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HELLENIC ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER
NUMBER 76 June 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. The 8th of June Transit of Venus
3. Agenda of the 20th General Assembly of Hel.A.S.
4. OPTICON funding for Greek astronomers
5. EARA doctoral fellowships
6. VLBI Call for proposals
7. Upcoming Astronomy meetings in Greece
8. About this newsletter.
1. SHORT NEWS
-------------
We would like to congratulate Prof. Vicky Kalogera (Northwestern Univ.,
USA) who has been awarded a Cottrell Scholar Award (one of 11 granted this
year) by the Research Corporation. The Cottrell Awards are designed for
young faculty members in Ph.D.-granting astronomy, chemistry, and physics
Departments in US and Canadian Universities. The purpose of these awards
is to "enable recipients to implement their plans to become outstanding
scientists and educators as well as tomorrow's academic and scientific leaders."
We would like to congratulate Dr. Nikos Prantzos (Institut
d'Astrophysique de Paris, France) who was recently promoted to
"Directeur de Research 2" of CNRS.
We congradulate the Treasurer of HelAS, Dr Efstratios Theodossiou who
was recently promoted to Associate Professor at the Dept. of Physics of the
University of Athens.
We congradulate Emilios Harlaftis who was recently promoted to Senior
Researcher (Researcher B) at the ISARS of NOA and is now (April-June 2004)
a visiting scientist at the Department of Astronomy, University of Berkeley.
We would also like to congratulate Drs Emmanuel T. Sarris and Olga E.
Malandraki, because their publication entitled "Dependence of the decay
phase of solar energetic electron events on the large-scale IMF structure:
ACE observations" Geophys. Res. Lett., 30, 21, 2079, doi:10.1029/2003GL017921,
2003, has been selected by the Editors for its contribution to Science
as an "AGU Journal Highlight".
We congradulate the Plasma Astrophysics group of the University of Athens
for their European Marie Curie Research Training Network "Jet Simulations,
Experiments and Theories", which was among the 7 successful physics proposals,
out of 116 submissions in the current 6th Framework Frame of the EU.
We would also like to congratulate Dr. Charalambos Skokos (Academy of
Athens) for being recently elected in the Governing Council of the
Hellenic Physicists Association.
2. THE 8th OF JUNE TRANSIT OF VENUS
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The transit of Venus on June 8th, 2004, (8:20-14:24 Greek DST) will be
observed with several events taking place in the following places in Greece :
(i) Athens/Gerostathopouleio Observatory of the National and Kapodistrian
University of Athens.
There will be a public viewing through a videocamera and at the
same time a recording of the event through the CCD camera of the
observatory and dissemination of the CCD images in the Internet
through the ESO VT-2004 project. In addition, Dr. Vassilios N.
Manimanis will give a popularized lecture on the subject during
the event (at 12:15 DST) in the control room of the Observatory.
(ii)In Thessaloniki a series of activities are planned in :
(a) June 4, 2004, 23:00: J.M. Pasachoff's live interview at ET3
TV-channel,
(b) June 7, 2004, 20:00: J.M. Pasachoff's lecture about the event
at the Ceremony Hall of the Old Building of the Faculty of
Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,
(c) June 8, 2004, 08:20 - 17:00: Observation of the Transit of
Venus and other activities at the Observatory of the University
and at the new Science Centre at Thermi, Thessaloniki.
For further details please visit
http://www.astro.auth.gr/venus.html & http://www.ofa.gr/venus2004.html
(iii)In Corfu: Lectures will be given about the event, observation of
the event at the Central Park, sale of memorabilia, etc. Please check:
http://www.geocities.com/astrocorfu/diavasiafroditisfront.htm
Also, from the ESO EPR Dept, we were given the following related information.
The international VT-2004 public educational programme is entering the
final phase and many public events are being announced by the VT-2004
National Nodes and Network Members. There will be a Guide to Enjoy the
Transit, a new TV Film, Activities at the VT-2004 National Nodes, the VT-2004
Observing Campaign and a comprehensive CD-ROM with more than 10,000 fascimile
pages of related historical documents and images.
