This meeting marks the the International Year of Astronomy by reviewing the extent to which astronomers are achieving the optimal rate of astronomical discovery. Can we identify and overcome the limits to progress? What steps can be taken to accelerate the rate of expansion of astronomical knowledge? What lessons can be learnt both from the recent and distant past?
As the public announcements regarding the 2009 IYA have emphasized, new astronomical discoveries are currently being made at an extraordinary rate, while the invention of the telescope ushered in an equally momentous “golden age of discovery” 400 years ago.
The meeting addresses a range of potential limits to progress—paradigmatic, technological, organizational, and political—examining each issue both from modern and historical perspectives, and drawing lessons to guide future progress. The program focusses on how astronomy actually progresses, using careful historical studies and real data, rather than anecdotes and folklore.
