STELLAR CLUSTERS AND ASSOCIATIONS:
CONVECTION, ROTATION, AND DYNAMOS
May 25 - 28, 1999
Mondello (Palermo), Sicily, Italy
Organized by
*** FINAL ANNOUNCEMENT ***
This is the third and final announcement for the above conference. By this time you should have made your travel arrangements and you should have received from us confirmation of your hotel reservation as well as of the acceptance of your proposed contribution for either oral or poster presentation. For updated information about the conference, including final scientific programme and abstracts of invited and contributed papers, please refer to this conference Web pages
This announcement gives you further details to make your travelling to Palermo easier and your stay more enjoyable. In case of any question, please do not hesitate to contact us at the e-mail address
workshop@oapa.astropa.unipa.it
Most of you will travel by air. In this case, you will arrive in Palermo at Falcone and Borsellino (Punta Raisi) airport, which is located about 30 kilometers from downtown Palermo. There is no direct public trasportation from the airport to Mondello; so if you use public transportation you should go first to downtown Palermo and from there back to Mondello. For those arriving on Monday afternoon May 24, we will organize a free shuttle bus to take participants from the airport to Hotel La Torre in Mondello. The shuttle bus will leave the airport at 15:00, 17:00, 19:00 and 22:00. These times may be subject to change, depending on the actual arrival times of the planes (coming mostly from Rome or Milano). The travel time from Punta Raisi to Mondello is 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on traffic conditions (it may be considerably longer on Sunday evening). People from our staff will be at the airport to escort you to the shuttle bus. Look for the conference poster to identify our personnel.
If you come at other times and cannot use the shuttle bus, you should use the blue public bus (Prestia and Commande`) which you can find just outside of the arrival area. There are buses approximately every half an hour (depending of the time of the day). Tickets can be purchased on the bus and they cost LIT. 6,500. You should get off in Palermo at stop "Politeama" (ask the driver). From there, you can reach Hotel La Torre in Mondello by city bus n. 806. The bus ticket costs LIT. 1,600 and must be purchased before boarding the bus. You can buy tickets and get information about city buses at the AMAT booth in front of Politeama Theatre (the round building crowned by bronze horses in the same square where you get off of the airport bus). The last stop of the city bus in Mondello is in front of Hotel La Torre. The total travel time from the airport to Mondello using public transportation is about one hour. Alternatively, you can take a taxi directly from the airport to Hotel La Torre in Mondello. This is the fastest and most espensive way to reach Mondello. It can cost you about LIT. 80,000. It is covenient only if you share the cost with other participants or if you have lots of luggage.
Most participants are staying at Hotel La Torre in Mondello, where the conference will be held. The hotel address is: Hotel Splendid "La Torre", Via Piano Gallo 11, I-90151 Palermo (Mondello Lido), Tel: 091-450-222, Fax: 091-450-033. You should have already received confirmaton by us about your reservation. In case of any last minute change, you should inform the hotel directly upon arrival in Mondello. Please note that it is not guaranteed that you may change your reservation at this stage, since the hotel will be full for the duration of the conference. If you have paid a one night deposit to us, this will be accounted to your credit in the hotel bill. You are responsible for settling the final bill directly with the hotel at the time of departure. If you have received a grant from EC covering your accomodation expenses, the hotel will be paid directly by us on the basis of a shared twin-bedded room with half-board (room+breakfast+lunch) for up to six nights. In this case too you are responsible for paying the hotel directly for any extra. Lunches will be served at Hotel La Torre for all participants staying overnight at the Hotel. Participants not staying at Hotel La Torre should make their own arrangements for lunch (at either Hotel La Torre or, less expensively, at one of the many eating places nearby). There are no pre-arrangements for dinner, except for Thursday night May 27 when a closing dinner will be held in downtown Palermo. There are plenty of good seafood restaurants in Mondello for the nights left free of social events.
