Joint European and National Astronomical Meeting for 1998

J E N A M - 9 8

7th European and Annual Czech Astronomical Society Conference 9 - 12 September 1998, Prague, Czech Republic

PROSPECTS OF ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM

First Announcement

The 7th meeting of the European Astronomical Society (EAS) will be held in Prague, Czech Republic, jointly with the annual conference of the Czech Astronomical Society (CAS). This will be the fourth time the EAS meets jointly with one of its affiliated societies. The Conference will cover selected fields of astronomy and astrophysics and is open to all astronomers who would like to interact and exchange their scientific expertise with their European colleagues. Rapid progress in astronomy and the active role European astronomers played in the process guarantee that important results will be presented in Prague, a city with a rich astronomical history going back to the middle of XIVth century, when the oldest central European university was established there. Incidentally, Charles University of Prague is celebrating its 650th anniversary in 1998. At the beginning of 1998 Czech astronomers will remember the centenary of their prime astronomical facility, Ondrejov Observatory (located 40 km south-east of Prague). Thus, the forthcoming JENAM 98 is perfectly timed to commemorate these events.

1. Main Scientific Objectives

Solar Physics
Small Bodies in the Solar System
Extra Solar-System Planets
Astrophysics of Interacting Binaries
Star Clusters and Galaxies
High-Energy Astrophysics
Relativistic Astrophysics and Cosmology

These are the main topics that will be addressed in plenary invited reviews and discussed in parallel sessions. Co-chairmen of each parallel topic will be named soon and their contact addresses will be announced in due time. Potential invited speakers will be approached by the Scientific Organising Committee (SOC) in the near future, too. As usual, poster presentations will become an important part of the Conference and instructions will be given to all participants in the second announcement.

The SOC also deliberates on the inclusion of joint (panel) discussions covering selected subjects: Instrumentation, History of Astronomy (including a half-day excursion "Praga Astronomica" on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 12), Teaching in Astronomy, Young Astronomers & Jobs, Very Large Projects.

Two associated meetings are also planned for the days preceding and following the main Conference dates: On Tuesday, September 8, 1998 the all-day workshop entitled

SOLAR ECLIPSE 1999 WORKSHOP

will be held in Prague at the same place as the JENAM 98 Conference (see the attached separate announcement of the Workshop Organising Committee).

On Sunday, September 13, 1998 a plenary meeting of the Czech Astronomical Society (CAS), founded in 1917, will be organised in the Planetarium of Praha where the summary of the JENAM-98 proceedings will be given by the Czech participants in the SOC to members of the Society. In the course of this plenary meeting the Z. Kviz Award of the CAS will be handed over to the awardee who will then deliver his/her address. The award is given every second year to a person selected by a jury for his/her outstanding results in the fields covered by the late Dr. Zdenek Kviz (1932-1993): interplanetary matter, variable star research, popularization of astronomy.

2. Scientific Organising Committee

J. Bicak (Czech Republic), S. Beckwith (Germany), A. M. Cherepashchuk (Russia), M. Fulchignoni (France), J. Grygar (Czech Republic), P. Heinzel (Czech Republic), M. Huber (ESA-ESTEC), M. Longair (United Kingdom), J. Palous (Czech Republic, Co-chairman), J. P. Zahn (France, Co-chairman).

3. Local Organising Committee - LOC

J. Borovicka, L. Cervinka (ICARIS Ltd), J. Grygar(Chairman), P. Hadrava, P. Heinzel, J. Palous (Co-chairman), R. Placek, M. Solc, J. Vondrak, M. Wolf.

Secretary: Z. Dienstbierova

Contact address:

JENAM-98, Z. Dienstbierova
Astronomical Institute
Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Bocni II 1401
141 31 Prague 4 - Sporilov, Czech Republic Tel. +420.2.67103038
FAX: +420.2.769023
E-mail: zuzana@ig.cas.cz
http://sunkl.asu.cas.cz/jenam98
http://astro.mff.cuni.cz/jenam98
http://www.iap.fr/eas/

4. Agenda

The scientific parallel sessions will be spread over approximately 10 morning or afternoon intervals, each lasting about two hours. Each subject will be organised and chaired by two-to-three conveners. They will referee and accept the contributed papers and might also negotiate the separate publication of the full proceedings of their sessions. The SOC of JENAM-98 will prepare the special booklet with the abstracts of the contributed and review papers, prior to the Conference. However, the SOC does not intend to publish any proceedings of the Conference afterwards.

