Sreac Newsletter

issue 1

Dear colleagues,

Since the Sreac meeting in Belgrade, several space science related events have occurred or have been announced.. The aim of this issue of Sreac Newsletter is to bring them to your attention.

To start, for those of you who for some reason are not familiar with the names of the members of the Sreac Comitee,here is the list of names. They are grouped by countries.

Zoran Knezevic	Serbia	Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
Gojko Djurasevic	Serbia	Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
Tanyu Bonev	Bulgaria	Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
Renada Konstantinova-Antova	Bulgaria	Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
asile Mioc	Romania	Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
Nedelya Popescu	Romania	Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
Gordana Apostolovska	Macedonia	Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
Heleni Rovithis-Livanou	Greece	Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
John H.Seirdakis	Greece	Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
Osman Demircan	Turkey	Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
Serdar Evren	Turkey	sOva adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.
Gennady Pinigin	Ukraina	Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.

Several important administrative decisions were taken at the meeting in Belgrade:

Dr.Zoran Knezevic was elected chair,and Dr. Renada Konstantinova-Antova secretary of Sreac for the next period.

It was unanimously voted that Albania is accepted to full Sreac membership;

Albania will be represented by Dr.Mimoza Hafizi (Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli. ) from the Department of Physics of Tirana University;

The mandate of Sreac officials will be two years;

The editor of Sreac Newsletter is an associate member of SREAC. Previously nominated associated members are Dr. Magda Stavinschi from Romania (Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.) and Dr.Areg Mickaelian from Armenia (Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli. and Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli. ).

The Sreac project is supported by the Unesco Venice office. Their web site is

http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=1314&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Since the meeting in Belgrade, two interesting schools have taken place in the region. A joined report is in the follow up.

The Second practical school on spectroscopy was a continuation of the first one, held in October 2007. Both these schools are funded by UNESCO-BRESCE as a SREAC initiative for education of graduate students and PhD students from South-Eastern Europe. In addition, this year the School at Rozhen had also financial support by the Bulgarian NSF under contact DO 02-85 and the Institute of Astronomy, BAS. The increased funding allowed the number of the students to be larger. 22 students from Bulgaria, FYR of Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Romania and Russia attended the School. In 2007, only 14 students were able to participate.

The aim of the school was to give knowledge and practical skills on stellar spectroscopy and its application to different type of stars. The program included 10 lectures, 3 nights observations with the Coude-spectrograph at the 2m telescope and 4 days practical exercises with IRAF data reduction package. Lecturers and instructors were well-known professionals in spectroscopy from Bulgaria, France and Russia. The students presented the results of their work in front of a international jury and after the defense received Certificate. More information on the School one can fint at the site: www.astro.bas.bg/SPSS

The interest for attendance of these schools is big , and the number of applicants is larger than the possibilities of the school. The participants were selected by the national SREAC representatives. In general, students remained with a very good impression and would like to attend future schools at Rozhen,. They also gave some suggestions for the future: the School to last at least 10 days, or even better 2 weeks. They want to have more practice at the 2m telescope and with IRAF, too. There are also suggestions for schools on different topics to be organized at Rozhen. All these ideas should be considered by SREAC for taking decisions on the next educational initiatives and applying for funding.

After the School, all the participants were invited to take part in the OPTICON Conference "Challenges in Modern Astrophysics" in Sofia (www.astro.bas.bg/CMA). Additional participants from Greece and Bulgaria also took part there. Lecturers were advanced astronomers from EU countries and USA. The participants obtained knowledge on world class equipment and modern topics in astronomy.

We believe that in 2010 the SREAC and UNESCO initiative will bring new exiting educational occasions to the young students and professionals in the SEE region.

Two meetings, nominally in physics, but with interest to some researchers in astronomy are being planned for this year. These are:

1. 20 ESCAMPIG - European Conference on Atomic and Molecular Physics of Ionized gases, Novi Sad (Serbia), July 13.-17.,2010. The meeting is organized by the Institute of Physics, Belgrade, and details are given on the following address:

http://www.escampig2010.ipb.ac.rs/

2. 25 SPIG - 25 Summer School and International Symposium on the Physics of Ionized Gases, http://webhost.rcub.bg.ac.rs/~spig2010/

It will take place in Donji Milanovac,Serbia, August 30 - September 3,2010. It is organized by the Faculty of Physics,University of Belgrade. Details are available on the web site.

A interesting school for young astronomers will also take place in 2010:

1. International School for Young Astronomers (ISYA-2010), September 12.- October 2,2010. The school will take place in Byurakan (Armenia).

The main organizer is Prof.Areg Mickaelian (Ova adresa el. pošte je zaštićena od spambotova. Omogućite JavaScript da biste je videli.) and the school web

site is at: http://www.aras.am/SS2010/ss_index.htm

Postponement of a meeting

A Workshop which was scheduled for November 16.-19. in Nikolaev (Ukraine) had to be postponed because of the flu pandemic. According to information from the organizers,it will take place in the spring of 2010,probably in May. For more information contact G.Pinigin.

An eclipse of the Moon:

If you happen to be under clear sky in the evening of December 31,take a look at the lunar eclipse. More details are given on the figure:

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OHfigures/OH2009-Fig08.pdf

Happy and positive in all aspects 2010, ..

Clear skies and speedy computers to all,