*** IAU Division D Bulletin N. 11: October 1st, 2016 ***

 

INDEX:

* The Bulgarian Astronomical Journal

* Sgr A* monitoring in 2017 July

* Stay tuned with Athena

* Special issue of the Journal of Plasma Physics

* Report on the XVI Gamow Conference

* Letters of Intent for IAU Scientific Meetings in 2018

* Upcoming Meetings

 

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* The Bulgarian Astronomical Journal

The Bulgarian Astronomical Journal, that has been included in SCOPUS, now has
got its first Scientific Journal Ranking (SJR) of 0.111. The Bulgarian Astronomical Journal publishes scientific articles in all fields of astronomy, astrophysics and interdisciplinary domains.  Papers are rigorously refereed; accepted papers are linked to the ADS database, SCOPUS and Elsevier.  There are no page charges; online and printed versions are available; free online access is available at http://www.astro.bas.bg/AIJ/ .

 

*  Sgr A* monitoring in 2017 July

After our successful campaigns in 2016, the Spitzer Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory have allocated time in 2017 July for simultaneous monitoring of Sgr A*, the variable source at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.  The plan is to have two campaigns lasting 24 hours each.  We invite others interested in monitoring Sgr A* to consider scheduling observations during the Spitzer/Chandra monitoring in order to enhance the value of all data sets.  Further details are at https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/irac/gc/

 

 

* Stay tuned with Athena (Advanced Telescope for High ENergy Astrophysics)

The community in support of ESA's Athena X-ray observatory mission is pleased to announce that its revamped web site is on-line at http://www.the-athena-x-ray-observatory.eu/. There you can find all relevant information about the science case, mission developments, activities, community organisation, resources, outreach, news and much more.   To stay updated with the Athena developments, you can follow us on twitter (https://twitter.com/athena2028?lang=en) and Facebook  (https://www.facebook.com/athena.xray.observatory ).   These resources are maintained by the Athena Community Office, on behalf of ESA's Athena Science Study Team.

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* Special Issue of the Journal of Plasma Physics

A Special Collection (the online version of  a special issue) of the Journal of Plasma Physics, on the topic of the Plasma Physics of Gamma  Ray Emission from Pulsars and their Nebulae, can be found here:

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-plasma-physics/collections/plasma-physics-of-gamma-ray-emission-from-pulsars-and-their-nebulae

The invited papers in this special collection address a wide range of the issues and

results so far studied and obtained in characterizing these accelerators and their plasma environments. The collection include essays on the observational underpinning of the subject - some of the \observational" studies are themselves plasma physics research problems, required to interpret the data in a quantitative manner. Others are theory and simulation of the underlying physical processes, mixed with theoretical modeling of the systems – this mixture of micro- and macro-physics is characteristic of the field.

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* Report on the XVI Gamow Conference

The XVI Gamow Conference- School “Astronomy and beyond: Astrophysics, Cosmology, Сosmomicrophysics, Astroparticle Physics, Radioastronomy and Astrobiology” were held during 14-21 August in Odessa, Ukraine. The topics of the conference-school were: cosmology, gravity, particle physics, astrophysics, radioastronomy, astroinformatics, solar activity and solar-¬earth interaction, solar system, astrobiology.  There were 110 participants from 9 countries (Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Portugal). The detailed information about this event can be found in the conference web page: http://gamow.odessa.ua/

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* Letters of intent for IAU Scientific meetings in 2018

As you know the IAU General Assembly will take place in August 2018 in Vienna, Austria.  It is very stimulating that 84 Letters of Intent to propose IAU scientific meetings in 2018 were received so far: 38 LoI's for Focus Meetings, 36 LoI's for Symposia to take place during the General Assembly and 10 LoI’s for Symposia outside the General Assembly.

You can access this information at the IAU website http://www.iau.org/science/meetings/proposals/loi/2018/

The objective of publishing this list is to inform prospective proposers of other existing plans for IAU meeting proposals, avoiding unnecessary competition between proposals and trying to stimulate possible collaborations between otherwise competing groups.

Letters of Intent are normally followed by full proposals to be submitted to IAU before December 15th 2016.  If you are considering organizing a meeting you should also read the Rules and Guidelines for IAU scientific meetings

http://www.iau.org/science/meetings/rules/

and may find it useful to start with section 5 "Step by Step summary for the proposal of IAU Meetings” of that document.

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* Upcoming Conferences, Meetings, Workshops and Schools

ADASS Data analysis conference

October 21-23 2016

Trieste, Italy

http://www.adass2016.inaf.it/

This meeting will include a special session on updates to the FITS standard and the formation of the new Data Representation Working Group (a Working Group under Commission B2 that will eventually supersede and absorb the FITS Working Group).  For more information contact Lucio Chiappetti, lucio@lambrate.inaf.it

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Exploring the X-ray Transient and variable Sky

November 21-23, 2016
Pavia, Italy

Frontiers in Theoretical and Applied Physics

February 22-25 2017

American University of Sharjah, UAE

https://www.aus.edu/info/200227/conferences/586/ftaps_2017/3

 

The conference will include a theme on stellar clusters/populations.

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If you wish to share with IAU Div D any information about matters that may be relevant to the activities of Div D Members, please send an e-mail to A.L.Watts@uva.nl by *** December 22nd, 2016 ***. This will appear in the next Bulletin issue, due to be sent out on or just before January 1st, 2017. Thank you in advance for your inputs, and best regards.

 

Anna Watts
Secretary of IAU Div D Steering Committee
Associate Professor, University of Amsterdam
A.L.Watts@uva.nl
http://staff.fnwi.uva.nl/a.l.watts/