5. Conference Location

The Conference will be held in the building of the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Czech Technical University (CVUT) in Praha 6-Dejvice, in a walking distance from the terminal Dejvicka (Victory Circle) of the subway line A. The area of the Conference can be reached easily from the Prague international airport (in about 20 minutes by rather cheap and reliable public transport and in about 15 minutes by rather expensive taxi-cabs), from all Prague main railway stations (adjacent to subway lines) and also by car. Everybody knows where the circular passage on Victoria Circle (Vitezne namesti in Czech) in Dejvice is and from that place you will easily spot the campus of the Technical University with several big parking lots. It is not very useful to use a car in downtown congested traffic but with subway line A you can easily reach the very center of the town from the station Dejvicka in 10 minutes. The weather in the first half of September in Prague is mostly stable with plenty of sunshine, light winds and very little rain. You may expect maximum afternoon temperatures around 25^oC while at night they occasionally drop to 15^oC. Unfortunately, the conference halls are not air-conditioned.

6. Arrival and Departure

Prague international airport has daily connections with almost all European capitals and many other major cities. There are also direct flights from some overseas destinations. Prague is connected by Intercity and Eurocity trains with Germany, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, France, Benelux and Scandinavian countries. There are also many direct international bus lines to all neighbour and many more distant European countries with rather cheap reservation return tickets. These lines operate, however, only in certain days of week, mostly around weekends. However, you can reach Prague in about 16 to 20 hours even from such distances as London, Madrid and Rome. The LOC will help you in identifying these possibilities upon request. Prague has a very good, dense and reliable system of public transportation (buses, tramways, subway) and the time-tables are observed with astonishing accuracy. You can purchase rather inexpensive personal tickets for unlimited use in one, two or even seven days in major terminals of the subway and many other places. Thus, with minor exception (excursion to the Ondrejov Observatory of the Astronomical Institute, social programme) no special transport for the JENAM-98 participants is envisaged.

7. Cultural Events

Cultural life in Prague is very diverse and almost everybody has his own list of preferences what to see or attend before or after the official conference programme (we hope that people will not prefer to attend cultural events instead of the conference programme!). It is without saying that the LOC together with ICARIS Conference Management will be helping you in finding your way through the rich spectrum of attractive offers.

8. Accommodation and Board

Accommodation in all price and comfort categories is not a problem as long as you send your Hotel Reservation Form early enough. This form will be distributed with the Second announcement in February 1998. Please, mark your preliminary interest in hotel category in the Pre-registration form. The most economic accommodation in student hostels will be provided in the Technical University campus. Bear in mind that Prague has become a tourist center of attraction and September is still a high tourist season. This might cause a problem when finding places in restaurants for private dinners etc. (reservations are recommended). However, during JENAM-98 lunches in student cafeteria very near the Faculty of Construction can be bought by conference participants.

9. Financial Assistance

At the moment we are seeking for local support for the Conference that most probably will help us subsidize hostel accommodation for student participants. Regretfully, we shall have no means to reimburse travel expenses, hotel accommodation or registration fees. The Czech Astronomical Society will partly support its active members and we hope that other European Societies will follow a similar approach.

The current rate of exchange is 1 US $ = approx. 34 Czech crowns.

10. Pre-registration

We strongly encourage completing and sending back to ICARIS Conference Management the Pre-registration form included in this announcement before 31st December 1997. This will help us in proper organisation of the meeting. Information about the registration fees is given below. Method of payment will be described in the Second Announcement, which will be distributed before February 28, 1998.

	Early Payment (until May 15, 1998) (US$)	Late Payment (after May 15, 1998) (US$)
General registration	120.-	140.-
E.A.S. Ordinary Member	100.-	110.-
E.A.S. Junior Member	50.-	60.-
PhD Students (no E.A.S. Members)	80.-	100.-
Accompanying Person	40.-	50.-

(Pre-registration and Paper Contribution forms are included in the LaTeX and PostScript files).

SOLAR ECLIPSE 1999 WORKSHOP ASSOCIATED WITH JENAM - 98 Prague, The Czech Republic September 8, 1998

A one-day workshop dealing with the solar eclipse of 1999 will be organised during the JENAM-98 conference. The main topics of the Workshop will be theoretical and observational problems in solar corona research, especially during the August 11, 1999 eclipse. Observers and theorists will come together to examine what has been learned from earlier observations, to prepare common and/or coordinated observations in the forthcoming eclipse to solve problems in solar corona research.

Invited reviews and oral/poster papers will be presented during the Workshop, which will be held at the same facility (Prague Technical University Campus) as the JENAM-98 conference. JENAM-98 conference fee covers also expenses associated to this workshop. Scientists interested in attending the workshop are encouraged to contact one of the responsible persons (as follows) as soon as possible and simultaneously mark your interest in the preliminary registration form.

V. Rusin vrusin@ta3.sk
E. Markova markovae@mbox.vol.cz
P. Kotrc pkotrc@asu.cas.cz