Bart De Pontieu
EUROSOM 2 is the second edition of the EUROpean Satellite Observers Meeting. It is organized by the Belgian Working Group Satellites (BWGS). The first edition was held in October 1994, in Hasselt, Belgium.
This is the second progress report. Not many changes this month. The Local Organizing committee had a meeting in Belgium last month. Preparations are going ahead smoothly. Articles for various astronomical (english, american, french, belgian, dutch, german, swiss, italian) magazines have been readied and submitted. Please refer to the First Progress Report in the previous issue of Flash for more details. A registration form is added to this issue of Flash. Don't hesitate to contact us for more details. Eurosom 2 also has a Home Page on WWW at http://www.rzg.mpg.de/ bdp/eurosom.html
Don't forget to register, the registration deadline - September 15 - is getting nearer.
We convene during the weekend of October 19 and 20, 1996. On Saturday we convene from 9h30 in the morning until 18h in the evening, with a lunch break and various coffee breaks. On Sunday morning we reconvene at 9h30. Eurosom 2 ends at 17h on Sunday afternoon.
Eurosom 2 will be held in Belgium, in the city of Ghent. We found a nice hotel situated in the historical center of Ghent. The medieval city of Ghent offers great sight-seeing spots as the Castle of the Counts and the gothic St. Baafs Cathedral.
We intend to publish the Eurosom 2 proceedings in the first few months of 1997.
Preliminary program
A very preliminary program schedule has been proposed. It is subject to changes:
Saturday 9h30- 9h40 Introduction by Jan Vansteelandt 9h40-10h30 Mike McCants 10h30-11h00 coffee break 11h00-12h00 Kurt Jonckheere 13h30-15h15 Paul Maley 15h15-15h45 coffee break 15h45-17h00 Bart De Pontieu 17h00-17h30 video of TSS-1R and sounding rocket flight of Canadian Space Agency 17h30-18h30 Mike McCants Sunday 9h30-10h30 Jay Respler 10h30-11h00 coffee break 11h00-12h00 Eric Laffont & Alain Grycan 13h30-15h00 Bj\"orn Gimle 15h00-15h30 coffee break 15h30-16h15 Paul Maley 16h15-16h35 Jacques Steyaert 16h35-17h00 Bart De Pontieu
Jacques Steyaert works at the Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. He will present a contributed talk about (Un)successful attempt to use university mirror for satellite observations. The abstract of his talk is:
Observational astronomy is not part of our regular curriculum here at the university. So in principle there is no money, no devices or people dedicated to that. From obsolete spectrographs, our physics department has two spherical mirrors : one 70 cm and one 40 cm. Parabolizing the biggest one would cost 8000 US dollar. One could think of deconvolving by computer the CCD image to correct for the spherical aberration.
In an azimutal mounting, one could search for slow moving satellites (Russian Molnya ?) or geostationary satellites. Low altitude ones (90 min) have an angular velocity probably incompatible with the moment of inertia of heavy mirror plus tube.
Positioning/following on demand through Internet is thinkable, like Mount Wilson in astronomy.
Setting up the telescope on a truck is another possibility to observe the total solar eclipse of 11 August 1999 on the line Channel-Metz-Strasbourg-Stuttgart-Turkey and redo the Eddington observation of 1919 confirming General Relativity.
More details of the program next time.
How do I register ?
Fill in the registration form for you and all accompanying persons and pay 400 BEF before September 15, 1996.
How do I pay ?
All participants should pay the registration fee of 400 BEF (Belgian Francs) before before September 15, 1996. It includes general organizational costs and the proceedings (which you will receive a few months after the meeting). Accompanying people do not need to pay the registration fee. The registration fee can not be paid back to you in case you eventually can't attend Eurosom 2. The costs for food and lodging (see registration form) can be paid at the meeting itself, but only in BEF.
Method of payment depends on where you live:
Belgians pay to our postal account 000-1600453-50, WG Kunstmanen, Stuiverstraat 558, B-8400 Oostende.
Germans pay to Bart De Pontieu's German Konto (in DEM): Konto 30732 01620, BLZ 250 206 00, DSK Bank.
Americans pay by sending a check (in US dollars) to Mike McCants, 5105 Crestway Drive, Austin, TX 78731, USA.
All others pay by International Postal Money Order or Eurocheque to Jean De Weerdt, Dr. Van Oyelaan 5, B-8470 Gistel, Belgium.
Please use the following exchange rates if you're paying in DEM or USD: 1 DEM = 20 BEF, 1 USD = 29 BEF.
Thanks to our generous sponsors:
The Vereniging voor Sterrenkunde (Belgian Astronomical Society) and the Dutch Working Group Satellites.