transit of Venus in mid 2004, and were lavishly welcomed by the citizens with signs, and local events. A number of American amateur astronomers and clubs have donated to the town after hearing the story and in recognizing the tremendous accomplishments of Asghar Kabiri in bringing astronomy to the town and to Iran. He indeed has brought astronomy to the lives of children and the public, a model for others to emulate.

Babak Tafreshi, editor of the Nojum astronomy magazine in Iran has noticed subscriptions increasing and his bedtime television show has the highest viewer figures on Iran's Channel Four. Astronomy has a strong historical resonance for Iranians, where most of the astronomers are young and where about 60 percent are female. Amateur astronomy is alive in Sa'adat-shahr and in Iran in a large way because of Asghar Kabiri's extensive and effective outreach efforts.

Source:http://www.astrosociety.org/membership/awards/06winnerspub.html

Cylinder of Cyrus the Great

Iranian fervor and  understanding is a document which nobody has ever been able to deny or ignore in various junctures of history.Freedom seeking and veneration of truth has been a  beathing heart which has kept the Iranian peaple alive.As evidenced by their history ,Iranian have been constantly looking for freedom and have never bowed to humiliation.Of course,if it were not for Islam and its rise in this land followed by freedom seeking ideas of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) ,perhaps that heart had stopped beating many centuries ago.

Cylinder of Cyrus the Great is a proof to that claim and what has been carved on it is true charter of human rights and justice and a forerunner to what was called "human rights" in the West many centuries later.

With best regards to Miss Azadeh Ardekani (Director of the National Museum of Iran) ,Soheil Salimi  

  PASARGAD
Begun under Cyrus the Great in about 546BC, the city of Pasargad was quickly superseded by Darius I's magniafication palace at Persepolis.
The first structure you'll come across is the (6)six-tiered Tomb of Cyrus .Standing proudly on the windswept plain,this impressive stone cenotaph was orginally much taller than it is now and is still the best preserved of the Pasargad ruins. Legend has it that when Alexander the Great arrived at Pasargad,he was greatly distressed by the state of the tomb and ordered its restoration(1).Within walking distance of the tomb are the insubstantial remains of three Achaemind Palaces-the Entrance Palace,the Audiencr Palace and Cyrus' Private Palace;the ruins of a tomb on a plinth,known as the Prison of Soloman (Zendan-e Soleiman);a large stone platform on a hill known as the Throne of the Mother of Solomon(Takht-e Madar-e Soleiman);and two stone plinths that originally formed part of a pair of altars within a sacred precinct.Some local historical believe that the references to Solomon date from the Arab conquest, when the inhabitants of Pasargad renamed the sites with Islamic names to prevent their destruction.In both the Audience Palace and in Cyrus'Private Palace there is a cuneiform inscription that that reads:'I am Cyrus, the Achaemenid King'.
The city of Pasargad doesn't relate to the Cyrus's tomb only, we call whole of that place by Pasargad.(I mean

sa'adatshahr,aliabad,...etc.)
Beautifull gardens in sa'adatshahr are important sites for tourists,they are touristic places in our city.