First Announcement: Eurosom 3 in Edinburgh, Oct. 24/25, 1998.
Bart De Pontieu (bdp@cds.plasma.mpe-garching.mpg.de)
Thu, 19 Mar 1998 14:41:24 +0100 (MET)
FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT: EUROSOM 3 in EDINBURGH, OCTOBER 24/25, 1998.
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The third edition of the EUROpean Satellite Observers Meeting (Eurosom
3) will be held during the weekend of October 24-25, 1998 at the City
Observatory in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. Everyone (including
non-Europeans) interested in visual observations of artificial
satellites is welcome. Eurosom 3 will be an informal meeting with
English as the working language.
The organising committee consists of Alan Pickup and Russell Eberst
(locally) and Neil Clifford and Bart De Pontieu (programme). Eurosom 3
is supported and sponsored by the Astronomical Society of Edinburgh
(ASE) and the Belgian Working Group Satellites (BWGS) of the Belgian
Astronomical Society (VVS).
The meeting will start on Saturday, October 24, 1998 around 9:30 am.
Travellers from abroad may want to plan their arrival on Friday
evening. On Saturday, we will convene until 18:00 am with a lunch
break and various coffee breaks. Saturday night will be available for
experiencing Edinburgh's various forms of nightlife. :-) On Sunday
morning we reconvene at 9:30 am. Eurosom 3 ends at 17h on Sunday
afternoon.
Location of the meeting is the City Observatory on Calton Hill close
to the centre of Edinburgh. The City Observatory overlooks the east
end of Edinburgh's famous Princes Street. Accomodation is available at
the nearby Cairn Hotel which lies 500 m north of the City
Observatory. Single rooms at the Cairn Hotel cost 30 Pound Sterling
per night, whereas double rooms are available at a cost of 25 Pound
Sterling per person per night. Registration for Eurosom 3 will cost 10
Pound Sterling (about US $ 15), in return for which each participant
will receive the Eurosom 3 Proceedings. Accompanying people do not
need to pay the registration fee.
More information on how to reserve rooms and food at the Cairn Hotel
and on how to pay the registration fee will be made available in the
Second Announcement of Eurosom 3, which will be sent out in April or
May 1998.
The program for Eurosom 3 is still VERY preliminary but will or *might*
include talks given by well-known satellite observers/analysts such as:
- David Brierley, UK; positional observer since the 1960's
- Russell Eberst, UK; most active satellite observer in the world
- Kurt Jonckheere, Belgium; flash period analyst of the BWGS
- (?) Paul Maley, USA; low light level video observer
- (?) Rob Matson, USA; satellite analyst of Skymap, Superbird, etc... fame
- Mike McCants, USA; experienced observer/orbital and decay analyst
- Chris Peat, UK; responsible for the GSOC Web pages
- Alan Pickup, UK; responsible for SATEVO decay predictions
- Bruno Tilgner, France; studies problems with NORAD propagation models
for geostationary satellites (e.g. ASTRA)
- and others...
We expect to have more program details available in the Second Announcement.
If you would like to give a talk about something related to visual satellite
observing, please contact Neil and Bart at the address below.
For people who think Eurosom 3 is too far/expensive/short:
1. Airfare to Scotland (esp. from the US) may not be as high as you
fear, especially if flight tickets are ordered well in advance.
2. The meeting takes place near the heart of the historic city of
Edinburgh, once called "The Athens of the North". As the centre of
Scottish culture and education, Edinburgh has fine medieval, Georgian
and Victorian architecture and more than its share of museums and art
galleries. Major attractions include Edinburgh Castle, which is linked
by the Royal Mile to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Queen's official
Scottish residence. You may shop along the famous Princes Street, or
take a short walk to Holyrood Park to climb the extinct volcano that
is Arthur's Seat, the birthplace of modern geology. Britain's
Astronomy Technology Centre is now being established at the Royal
Observatory in the south of the city and there will be opportunities
to visit this in the days before and after Eurosom 3. Also, if you
want to extend your visit and do some sight-seeing with local
SeeSat-ers, ask us about it at the address below.
There is a city centre map at
http://www.ebs.hw.ac.uk/EDC/maps/city-centre-map.html
This shows Calton Hill towards the upper-right of the map although the
City Observatory is not plotted. The Cairn Hotel is a short distance
down a road which leads north from London Road (between the labels for
"London Road" and "Leith Walk").
Calton Hill is described at
http://www.ebs.hw.ac.uk/EDC/guide/calton.html
while the City Observatory is at
http://www.roe.ac.uk/asewww/cityobs.html
See also:
http://www.super.net.uk/vc/europe/Edinburgh/
The deadline for registration is still far away (September 1, 1998),
but we would very much appreciate feedback from you if you're thinking
about attending.
For more information, or to signal your intention to attend, please
contact us at eurosom3@satellite.eu.org
Cheers,
Bart, Alan, Neil and Russell
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Bart De Pontieu -- bart@satellite.eu.org -- SeeSat-L maintainer
one more week at Max-Planck-Institute for extraterrestrial Physics
solar physicist - http://www2.satellite.eu.org/satintro.html
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