| SEPTEMBER 2008 - TOPICS |
- Short News
- Hel.A.S. Annual Membership Fee Due
- August 2008 Solar and Lunar Eclipse
- International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics
- News on the Antikythera Mechanism
- Call of Interest for Greek Involvement in ESA's Cosmic Vision Program
- Job Opening
- Encyclopedia of the Cosmos
- XMM-Newton & Spitzer Space Telescope Call for Proposals
- Upcoming Astronomy Meetings in Greece
- About this Newsletter
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| 1. SHORT NEWS |
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We invite all members of Hel.A.S. who wish to contribute to the next issue of Hipparchos, either short news and views, or the scientific achievements of their research groups or departments to contact the editor of Hipparchos, Dr. Manolis Plionis (mplionis@astro.noa.gr), for details.
Congratulations to Dr. Angelos Vourlidas (SECCHI Project Scientist) and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) SECCHI (Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation) team for receiving a Group Achievement Award from NASA for their accomplishments in the
successful launch and operation of the twin STEREO (Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory) spacecraft. The NRL research team is cited for efforts toward the "successful launch and operation of the twin STEREO spacecraft, giving us the first 3-D view of the Sun and the Inner Heliosphere." The accomplishments were a group effort comprised of researchers from NRL's Space Science Division and multiple national and international scientific institutions. Over 200 scientists and engineers helped to design, fabricate, test and operate the two instrument suites.
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| 2. HEL.A.S. ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP FEE DUE |
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We would like to remind all members of Hel.A.S. that the deadline for payment of the 2008 Annual Membership Fee was August 31st. All members of the Society who have not yet payed their fee should do so as soon as possible. Members who wish to receive an invoice in order to charge their membership in a grant may request one from the Treasurer, Prof. A. Mastichiadis (treasurer@helas.gr). As it has been mentioned in the past, the preferred method of payment is online on the secure server of the Bank of Pireaus, using a credit card or a direct bank transfer. For more details on this, as well as information on other methods of payment, please review the payment form listed bellow, or contact the Treasurer:
http://www.helas.gr/forms/dues.pdf
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| 3. AUGUST 2008 SOLAR AND LUNAR ECLIPSE |
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On August 1st 2008 a total Solar Eclipse lasting more than 2 minutes was visible from the northern hemisphere. The path of the totality began in Canada and extended across northern Greenland, the Arctic, central Russia, Mongolia, and China. Two missions, in which greek astronomers participated, visited Siberia (the cities of Biysk and Novosibirsk) in order to experience the event and make scientific measurements. The Solar Eclipse was followed two weeks later, on August 16th, by a partial Lunar eclipse, which was visible from Greece in the late evening hours. Anthony Ayiomamitis joined one of the Siberia missions, capturing the impressive Solar eclipse. He was also able to photograph the lunar eclipse from Athens. Several of his stunning pictures are available at:
Solar Eclipse: http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Eclipses-2008-08-01.htm
Lunar Eclipse: http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-Eclipses-2008-08-16.htm
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| 4. INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIAD ON ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS |
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The 2nd International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) took place at Bandung, Thailand on 19-28 of August 2008. The purpose of IOAA is to promote interests and educations on astronomy and astrophysics of high school students. Nineteen countries including Greece participated in this event. The Greek team consisted of Georgios Moulantzikos, Stefanos Mavros, Georgios Valogiannis, Maria Krikeli and Lampirni Chroni. Prof. J. Seriadakis and Prof. L. Zachilas were the team leaders and Maria Kontaxi was an Observer.
Three members of the greek team G. Moulantzikos, S. Mavros and G. Valogiannis received an Honorable Mention. In particular Stefanos Mavros, who has been accepted to study Physics at the University of Thessaloniki, became the 4th best contestant on the Observational Part of the competition. Lambrini Chroni has also been accepted to study Physics at the University of Athens. For more information visit the 2nd IOAA web site:
http://www.ioaa2.itb.ac.id
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| 5. NEWS ON THE ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM |
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A paper describing new findings based further analysis performed on the 3-D imaging data of the Antikythera Mechanism was recently published in the scientific journal Nature. A very informative video explaining the history of the discovery as well as some of the latest results is available in the journal web site:
http://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/antikythera/
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| 6. CALL OF INTEREST FOR GREEK INVOLVEMENT IN ESA's COSMIC VISION PROGRAM |
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The General Secretariat for Research and Technology has issued a call for expression of interest by greek teams who wish to be involved in some of the projects of the Cosmic Vision Program of the European Space Agency (ESA). Interested parties should contact Mr. V. Kaleridis before September 15 2008. For more information visit:
http://www.gsrt.gr/default.asp?V_ITEM_ID=5850
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| 7. JOB OPENING |
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The Astrophysics Group at FORTH and the Department of Physics at the University of Crete (Greece) advertise an opening for one postdoctoral position on “X-ray studies of AGN/galaxies”. The successful candidate is expected to be self-motivated and have experience in X-ray data analysis. Experience with the data acquisition and analysis from optical telescopes is a plus. For further details you may contact Prof. Iosif Papadakis (jhep@physics.uoc.gr)). The duration of the position is for a period of 2 years with a net monthly salary of ~2,000 Euros. The starting date is negotiable but should be before the beginning of March 2009.
