*** IAU Division D Bulletin N. 4: January 1st, 2015 ***

INDEX:

* New Year's message from Div D President
* Second Open Call for collaboration agreement with LIGO and Virgo Collaborations
* Brazil takes part in CTA
* LAXPC instrument delivered for integration on ASTROSAT
* Black Holes as "Eternally Collapsing Objects"
* Upcoming Conferences, Meetings, Workshops and Schools
* Deceased IAU Members

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New Year's message from Div D President

Happy New Year to all Division D Members!

2015 will see our first ever Division Meeting. I draw your attention to the opportunity through the General Assembly (GA) website (astronomy2015.org) to submit an abstract. The meeting will be on Friday August 7th and Monday August 10th and will highlight a broad range of our science. We particularly welcome new results and science directed towards the future of our field. I look forward to seeing many of you in Honolulu.

Our Division continues to grow. Please remember to encourage your colleagues who are not yet members to get in touch with their national committees with a view to joining at the GA, the once-in-3-yrs opportunity for new members.

Diana Worrall

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Second Open Call for collaboration agreement with the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration

by Marica Branchesi (University of Urbino, Italy)

Dear colleague,

The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration have issued a second open call for professional astronomers interested in signing agreements for the identification of electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave triggers found in the next science runs of LIGO and Virgo Advanced detectors, which will start next year.

You can find details on how to submit your application for this program in the web page:http://www.ligo.org/science/GWEMalerts.php; applications should be submitted before February 16, 2015.

We look forward to your participation in a new exciting era of gravitational wave astronomy! Please email us atemf@ligo.org if you have any questions.

Gabriela González (Spokesperson, LIGO Scientific Collaboration), and Fulvio Ricci (Spokesperson, Virgo Collaboration)

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Brazil takes part in CTA

by Elisabete M. de Gouveia Dal Pino (Instituto Astronomico e Geofisico, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil)

Brazil has joined the ASTRI-CTA Mini-Array Project (INAF project coordinated by Giovanni Pareschi), which will be the core of the CTA great array to be assembled in 2016 in the South-site of the CTA. Brazil will build 3 of the 7 telescopes of the mini-array with funding from the Sao Paulo Science Foundation Agency FAPESP (in a project coordinated by E. M. de Gouveia Dal Pino).

More information at the webpage:
http://www.appec.org/8-news/91-inauguration-of-the-astri-telescope.html

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LAXPC instrument delivered for integration on ASTROSAT

by J. S. Yadav (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, India)

India`s first dedicated multi-wavelength astronomy satellite, ASTROSAT, is scheduled to be launched next year. It will have five science payloads which will cover from X-ray to UV wavelength. The Large Area X-ray Proportional Counter (LAXPC) is one of the major payloads on ASTROSAT, which covers 3-80 keV energy range. All the three flight units of LAXPC instrument have successfully completed space qualification tests and the final calibration. The LAXPC instrument has been handed over to Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on 20th October 2014 for integration with satellite. The LAXPC instrument will have the largest effective area and sensitivity among all the satellite missions flown so far for X-ray astronomy studies above 20 keV (about four times more than that of NASA`s PCA/RXTE).

For more info, seehttp://www.iucaa.ernet.in/~astrosat/laxpc_specs.html and http://www.tifr.res.in/~jsyadav/ or contact Prof. Yadav atjsyadav@tifr.res.in

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Black Holes as "Eternally Collapsing Objects"

by Abhas Mitra (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India)

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2014/11/black-holes-are-actually-eternally-collapsing-objects-indian-physicist-refutes-hawking.html

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Upcoming Conferences, Meetings, Workshops and Schools

The Rencontres de Moriond and GRAM Colloquium on Gravitation 100 years after GR
La Thuile, Valle d'Aosta, Italy, 21-28 March 2015
http://moriond.in2p3.fr/J15

Relativistic Jets: Creation, Dynamics, and Internal Physics
Krakow, Poland, 20-24 April 2015
http://www.oa.uj.edu.pl/jets2015/

XMM-Newton 2015 Science Workshop: The Extremes of Black Hole Accretion
European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC), Madrid, Spain, 8-10 June 2015
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_science/workshops/2015_science/

High-Energy Phenomena in Relativistic Outflows, 5th Edition (HEPRO V)
La Plata, Argentina, 5-8 October 2015
http://hepro5.iar.unlp.edu.ar/

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Deceased IAU Members

IAU has sadly informed us about the passing of the following IAU Members:
- Estelle Asseo
- Pierluigi Bernacca
- Robert V. Stachnik

We regard upon their memory with respect and our thoughts are with their families.

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If you wish to share with IAU Div D any information about matters that may be relevant to the activities of Div D Members, please send e-mail to elena.pian@sns.it by *** March 21st, 2015 ***. This will appear in the next Bulletin issue, due April 1st, 2015.

Thank you in advance for your inputs and best regards.

Elena Pian
Secretary of IAU Div D Steering Committee
Associate Astronomer - INAF-IASF Bologna, Italy
www.iasfbo.inaf.it/~pian
elena.pian@sns.it