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HELLENIC ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER
NUMBER 80 October 2004
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E-mail: elaset@astro.auth.gr WWW: http://www.astro.auth.gr/elaset
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TOPICS:
1. Short News
2. Job opening
3. Technical "first light" for Aristarchos on Mt Helmos
4. English-Greek Dictionary of Astronomical terms
5. Year-book of Greek astronomers 2005
6. Grand Challenge Problems in Computational Astrophysics
7. Vatican Observatory 2005 Summer School
8. The ESO "Catch a star!" project
9. About this newsletter
1. SHORT NEWS
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Professor John Hadjidemetriou, one of the founders of Hel.A.S.,
a member of its first Council and a University teacher of many
members of the Hel.A.S., including members of the present council,
has retired from the University of Thessaloniki. He received his
PhD from the University of Manchester and became a Professor at the
University of Thessaloniki in 1970.
Professor Hadjidemetriou is a prominent figure in the field of Dynamics
in Greece and abroad. He chaired the "Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical
Astronomy" Commission of the IAU between 2000-2003 and he is Associate
Editor of the international journal "Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical
Astronomy" since 1993. He has written a large number of scientific
articles, he has participated in a large number of conferences and his
students will remember his superb educational abilities. We are sure
that the Greek astronomical community will benefit from his ideas and
work for many years to come.
Dr. Olga Malandraki has received a travel award by (a) the American
Geophysical Union (AGU) to participate to the AGU Chapman Conference
on "Solar Energetic Plasmas and Particles" in Turku, Finland (2-6 August,
2004) and (b) by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to
participate at the IAU Symposium 226 on "Coronal and Stellar Mass
Ejections" in Beijing, China (13-17 September, 2004).
2. JOB OPENING
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An Associate Professor position in the field of "Space Electrodynamics"
has opened at the Section of Telecommunications and Space Science of
the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of Democritus
University of Thrace. The application deadline is October 31, 2004.
For more information you may contact the Secretariat of the department
at +30-25410-79018 and +30-25410-79035.
3. TECHNICAL "FIRST LIGHT" FOR ARISTARCHOS ON MOUNT HELMOS
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The first star images with ARISTARCHOS were taken on the 15th of
September 2004. They are the picture of alpha Aql (Altair, approx. 1st
magnitude) and the Dumbbell nebula M27 with a white dwarf in the middle.
You may see them, along with the project milestones in the sites:
http://www.zeiss.de/astro, http://www.astro.noa.gr/ASC_2.3m/ngt_main.htm
Further planned activities include implementation of the pointing model
and refraction control and the correct alignment of the azimuth and
focus control.
4. ENGLISH - GREEK DICTIONARY OF ASTRONOMICAL TERMS (E-G DAT)
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Hel.A.S. is starting a new project concerning the correct translation
of scientific terms in Astronomy and related fields which are useful to
the scientific community in Greece. The President of Hel.A.S. Prof. P.
Laskarides notes that "as an examiner on numerous M.Sc. and Ph.D. theses
I have witnessed the difficulty that many graduate students have with the
correct translation of the English terms. In most cases their own
supervisors didn’t bother or they had not puzzled themselves in trying to
find the proper Greek word for some very common English term and they use
directly the English term in their papers and in their oral presentations.
But the graduate students have the problem, since they have to write their
theses in Greek".
The E-G DAT is consisting of two parts. The first part is the chat page,
which you can find in the HelAS page at the Internet. The second part is the
living dictionary, which will be posted later in the same page, when enough
terms are gathered to justify it. You can reach the first part at :
http://www.astro.auth.gr/elaset/greekdict/
Call it and ask your question or suggest your translation in the previous
questions. All contributions will be referred in the main dictionary.
This will be a long term program and we ask your help for its success.
5. YEAR BOOK OF GREEK ASTRONOMERS 2005
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HelAS is attempting a new edition of the Year Book (Epetirida) of Greek
Ph.D’s in Astronomy and related fields, living in Greece or abroad.
The first edition was published by the National Committee for Astronomy
back in 1992 and it has proven very useful. In this new edition we shall
try to include as many scientists as possible (of course not only the
members of HelAS) and their whereabouts. You can find the questionnaire in
http://www.astro.auth.gr/elaset/forms/STENCIL_2005.doc
and you have to complete as many boxes as you want, but we shall definitely
want to have the present occupation and present job address and e-mail.
A recent photograph will be desirable. Please, return the questionnaire
by e-mail to plaskar@phys.uoa.gr with the subject Epetirida or Year Book,
(to make sure that it is not a spam).
6. GRAND CHALLENGE PROBLEMS IN COMPUTATIONAL ASTROPHYSICS
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The Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics at the Univ. of
California at Los Angeles (UCLA) will be sponsoring a program
entitled "Grand Challenge Problems in Computational Astrophysics."
The duration of the whole program is from March 7 to June 10 2005
and it consists of tutorials, numerous seminars, and four major
workshops:
- Tutorials: March 8-11, 2005
a. Astrophysical Fluid Dynamics: April 4-9, 2005
b. N-Body Problems in Astrophysics: April 18-22, 2005
c. Relativistic Astrophysics: May 2-6, 2005
d. Transfer Phenomena: May 16-22, 2005
Full and partial support for long-term participants is available.
Support for individual workshops will also be available, and may be
applied for through the online application for each workshop.
Funding for participants is available at all academic levels, though
recent PhD's, graduate students, and researchers in the early stages
of their career are especially encouraged to apply. For more
information visit:
http://www.ipam.ucla.edu/programs/pca2005/
7. VATICAN OBSERVATORY 2005 SUMMER SCHOOL
-----------------------------------------
The Vatican Observatory has announced the 2005 Summer School in
Observational Astronomy and Astrophysics which will take place from
12 June to 8 July 2005, at Castel Gandolfo, in Rome, Italy. This
years theme is "Astrobiology: The Search for our Origins and Life
Elsewhere". Two lectures will be given each morning, with evening
seminars by the Vatican staff and visiting astronomers. During the
course of the school, students will also present a short paper on
their research or the research of their home institution. Other
activities will include laboratory exercises, use of the Observatory
computers for data reduction and image processing, and use of
astronomical databases.
There will also be opportunities for observations with on-site 40
cm refractor and 60 cm reflector telescopes. Field trips to visit
sites of historical interest to astronomy will be included. In
addition to the principal topics presented by the invited faculty,
students will have the opportunity to discuss their own research
with members of the faculty and with the observatory staff. No
formal course credits will be given, but a certification of
satisfactory completion of the course will be supplied.
The deadline for application is 15 December 2004 and financial
assistance is available. For more information visit:
http://clavius.as.arizona.edu/vo/R1024/VOSS2005.html
8. THE ESO "CATCH A STAR!" PROJECT
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A project entitled "Catch a star!" conceived to stimulate the
interest of young people in various aspects of science, is sponsored
for a third year by the European Space Observatory. Groups of up to
three students and one teacher may collect information about a
specific object from different sources and write a report about
it. A number of prizes will be offered by ESO to the best
reports. The deadlines for registration is December 10, 2004 and for
delivery of the report is January 10, 2005. For more information
visit:
http://www.eso.org/outreach/eduoff/edu-prog/catchastar/
9. ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
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This Newsletter was edited by Vassilis Charmandaris and Kanaris
Tsinganos. It was forwarded to the 240, out of the 259, members of
Hel.A.S. who have e-mail access.
The next edition of the Newsletter will be mailed around November 1st
2004. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures,
job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece)
or comments before October 25, 2004. All correspondence concerning the
Newsletter should be addressed to:
tsingan@phys.uoa.gr
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
let us know.
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