1st announcement (10 Feb. 2007)
With the Patronage of:
and 
With the appreciated sponsorship of:
For immediate release
Author: Dr. Gianluca Masi
Email: gianluca@bellatrixobservatory.org
The Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory announces the organization of the "2nd Virtual Meeting on Modern Astronomy" (ViMMA) to celebrate the first 10 years of activity of its website. To register online, just check the section of interest below.
Three years after its innovative introduction, the Bellatrix Observatory launches the second edition of the Virtual Meeting on Modern Astronomy (formerly "Virtual Meeting on Amateur Astronomy"), a revolutionary idea making possible to both professional and amateur astronomers to virtually meet and discuss projects, ideas and discoveries. Thanks to modern technologies, participants will have no needs to physically meet somewhere on the globe, as all the meeting (including presentations, questions and answers) will be hosted by the Bellatrix Observatory website (www.bellatrixobservatory.org), as for the previous edition. This way, people will join at the most comfortable time and with the lowest costs, this helping less advantaged people participating to this international meeting.
In 2004 more than 150 participants, both professional and amateur astronomers, joined the first edition and the “proceedings” of that meeting are still available on the web (http://www.bellatrixobservatory.org/cvaa_en.html) and had more than 45,000 accesses since then. Many impressive projects and studies were introduced by individuals very active in the field.
This second edition, recording a change in the name of the event, comes to celebrate a very important anniversary: the first 10 years of activity of the Bellatrix Observatory website, started on 30 april 1997, when a unforgettable comet Hale-Bopp was leaving the sky after a great show. By chance, while this first circular is issued, another memorable comet is still shining out there, C/2006 P1 – McNaught. That site is now one of the oldest in Italy offering astronomical contents and very likely the private one which recorded the largest number of visitors since then: 2.5 millions of UNIQUE VISITORS, with about 15 millions of pages served in the same time span. An amazing record for a private, astronomical website in Italy!
A new version for the Observatory’s website will be presented on the opening day.
So, the Bellatrix Astronomical Observatory announces the
“2nd Virtual Meeting on Modern Astronomy”.
It will open on 14th of May and will last for two weeks. Astronomers (both professional and amateurs) are welcome to join the Meeting, as well as people having less obvious relationships with astronomy. The Meeting will be in English.
FIELDS OF INTEREST. As for the previous edition, the Meeting will offer many different sessions. Some of the areas of interest are:
- History of Astronomy;
- Professionals and Amateurs joint projects;
- Communication of Astronomy and Education;
- Visual Observations (techniques, special observations, ...);
- Technologies;
- Light Pollution;
- CCD Astronomy;
- Digital Astronomy (webcams, digicams, ...);
- Celestial Mechanics and Computation in Astronomy;
- Observing Techniques (astrometry, photometry, spectroscopy, ...);
- Data reduction;
- Astrophotography;
- Research Activities (Variable Stars, Asteroids, Novae, Supernovae, GRBs, comets, Sun, ...);
- Astronomical Software;
- Astronomical Instruments;
- Astronomical Observatories;
- Associations.
CONTRIBUTIONS. Authors wishing to send their contribution
(even multiple ones) are kindly asked to send an abstract to the Organizing
Committee (vimma@bellatrixobservatory.org)
- within 15 April 2007 – for evaluation; then, a complete version in
html of the presentation (if accepted) will be due no later than 30 April 2007.
An html template will be made available and only presentations matching the
template will be published. Authors can even send pdf and ppt files, but TOGETHER
with the html version (and the pfd/ppt files will be available from their html
page).
It is our intention to create proceedings in pdf, to be properly indexed for
ADS; the most papers will be printed on paper thanks
to the support of the Unione Astrofili Italiani (UAI).
REGISTRATION. To register, both authors and participants need to submit their application here:
http://www.bellatrixobservatory.org/ViMMA2registration.html
providing the requested data (name, surname and a valid email address are mandatory). These data will be used to prepare a list of participants (without publishing the email address). Participants will be included in a mailing list announcing all the news related to the meeting.
The forum will require a separate registration, once the service will be made available on the opening day. This to limit unwanted "noise".
Registration and participation are free of charges.
SPONSORS. Sponsors wishing to provide financial support are welcome. The Organizing Committee (vimma@bellatrixobservatory.org) is available for details.
DISCLAIMER. The Observatory is absolutely not responsible for the contents of the published contributions: the full responsibility is of the authors.
The Organizing Committee (vimma@bellatrixobservatory.org) is available for any question.
This first Circular mainly wants to introduce this new edition of the Meeting and further details will follows, as well as the presentation of the new web corner for the event.
Hoping that this meeting will be fruitful and enjoyable, I wish to you the very best.
Dr. Gianluca Masi, PhD
For the Organizing Committee
