Dear Colleague,

This is the first announcement for the Third Stromlo Symposium on "The Galactic Halo - Bright Stars & Dark Matter". The meeting will be held in Canberra, at the Australian Academy of Science, on 17-21 August, 1998.

SCIENTIFIC RATIONALE:

Mount Stromlo & Siding Spring Observatories has a long tradition in the investigation of the material which constitutes the halo of the Galaxy. It is the intention of the Organizing Committees to celebrate the Observatories' three decades of the study of the halo's luminous component and the more recent five year search for the elusive dark material by the MACHO consortium. At this point the MACHO project is ready to present its mid-term results on the nature of dark matter in the Galaxy's halo, and after thirty years of studies of the luminous component at Stromlo it is appropriate to seek to knit the two together in a physical way.

The Third Stromlo Symposium is in honor of the late Professor Alex Rodgers. Rodgers' work on the kinematics and chemistry of the luminous halo has been capped in recent years by his leadership of the project to rebuild the Great Melbourne Telescope expressly for the MACHO project.

The Symposium will center on the current status of the subject and seek to determine the new directions the subject will take. It will include discussion of:

(1) The observational status of the Galaxy's bright and dark halo components.
(2) The nature of the dark material.
(3) The formation, evolution, and inter-relationship of the two components.
(4) Other topics, including the halos of other galaxies and related Galactic phenomena.

The proposed format of the Symposium is to have approximately 30 invited talks and a similar number of additional oral contributions (to be selected by the SOC). Space is available for up to 100 poster contributions. Significant discussion time for all contributions will be included in the final program.

INVITED SPEAKERS:

The following speakers have already confirmed their attendance and have agreed to give reviews on the subject listed with their name:

Introductory Overview:	(not confirmed)
Formations of Galactic Halos:	S.D.M. White
Dark Halo:
Mass & extent.	D. Zaritsky
Baryonic material.	C. Alcock
Other Non-MACHO searches.	O. Perdereau
Future directions for baryonic searches.	C.W. Stubbs
Non-baryonic material.	D.N. Schramm
Non-baryonic direct detection experiments.	B. Sadoulet
White dwarf constraints.	G. Chabrier
Bright Halo:
Structure & formation.	D. Lynden-Bell
Role of accretion - Observational.	S.R. Majewski
Role of accretion - Theoretical.	K.V. Johnston
Globular clusters.	R. Zinn
Chemistry.	J.E. Norris
Field stars.	B.W. Carney
Surveys for metal-poor & HB stars.	T.C. Beers
Deep star counts.	C. Flynn
Age structure.	D.A. VandenBerg
Other Halos:
Other systems.	H.L. Morrison
M31.	K.C. Freeman
Magellanic Clouds.	E.W. Olszewski
Relationship Between the Bright
& Dark Matter:	J. Silk
Related Topics:
Dwarf spheroidal galaxies.	G.S. Da Costa
Ionized gas beyond HI edge.	J. Bland-Hawthorn
Effect of Magellanic Clouds on Milky Way disk.	M.D. Weinberg
Cold molecular clouds.	D. Pfenniger
Rotation curves of galaxies.	A.J. Kalnajs

SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:

J.E. Norris [ANU] (Chair), C. Alcock [LLNL], T.S. Axelrod [ANU], M. Bailes [U.Melb], J. Bland-Hawthorn [AAO], B.W. Carney [UNC], K.C. Freeman [ANU], B. Koribalski [ATNF], D. Lynden-Bell [Cambridge], H.L. Morrison [CWRU], J.R. Mould [ANU], R. Zinn [Yale].

LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:

T.S. Axelrod (Chair), M. Bureau, M. Buxton, G.S. Da Costa, K.C. Freeman, B.K. Gibson, J.E. Norris, M. Putman, B.P. Schmidt.

CALL FOR REGISTRATION:

A second announcement with further details and an invitation to register will be circulated on 1 March 1998. This will give details on available accomodation, a call for abstracts, publication of proceedings (in the Astronomical Society of the Pacific's Conference series), travel details, social activities, etc.

FURTHER INFORMATION & EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST:

For more information, please contact:
John E. Norris
Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories
Private Bag
Weston Creek P.O.
ACT 2611
Australia

Contact Address: tss@mso.anu.edu.au
WWWpage: http://msowww.anu.edu.au/meetings/

If you would like to express interest in attending the meeting and in receiving future mailings (and have not done so), please fill out the expression of interest on our web page at http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~tss/interest.html

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