INSTITUTO DE ASTROFISICA DE CANARIAS

Girona Conference

Blazars, Black Holes and Jets

9-12^th September 1996

Girona, Spain

This meeting will be held from September 9-12th 1996, at Girona in northeastern Spain. The conference information in the IAC home page in the World Wide Web (the address is given below) is updated regularly. A large number of people have already registered. Registration forms are available with this mailing, by e-mail, or in the IAC Home Page (http://www.iac.es).

Abstracts may be found within the Girona conference page in the internet at the address above. Please check yours to ensure that it is correctly shown. The scientific quality of the abstracts is very high indeed. Please note that sometimes the abstracts are posted some time after receipt; this depends on our workload at the time that they are received.

Please note that our deadline for submitting oral papers to the conference is July 15th. If you have registered, but, as in many cases, not submitted a final abstract, you must submit it by the July 15th deadline if you wish to make an oral presentation.

Poster papers will be accepted until July 31st, from which point they will be accepted only if space permits. The registration fee for the conference is:

• $150 if received by July 31^st (early registration)
• $200 if received after July 31^st (standard registration)

	2030 0024 27 3300004968

	CAIXA DE GIRONA

	Caixa de Girona
	Oficina Salt Major
	17190 SALT
	Girona
	Spain

	telephone: + 34 72  233411 (from outside Spain), 
                      (972) 233411 (inside Spain)

Registration fees can also be paid in cash on arrival in Girona. If you wish to pay by credit card we regret that the only form that the bank will permit this to be done is by paying through your own bank, giving them instructions debit your credit card to the above account. Our bank advises us that they are not permitted by law to accept credit card payments direct.

Change in invited speakers

We are pleased to report that Prof. Felix Mirabel has agreed to replace Prof. Rashid Sunyaev (who is unable to attend) as an invited speaker.

Due to the large degree of interest in the conference expressed by Galactic black hole workers, we intend to increase the amount of time dedicated to the topic and will probably reschedule the first Galactic black hole session to an earlier day. Programme news will be given with the conference timetable in the third mailing, approximately 1 month before the conference starts.

Scientific aims of the conference

Our aim is to bring together as many of the top experts as we can in blazar research and in the field of Galactic objects related to blazars (eg: black hole candidates, objects with jets, etc.) which can teach us about the similarities and differences between the Galactic and extra-galactic objects. We aim to foment an atmosphere of friendly and businesslike discussion. We hope that, if nothing else, the week leads to a thorough review of what is known and provides ideas for future research. The meeting format is planned in such a way to allow everyone who wishes to participate directly in the discussion to do so, whether that person is a current Ph.D student, or an established researcher.

Apart from presented papers, there will be a number of specially invited reviews. These are divided into two categories: ``Key Note talks", which will open each daily session and relate to the day's main topic and ``Invited Reviews", which will usually have a more observational basis and will open the afternoon sessions. Apart from the normal question sessions after the talks, extensive time will be made available for informal and more formal discussion. An interesting and varied group of invited speakers are on the programme.

These are:
Alex Smith, Esko Valtaoja, Geoffrey Burbidge, Felix Mirabel, Alan Marscher, Buell Jannuzi, José Miguel Rodríguez-Espinosa and Laura Maraschi.

Girona has its own airport, close to the city. Despite plans to start regular flights, none are currently available. Girona only receives charter flights at present; a list of companies and destinations is given below. The airport is 14km from the city by taxi and 4km from the nearest railway station. There is no bus service. The cheapest option is to take a taxi to the railway station and the train to Girona. Girona railway station is very close to the centre of the town and a few blocks from the Charlemany and Peninsular hotels.

We recommend Barcelona airport as the most comfortable alternative flight destination due to its good communications and wide range of international destinations (including direct flights to and from the USA by Delta). All regular flights to the region are sent to Barcelona airport.

For people who prefer train travel, Barcelona has long distance train services to a number of European destinations, most of these trains stop in Girona before arriving at Barcelona. Your travel agent will advise you about this.

Getting to the conference from Barcelona airport you have two alternative methods:

• By train: Take the train from the airport station (leave the terminal building and head left) to the main station in the centre of Barcelona (this is the terminus) and from there, catch the train to Girona. There are several categories of service from the express (about 1 hour) down to the local trains which stop at all stations. Take the fast train, which is approximately once an hour. Girona station is a short taxi ride from the conference hotels.
• By bus: From the airport, take the bus to Barcelona Bus Station (Estaci\'on de Autobus) and from there a coach direct to Girona (frequent service). The bus station in Girona is very close to the Charlemany and Peninsular hotels (a few blocks).

We have had many problems getting funding for grants and assistance. Most grants which are offered will be paid from registration fees and other money received and from offers of special accomodation.

• Very few full grants will be available and will be oversubscribed by a factor of at least 5 and possibly nearer 10.
• We will offer as many assitances for attendence (partial grants) as is humanly possible within our budget. Please, if you have asked for a grant, try to obtain partial funding from other sources. We can obtain cheap or free accomodation and will waive the registration fee for people with genuine need. Our travel funds are though, unfortunately, strictly limited. Help us to help as many people as possible by requesting only what you really urgently need.
• As we still have several funding options available (we are still waiting to hear from some grant applications) we will not decide on grants, except for a few special cases which are already notified, until the end of June at earliest. This is to allow the best chance of obtaining funding.
• We appreciate the problems that this may cause people, please try to be patient, we are doing the best that we can in a difficult economic climate.
• If you have asked for a grant, but cannot be funded, please still submit your contribution still so that it can be displayed as a poster and included in the proceedings as a refereed paper.

The conference proceedings will be published by Kluwer Academic Publishers as a special volume of Astrophysics and Space Science.

All papers will be refereed by member(s) of the Scientific Organising Committee. Whilst the refereeing process will be gentler than for a normal publication in a journal, we wish to ensure good standards of scientific rigour and written english, so that the published volume is of high quality; the referees are there to help you attain this (if necessary), not to make life difficult! Their aim is to point out errors and inaccuracies, not to criticise particularly the science that is presented.

We have reserved large blocks of rooms in the two main conference hotels (Charlemany and Peninsular). At present there is no pressure on hotel space. For students and visitors on very tight budgets we have special hostel accomodation in the city at particularly low prices ($5-10 per night, but without meals). Please contact the organisers if you need such accomodation putting "Hostel accomodation" in the message header. Few people have requested the Sol Hotel, so we expect no problems at all with those who wish to stay there, even if they book late.

As we have negociated a block discount rate we request that you pay your hotel stay on arrival and registration on-site (NOT AT THE HOTEL!). We will settle your room bills, whilst guests will only pay the hotel directly for any extras (telephone, room service, etc). You will receive a detailed bill with your registration.

Please contact: Jose Antonio de Diego, UNAM, Mexico (jdo@astroscu.unam.mx) or Mark Kidger, IAC, Spain (mrk@iac.es) or look at the latest news on the World Wide Web http://www.iac.es/ in the IAC home page.

The following cities/airports have charter flights to Girona. Most companies will accept flight-only bookings. Ask your travel agent to check flight availability with the listed companies and/or connections with scheduled flights from your point of origin to these cities. In some cases your cheapest return flight option may be a flight to one of these airports, to connect with a charter direct to Girona: