This was the International Meteor Conference 2003

Review of the IMC 2003

The International Meteor Conference 2003, marking the 15th anniversary of the International Meteor Organization (IMO) took place in Bollmannsruh, Germany, from 18 to 21 September 2003. The final program with all late contributions is available here as a pdf file.
The IMC 2003 included the General Assembly of the International Meteor Organization (on 20 September 2003). Furthermore, a meeting of the Editorial team of the IMO Journal WGN took place in the evening of 17 September.
Although it may have seemed that Ina and myself did most of the organizing work, we have to thank several members of the Arbeitskreis Meteore (AKM) who helped a lot: Frank Enzlein created the logo and helped with transfer to/from the airports or the railway station like Katja and Sven Näther, Manuela Rendtel and Marion Rudolph. (By the way, the AKM was founded 25 years ago, in October 1978.) We would also like to thank Thomas Kenkmann of the Museum of Natural History in Berlin for his talk on impact craters and the tour through the exhibition.
Below find some images from our conference.

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	lake Beetzsee in the late summer Sun		group photo before the excursion started
	Margaret talking about meteor lightcurves		Detlef working on his laptop
	during the Poster session		sitting around Saturday night's campfire
	trying Andre's didgeridoo		Saturday night's campfire at its best

Several participants already made their IMC pictures available:
Hiroshi Ogawa's images
Rainer Arlt's photos
Arnold Tukkers' images
photos taken by Casper ter Kuile
photos taken by Javor Kac
photos taken by Jean-Marc Wislez
3 pages with photos taken by Yasuhiro Tonomura

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Some short reflections from IMC participants

Dear friends,

this is just a short note to let you know that the Slovenian group
(Mihaela, Miha, Stane and myself) arrived home safely on Monday, at
about 20 UT.

Last (but not least), I would like to thank the organizing team for
another great and unforgettable IMC. I hope to see you all soon!

Clear skies!
Javor Kac

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And more photos of the excellent IMC-2003 at Bollmannsruh are now on the
DMS-website: www.dmsweb.org
Please enjoy!

Best wishes,

Casper

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I am at home at last. The way back was much easier, because I had a
possibility to rest in a hotel between flights.
My thanks to Frank again, he is really very reliable.

I'd like to thank all organizers of the IMC2003.
For me personally this conference was not only extremely useful, but a real
pleasure.

...

Regards
Galina

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we had a good travel back home. We arrived to Banska Bystrica at 2 hour past
midnight.
Thank you and all organizing committee for an excellent IMC in your country.
Peter Zimnikoval

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I already saw the pictures of the IMC on the dutch website: I think all
participants will keep good memories of this IMC: a well filled program with
several good lectures together with a most relaxed friendly atmosphere at a
beautiful comfortable facility, style family-reunion-holiday.

Thank you and Manuela for your kind hospitality and the work done to make this
event possible. I enjoyed it very much and I feel remotivated to resume some
activities with meteors. I may no more be able to observe, but there are
certainly things that can be done.

Best wishes,

Paul

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Thank you for great IMC2003 !! I arrived at my home in the morining
on 23rd (LT, (evening on 22nd,UT)). Although the air-plane was late,
it was no problem. We arrived at Narita-airport.

Miyao, Toyomasu, Yanagida, Tonomura and Nogami also
arrived at Narita-airport 23rd (LT) !! All Japanese are very fine.

Thank you for many kindness and your great help !!

PS.  In Japan, it is shorter daytime than Germany !!

I updated IMC photos on the web.
 http://www.ipe.tsukuba.ac.jp/~s000268/imc2003/imc2003-photo.html

with best wishes
Hiroshi Ogawa

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Back safely to cold, damp, but clear UK.  Thank you to everyone who
organised such a successful conference.  The weather and location
certainly helped too.  It was great to have such harmony amongst the
nations, and in particular, the Japanese presence was most welcome.
There were some fascinating results and amazing and awesome images.
I'd certainly buy some large prints of the wide-angle scenes.

I felt that this IMC marked the end of an era---Leonid and Perseid
outbursts---and now we should look forward to new projects and
discoveries.  Given the inventiveness of many IMO members, I'm confident
that these will be successful too.

...

See you in Varna, if not before.

Malcolm

IMC support

We gratefully acknowledge financial support by the following institutions and organizations:

Vereinigung der Sternfreunde (VdS)

Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur des Landes Brandenburg

Arbeitskreis Meteore e.V.