Asteroid Radar Wizard Steven Ostro is coming!
As the guest of honor and keynote speaker of the
in Violau, Germany (Bavaria), February 13 - 16, 1997
For more than a dozen years we, the Arbeitskreis Planetenbeobachter (Working Group of Planetary Observers of Germany), have been arranging annual meetings which bring together more than a hundred planetary and cometary observers from German-speaking countries. The venue has always been the famous Bruder-Klaus-Heim in the Bavarian village of Violau, honored in 1988 by the naming of minor planet 3559 (Violaumayer). In addition to these meetings we have also arranged two international conferences, MEPCO '92 and MEPCO '95, which brought together active observers from a dozen countries for fruitful discussions.
Now we are happy to invite you to the third "MEPCO"! Once more we will meet in the inspiring environment of excellent conference facilities, on-site accomodation and full catering - and a public observatory larger than ever. Topics deserving special attention this time should be the apparitions of the comets Hyakutake, Tabur and Hale-Bopp as well as the need to monitor the planets Mars and Jupiter in connection with the ongoing space missions. "Meta-topics" of importance could be the organization of data networks and advances in electronic imaging. Of course, talks and posters on all planetary system aspects are welcome.
A special treat awaiting MEPCO '97 participants is a major lecture by Dr Steven Ostro from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the world's foremost imager of near-earth asteroids. Not only has he succeeded in getting strong radar echos from a growing number of these objects - he is also transforming the data into detailled 3D models and stunning computer animations. Welcome to the 21st century!
The official language will again be English.
And the conference fee is still only DEM 250.- which includes
