Hel.A.S. Newsletter 108 - February 2007

FEBRUARY 2007 - TOPICS
  1. The 8th Hellenic Astronomical Conference
  2. Job opening
  3. ASTRONET: Science Vision for European Astronomy
  4. SECCHI Science Observations: Call for Observing Proposals
  5. Upcoming Astronomy meetings in Greece
  6. About this Newsletter
1. THE 8th CONFERENCE OF HELAS

We wish to inform all Hel.A.S. members that the deadline for submission of abstracts for the upcoming 8th conference of Hel.A.S. will be the 15th of May 2007. The conference web page with the registration details is under development and it should become available by early March.

2. JOB OPENING

A new tenured track position at the level of "Assistant Professor" in the field of "Observational Astrophysics" has opened at the Department of Physics of the University of Crete. The application deadline is February 21, 2007. For more information on the application material you may contact the secretary of the Department (A. Koutentaki, +30-2810-394004, adriani@physics.uoc.gr)

3. ASTRONET: SCIENCE VISION FOR EUROPEAN ASTRONOMY

On January 23rd the Governing Board of AstroNet approved officially the acceptance of Greece as an Associate Member of this European Astronomical Network. This means that Greece has no obligation to contribute financially to the common budget, as the partners of the AstroNet do, but as a consequence it can not benefit from the distribution of the available funds.

The AstroNet network had already drafted a document on the "Science Vision" of European Astronomers for the major scientific questions that need to be addressed over the next 20 years. This draft, which is available in the ASTRONET web site at:

http://www.astronet-eu.org/

was discussed extensively during the two and a half days workshop at Poitiers, France between January 23 and 25, 2007. Nearly 230 astronomers from all over Europe attended the meeting. From Greece the people attending were Prof. P. Laskarides, as the representative of Greece and chair of the GNCA, Dr. E. Kontizas, Prof. M. Kontiza and Prof. V. Charmandaris.

The above mentioned site, contains useful information on AstroNet. Furthermore, in addition to the draft of the sience vision, it contains all presentations made by the panel members, which discuss in more detail specific science problems.

We would like to strongly encourage all members of Hel.A.S to visit the above mentioned web site and review this very important document. Feedback on its contents is welcomed by the ASTRONET board and the deadline for comments is February 15, 2007.

Based on the final "Science Vision" document an "Infrastructure Roadmap" for the development of the major astronomy facilities in Europe will be proposed by the AstroNet board. This will be used as guidance for the participating funding agencies for the directions of their future funding activities.

It appears that it is of particular importance for the future of greek astronomy that serious efforts should be made in order that we as greek astronomers, become involved in large european astronomy projects. It is very likely that these projects will attract most of the science interest, as well as the astronomy funding in Europe in the future.

4. SECCHI SCIENCE OBSERVATIONS: Call for Observing Proposals

We would like to bring to your attention that the science phase of the STEREO mission is about to begin on January 23rd. STEREO (http://stereo.gsfc.nasa.gov) was successfully launched on October 26, 2006 to study coronal mass ejections and the inner heliosphere in 3D. Currently, all instruments are operational and undergoing commissioning activities. The main scientific payload is the SECCHI instrument suite ( http://secchi.nrl.navy.mil) consisting of an EUVI full disk imager, two coronagraphs and two heliospheric imagers. The SECCHI observations are mainly carried by a synoptic plan (80% of available telemetry) but the remaining telemetry can be allocated to special observing projects open to all scientists. Observing proposals must be discussed with the SECCHI team at least a month in advance of the desired observation date. Note that NASA policy dictates that all STEREO data be publicly available as soon as they are processed (usually within a day or two). Information about the mission and instruments can be found in the December 2006 issue of the European Astronomical Society newsletter, and the SECCHI and STEREO websites given above. The SECCHI team is keen for a wide community participation in the SECCHI science analysis. Colleagues interested in special observations or in analyzing SECCHI data should feel free to contact the SECCHI Mission Scientist, Dr. Angelos Vourlidas (vourlidas@nrl.navy.mil, +1-202-767-2800)

5. UPCOMING ASTRONOMY MEETINGS IN GREECE

The following meetings will take place in Greece. Please check the corresponding web page or contact the organizers by e-mail for more information.

6. ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER

This Newsletter was sent to all members of Hel.A.S. who have e-mail access. The next edition of the Newsletter will be mailed around March 1st 2007. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures,job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before February 25, 2007. If you do not wish to receive future issues of this Newsletter or the e-mail address to which it was sent is not your preferred one, please inform the Secretary of Hel.A.S.

 


 
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