International Meteor Organization - Announcements

IMC 2008 Registration Open

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:50:38 +0100

The Local Organization Committee and the IMO Counsel invite you to participate in the 2008 edition of the International Meteor Conference (IMC), which will take place in Slovakia, in a beautiful setting, not far from the city of Banská Bystrica, from September 18 to 21.

Everyone who ever attended an IMC can testify that it is one of the highlights of the meteoric year! It is a unique opportunity to meet likeminded people from all over the world and to exchange experiences. In particular, you have the opportunity to present your own results or those of your observing group by giving a talk. In that case, you will see the paper of your presentation published in the proceedings that will be compiled after the event.

Participation in the 2008 IMC costs 150 EUR. This sum includes full board in the conference hotel, all sessions, the conference excursion, a 2008 IMC T-shirt, and the conference proceedings. Early registrants get a reduction of 10 EUR.

You can register by filling out the electronic registration form and paying the registration fee, or making a prepayment of at least 70 EUR. You can find more detailed information on the IMC 2008 website.

I hope to meet you in Šachtička!

IMO Video Meteor Database Updated

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 23:56:12 +0100

The database of the IMO Video Meteor Network has been updated recently and now contains all observations until December 31, 2007. It is made of 328112 meteor records, collected in 2816 nights and 72582 hours of effective observing time. The PosDat data can be downloaded from the IMO website and from the IMO Video Network Homepage.

In March 1999, a video camera network was established by the German Arbeitskreis Meteore (AKM). By the end of 1999, it consisted of four cameras, and it has been growing ever since. In the next few years, not only observers from Germany joined the initiative, but also from other countries. Because of its international character, the network has been renamed to IMO Video Meteor Network in 2004.

IMC 2008 in Slovakia

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:24:35 +0100

We are very pleased to inform you that the next IMC will take place near Bansk Bystrica in Slovakia from 18th to 21st September 2008. The conference location, the Šachtička Hotel, is situated just 7 km from the town of Banská Bystrica.

The IMC 2008 will be the third International Meteor Conference in Slovakia. The conference center is located in a magnificent hotel in a green mountain area. The place is close to the geographical center of Europe, which we plan to visit.

The are many traveling possibilities to Banská Bystrica. The closest airport is in Bratislava. The Slovak capital can also easily be reached by train or bus. Road connections are good, too.

The Local Organizing Committee (LOC) is situated in the Public Observatory and Planetarium in Žiar nad Hronom. The LOC can be contacted via email on imc2008@imo.net.

We will provide you with more detailed information in the December issue of WGN and hope to see you in Slovakia next September.

Publications now available from webshop

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 16:07:35 +0200

From now on you can order all IMO publications through the webshop. With the webshop, it's a lot easier now to order IMO publications. A green and orange color code indicates whether there is still ample stock of a publication, or whether you have to hurry to get one of the last copies. After confirming your order, you will be directed to a page asking for your shipping information and choose your method of payment. You will get an email confirming your order and another one once the publication(s) are mailed to you.

We'd like to take the opportunity to point out that the Proceedings of the Radio Meteor School 2005 have been reprinted and are available again.

If you experience any difficulty using the new functionality, let us know!

Meteor Shower Calendar 2008 available

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 13:40:35 +0200

The Meteor Shower Calendar 2008 is now available on the web. The meteor year ahead starts well for the stronger showers, with moonless maxima for the Quadrantids, α-Centaurids, η-Aquarids and δ-Aquarids, but things go somewhat awry in August with the Perseids peaking near full Moon, while the Orionids in October, the Leonids in November and the Geminids in December are even worse-placed. However, the Draconid epoch should still be partly observable, while the late October to early November spell, which may bring another 'swarm' enhancement from the Taurids, is Moon- free, as too is the Ursid peak towards year's end. There are minor showers to be monitored as well, and ideally, meteor observing should be carried out throughout the year to check on all the established sources, and for any new ones. We appreciate this is impractical for most people, so the Shower Calendar has been helping to highlight times when a particular effort might most usefully be employed since 1991.

IMC 2007 is over, thanks for coming!

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:17:18 +0200

From June 7th till 10th 2007 the International Meteor Organization held its annual International Meteor Conference (IMC) in Barège, France. 84 participants from all over the world joined us for this four-day event. Both professional and amateur astronomers presented their latest results in meteor science. The IMC is also a time where meteor enthusiasts tighten and renew their friendship.

Before conference, a dozen participants attended the Radio Meteor School where we had lectures on the physical and mathematical theory of radio meteor observations. There was also a half-day orbit determination workshop organized by Jonathan McAuliffe (ESA/ESTEC) right before the start of the IMC).

If you've got your pictures on-line somewhere, please send us the location and we'll add a link to your gallery.

International Meteor Conference 2007 in Barège, France

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 12:27:01 +0200

From June 7th through 10th 2007 the International Meteor Organization will hold its annual International Meteor Conference (IMC) in Barège, France. Both professional and amateur astronomers will lecture about the latest results of their work in meteor science. The IMC is also a time where meteor enthousiasts tighten and renew their friendship.

