*************************************************************************** IERS Message No. 55 March 8, 2004 *************************************************************************** Journees 2004 "Systemes de reference spatio-temporels" Observatoire de Paris, 20 to 22 September 2004 First announcement This message is to inform you that the Journees 2004 "Systemes de reference spatio-temporels", with the sub-title "Fundamental Astronomy: New concepts and models for high accuracy observations", will be held from 20 to 22 September 2004 at Observatoire de Paris. Pre-registration is at: http://syrte.obspm.fr/journees2004/ (deadline: 30 April 2004) SOC: A. Brzezinski (Poland), N. Capitaine (France, Chair), P. Defraigne (Belgium), T. Fukushima (Japan), D.D. Mccarthy (USA), M. Soffel (Germany), J. Vondrak (Czech Republic), Y. Yatskiv (Ukraine) LOC: P. Baudoin, O. Becker, C. Bizouard, G. Bourda, A.-M. Gontier, J.-B. N'guyen, J. Souchay (Chair) The preliminary programme includes the following five sessions: Session 1: Recent and future developments in the realization of the ICRS Session 2: Models for Earth rotation: from Poincare to IAU 2000 Session 3: Nomenclature in fundamental astronomy Session 4: Relativity in the problems of astronomical reference systems and Earth rotation: status and prospects Session 5: Future of UTC: Consequences in astronomy The sessions will include discussion on the work of the new IAU Working Groups of Division I: "Precession and the ecliptic" (Session 2) and "Nomenclature in Fundamental Astronomy" (Session 3), as well as the Working Groups on "Relativity in Celestial Mechanics, Astrometry and Metrology" (Session 4) and "The future of UTC" (Session 5). Discussion on the tasks that were previously part of the ICRS Working Group will also take place (Session 1). A kickoff meeting for the Project "Descartes - Nutation" (Chair: V. Dehant) the purpose of which is to support cooperative studies devoted to 'the understanding of the next decimal of precession/nutation, from the theoretical point of view as well as from the observational point of view' will be included in Session 2. Posters summarizing the proposals selected by the Advisory Board of the Descartes - Nutation project will be encouraged. 2004 being the 150 anniversary of Poincare's birth, there will be a special emphasis on Poincare's work on Earth rotation in Session 2. Nicole Capitaine Chair of the SOC of the Journees 2004 http://syrte.obspm.fr/journees2004/ *************************************************************************** IERS Messages are edited and distributed by the IERS Central Bureau. To subscribe or unsubscribe, please write to . Archives: http://www.iers.org/iers/publications/messages/ ***************************************************************************