Interested applicants are requested to send a cover letter with a CV, publication record, and description of research interests along with the names of three individuals who could write letters of recommendation, to Prof. Nick Kylafis, Dept. of Physics, Univ. of Crete, P.O. Box 2208, GR-71003 Heraklion, Greece. Applications by e-mail to “kylafis@physics.uoc.gr” are strongly encouraged. Applications received before December 1st 2008 will be given full consideration.
The research interests of the Astrophysics Group include: X-ray timing and spectroscopy of AGNs, the ISM, and discrete X-ray source populations in galaxies, high resolution spectroscopy of the intergalactic medium and of AGN outflows. Information on the activities of the Crete Astrophysics Group and Skinakas Observatory can be obtained from:
http://www.physics.uoc.gr/en/menu/astro.php
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| 8. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE COSMOS |
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The Encyclopedia of the Cosmos (EoC) is a project having as a goal to become the largest reliable information resource on all topics related to astronomy and space science. Similarly to Wikipedia one can register and use a wiki interfase to contribute articles. However, unlike Wikipedia, only authors recognized based on their expertise on specific topics (such as professional astronomers, scientists, educators, etc.) and on their ability to communicate jargon-free technical information with sophistication and clarity will be allowed to contribute on a given Topic. The Encyclopedia will be free to the public, have no advertising, and be fully searchable. When an contributing author feels that her/his article is ready to be published, a Topic Editor is notified and then reviews the article. If it is of sufficiently high quality, the Topic Editor then moves the article to the public site.
The EoC is published by the Digital Universe Foundation, a non-profit organization. The goal of the Digital Universe is to organize a worldwide network of scholars to create a subset of the Web in which high-quality information is well organized and readily available as a free public service. For more information visit:
http://www.eofcosmos.org/
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| 9. XMM-NEWTON AND SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE CALL FOR PROPOSALS |
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ESA announced the 8th call for observing proposals for the XMM-Newton Space Telescope. The deadline for proposal submission is 10 October, 2008, 12:00 UT. For more information visit:
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_science/AO8/
On behalf of NASA and the Spitzer Space Telescope Project, the Spitzer Science Center (SSC) at Caltech announced the release of the Cycle-6 Call for Proposals (CP), soliciting research proposals for Exploration Science General Observer (GO) programs, and regular GO programs. The deadline for proposal submission is 10 October, 2008, 5:00pm PDT. For more information visit:
http://ssc.spitzer.caltech.edu/propkit/currentcp.html
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| 10. UPCOMING ASTRONOMY MEETINGS IN GREECE |
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The following meetings will take place in Greece. Please check the corresponding web page or contact the organizers by e-mail for more information.
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| 11. ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER |
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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 October 1st 2008. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures, job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece) or comments before September 25, 2008. 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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| SEPTEMBER 2008 EXTRA - TOPICS |
- Job Opening
- ESA PRESTIGE programme
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| 1. JOB OPENING |
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It has just come to our attention that there was an opening for a position of a Lecturer in the area of "Mechanics" at the Dept. of Physics of the University of Athens. The deadline is 14 October 2008. For more information contact the Secretariat of the Department at +30-210-7276807.
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| 2. ESA PRESTIGE PROGRAM |
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The ESA Education Office invites universities in ESA Member or Cooperating States to participate in the ESA “PRESTIGE” programme (PRrogram in Education for Space, Technology, Innovation and knowledGE). The ESA PRESTIGE programme consists of 2 phases, namely:
1- Research Activity (typically 6 months): The selected universities will receive grants up to 20k€ for two student scholarships who together, with the identified university research group, shall start a research activity on the ESA-identified space-related field. The students could include this research activity as part of their Master’s or PhD thesis syllabus.
2- Phase 2: Internship Period2 (typically 6 months):
The selected students (typically 2 per university) will have the opportunity of a follow-on research activity at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC, the Netherlands) in a high-level, expert environment with support from ESA Scientists/engineers.
The deadline is 14 October 2008. For more information visit:
http://www.esa.int/esaED/SEMBTFO4KKF_index_0.html
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