Please send us your questions or comments. Please try to register quickly especially if you want to travel with the rest of the group from Barège to Barcelona on June 10th.

International Meteor Conference 2006

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 23:18:32 +0100

Between 14 and 17 September, the International Meteor Organization held its annual conference in the Dutch village of Roden. This 25th edition of the International Meteor Conference was hosted by the Meteor Section of the Royal Dutch Association for Meteorology and Astronomy, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year.

Almost 70 meteor-lovers from all over the world gathered to listen to lectures about meteor science and observation techniques. In the evening new friendships were formed and old ones renewed. On Saturday the group visited the world-famous Westerbork radio telescope and the newest radio telescope on Earth, LOFAR. In the evening the birthday of the IMC and the meteor section was celebrated with a barbeque and live music.

Meteor Shower Calendar 2007 available

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 17:45:18 +0200

The IMO Meteor Shower Calendar 2007 is now available on the web. The year looks set to be one of two unequal parts, with chiefly poorly-placed shower peaks through to the end of July, then a lot of virtually moonless shower maxima till mid December. The major Perseids and Geminids come off especially well, along with the possible Draconid epoch and Orionid maximum in October, the Taurids and Leonids in November, and most of the cluster of minor showers in early December.

It contains the revised Working List of Visual Meteor Showers as published in WGN 34:3 last June. Please use this revised list for your reports starting from January 2007. For the remainder of this year, we'll continue using the Working List from the 2006 Shower Calendar.

Improvements to the IMO website

Tue, 20 Jun 2006 15:45:39 +0200

Regular visitors to the IMO website will know that work has been on-going since 2005 to improve and update the site, making it easier to use and more attractive for visitors. The main facelift to the site happened last August, but minor improvements have continued since.

IMC 2006 in The Netherlands

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 11:45:50 +0100

This year's International Meteor Conference (IMC) will be held in Roden, a village in the North of the Netherlands. At the conference, which will take place from September 14 - 17, 2006, astronomers and meteor enthusiasts will meet and exchange scientific results. During the weekend participants will visit the Low Frequency Array (Lofar), which will be the largest radio telescope in the world. There's also the possibility to join a specialized course ahead of the conference and off course there will be some entertainment.

For more information please visit the web site of the IMC.

International Meteor Conference 2005

Sat, 03 Dec 2005 19:00:35 +0100

Last weekend the International Meteor Organization held its annual International Meteor Conference (IMC) in Oostmalle, Belgium. Nearly 100 participants from all over the world joined us for this four-day event. During more than 40 lectures both professional and amateur astronomers reported on the progress of their work in meteor science. Apart from the exchange of scientific results, the IMC is also a moment where meteor enthousiasts tighten and renew their friendship.

Before the actual conference, some of the participants already attended the Radio Meteor School in which Prof. Dr. Oleg Belkovich, Russian eminence grise in meteor astronomy, lectured on the physical and mathematical theory of radio meteor observations.

The IMC 2005 was organized by Urania, the public observatory of Antwerp. Your comments are very welcome! Lecturers are requested to submit their contribution to the Proceedings before the 15th of October.

From 14 till 17 September 2006, the Meteor Section of the Dutch Association for Meteorology and Astronomy will host the IMC in Roden, a village close to Groningen in the northern part of The Netherlands.

See you next year!

A new look for the IMO website

Sat, 03 Dec 2005 19:00:17 +0100

As you can see, the IMO website got a serious facelift. The old design was around since the launch of the site in 1996 and was screaming for some attention.

It finally got this much-needed attention with a complete re-make of the site, now based on the open-source Content Management System Drupal and with a new, simple and clean design. While the old site already had a huge amount of information available it was often hard to find. We tried to move all this information into an easier structure so that everybody can find what he needs.

With the launch of the new website, there's also some new stuff available. Some of the more important things:

an electronic report form for your visual observations (summary reports)
IMO Meteor Shower Calendar 2006
A central place for all data archives. Note the updated VMDB archive.
An electronic membership registration form and a new who-is-who page, which should be more up-to-date than the old one...

We've put a lot of effort in making this website better, now it's your turn! Please let us know if you have any comments, questions or remarks. If anything seems broken or if you have ideas for improvements, definitely tell us.

Meteor Shower Calendar 2006 available

Sat, 03 Dec 2005 19:08:54 +0100

In the Meteor Shower Calendar 2006, Alastair McBeath looks ahead at what the coming year has to offer for the meteor world. For your convenience the calendar is also available as PDF (282 KB). Traditionally the calendar will be made available in other languages as well. If you want to help with a translation into your own language, you are encouraged to contact the webmaster for details.

International Meteor Conference 2004 - Varna, Bulgaria

Thu, 28 Apr 2005 17:48:20 +0200

The International Meteor Congress 2004 will be hosted by the Astronomical Observatory and Planetarium "Nicolaus Coperrnicus" in Varna, a Bulgarian city at the borders of the Black Sea. Check out the IMC 2004 pages for more information and subscription information.