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

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.

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)

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.

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)

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

• 
  Bursts, Pulses and Flickering: Wide-field monitoring of the dynamic radio sky
  
  Kerastari, 12 – 15 June 2007
• Community of European Solar Radio Astronomers (CESRA) Workshop
  
  “Solar Radio Physics and the Flare-CME Relationship”
  
  Ioannina, June 12-16, 2006
• 3rd Coronal Loops Workshop
  
  Santorini Island, 18 – 21 June 2007
• Extreme solar Systems
  
  Santorini Island, 24 – 29 June 2007
• X-ray Surveys: Evolution of Accretion,
  Star-formation and Large Scale Structure
  
  Rhodes Island, 2 – 6 July 2007
• 8th Hellenic Astronomical Conference
  
  Thasos Island, 13 – 15 September 2007
• Chaos in Astronomy
  
  Athens, 17 – 20 September 2007
• Solar Extreme Events 2007 International Symposium:
  Funtamental Science and Applied Aspects
  
  Athens, 24 – 27 September 2007
• 5th Conference of Greek Amateur Astronomers
  
  Patras, 5-7 October 2007

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.