The full text of VT-2004 Press Communication 04 (May 21, 2004), with
one photo and all weblinks, is available at:
http://www.vt-2004.org/Media/vt-comm-04.html
3. AGENDA OF THE 20TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF HEL.A.S.
--------------------------------------------------
As most of us are already aware, the next General Assembly of the
Hellenic Astronomical Society will take place on Monday, June 21st
2004m at 9:30am at the University of Athens.
The main topic of the agenda is the election of the Governing
Council of Hel.A.S. for 2004-2006. The details of the agenda items
are available at:
http://www.astro.auth.gr/elaset/events/elections_2004.pdf
By now all members must have received the ballots of the upcoming
election along with instructions. If you have not yet received the
ballots please check the online directory of Hel.A.S. to confirm
that the address listed there is your up to date. Note that
according to articles 33 and 34 of the Constitution of the Society in
order for a member to be able to vote he/she should not have any
outstanding membership fees.
4. OPTICON FUNDING FOR GREEK ASTRONOMERS
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As we mention in the previous electronic newsletter, the OPTICON
program provides funding to Greek astronomers who wish to cover the
cost of observing programs using telescopes participating in the
OPTICON network. For more information you may visit:
http://www.otri.iac.es/opticon/
and in particular the links to "Travel and subsistence grands" and
"Criteria of eligibility".
We just learned that Dr. Manolis Plionis (NOA) was among the first Greek
astronomers whose proposal entitled "Multi-Color Wide-Field Imaging of
Distant X-ray Clusters" was accepted for observation with the camera
MEGA-PRIME (CCD-array with 40 2Kx4K chips) of the 3.6m CFHT.
These observations are performed with a Queued Service Observing (QSO)
run by specialised personnel and the data are sent to the PI's via the
Data Archiving & Distribution System.
5. EARA DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS
----------------------------
The European Association for Research in Astronomy (EARA) has
been designated by the EU as a joint Marie Curie Training Site
within the 6th Framework Programme for Research and Development.
It is offering 3-years doctoral fellowships (starting in Sept. 2004)
in three of the five EARA institutes:
* the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (1 fellowship)
* the Sterrewacht Leiden of Leiden University (3 fellowships)
* the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (2 or 3 fellowships)
Candidates need to have the equivalent of a Masters degree.
Applications should include a curriculum vitae, a brief statement
of research experience (if any), and the names of two people who
can serve as a reference. The deadline for application is June 28, 2004.
For more Information on the proposed PhD projects see the EARA web page
(http://www2.iap.fr/eara/mcurie.html) or contact Dr. Robert Mochkovitch
(mochko@iap.fr).
6. VLBI CALL FOR PROPOSALS
--------------------------
Observing proposals are invited for the EVN, a VLBI network of radio
telescopes spread throughout Europe and beyond, operated by an
international Consortium of institutes (http://www.evlbi.org/).
The deadline is 1 June 2004
The full text is available on the web at:
http://www.obs.u-bordeaux1.fr/vlbi/EVN/call.html
7. UPCOMING ASTRONOMY MEETINGS IN GREECE
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The following meetings will take place in Greece in the coming
months. Please check the corresponding web pages or contact the
organizers by e-mail for more information.
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International Conference & Summer School
"Complexity in Science and Society"
Patras, 14-20 July
More information at:
http://www.math.upatras.gr/~crans/complexity/
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''The Environments of Galaxies:from Kiloparsecs to Megaparsecs"
Chania, Crete 9-13 August 2004
More information at:
http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/conferences/crete2004/
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8. ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
-------------------------
This Newsletter was edited by Vassilis Charmandaris and Kanaris
Tsinganos. It was forwarded to the 228, out of the 253, members of
Hel.A.S. who have e-mail access.
The next edition of the Newsletter will be mailed around July 1st
2004. Please send your announcements (e.g. appointments/departures,
job openings, research opportunities, awards, conferences in Greece)
or comments before June 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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