The registration desk will be open at Hotel La Torre on Monday afternoon from 17:00 to 21:00. Participants will be requested to pay the registration fee, if they have not yet done so or if the registration fee has not been waived by the LOC. The registration fee is LIT 250,000 payable by credid card (American Express, Visa, Mastercard) or in cash (exclusively in Italian Lire). Late registration will also be possible on Tuesday morning, at the start of the conference, and throughout the meeting. Wearing a valid badge is requested for attending the conference as well as for social events. A welcome reception will be held at Hotel La Torre on Monday evening from 19:00 to 21:00. The reception is free for registered participants and accompanying persons alike.
The final scientific programme is given in the conference Web pages. Invited talks are 30 min each, including 5 min discussion. Contributed oral presentations are 15 min, including 3 min discussion. Since the schedule is rather tight, session chirpersons will be asked to enforce these time limits very strictly. Ample time will be given for inspection of posters and informal discussions among participants. Posters will be on display for the entire duration of the conference in a hall adjacent to the conference room. Each poster area is about 1 m x 1 m (approximately 16 A4 sheets).
The proceedings of the conference will be published by PASP. The Editors will be R.Pallavicini, G, Micela and S.Sciortino. Instructions for preparing camera-ready texts will be given at the conference. Pages limits are 10 pages for invited review papers, and 4 pages for contributed papers (both oral and poster). Invited oral presentations on instrument developments and large-scale programmes (to be given on Friday afternoon May 28) will have 6 pages maximum. The deadline for submitting the final camera ready texts is July 15, 1999.
The social programme includes a welcome reception on Monday evening (see above), an excursion to the ruins of the Greek city of Selinunte on Wednesday afternoon (May 26), and a closing dinner in a historical palace in downtown Palermo on Thursday night (May 27). These events are free of charge for registered participants. Accompanying persons are requested to pay a fee for participation in these events and to reserve them in advance, upon arrival in Mondello. The participation fee for the excursion to Selinunte is LIT. 50,000, that for the closing dinner is LIT. 100,000.
The bus to Selinunte will leave from Hotel La Torre at 14:00 on Wednesday May 26. Arrival in Selinunte is forseen around 16:00, followed by a two hours visit of the ruins. On the way back, we may stop to visit some local winery with tasting of Sicilian wines. This second part of the excursion cannot yet be confirmed. If confirmed, return to Mondello will be considerably later (about 23:00). Otherwise, we may be back to Mondello by 20:00.
The closing dinner will be held at Conte Federico Palace in the old district of downtown Palermo. The Palace is close to Palermo cathedral and to the Norman Palace (Palazzo dei Normanni) where the Palermo Observatory is located. These are magnificient buildings dating back to the XIIth century. In oder to allow at least a glance at these historical buildings, we will leave Hotel La Torre at 18:00 on Thursday May 27 to reach downtown Palermo by bus. The closing dinner at Conte Federico Palace will start at 20:00 and will be accompanied by a concert by renowed singers (including Conte Federico's wife, a soprano from Salzsburg). Return to Mondello is forseen around midnight.
A professional Travel Agency (Fenicia Viaggi) will have an office at Hotel La Torre to assist participants with return flights, hotel bookings and excursions. If there is enough interest, the same Agency can also organize half-day and full-day excursions to Palermo and surrounding areas for accompanying persons. These tours can be reserved and purchased upon arrival in Mondello. The anticipated cost will be about LIT. 50,000 (to be confirmed) for half-day excursions, provided a minimum number of participants is reached. Two half-day excursions may be offered. One on Tuesday morning (May 25) to Monreale cathedral, famous for its mosaics; the other on Thursday morning (May 27) to the Greek temple of Segesta, on the way to Trapani. If you are interested in any of these tours, you should inform us immediately and pre-book them. Late May is the peak tourist season in Sicily and it may be difficult to arrange tours at the last minute. If the number of requests is small, only one of these tours will be organized (most likely to Monreale).
In addition, the same Travel Agency will organize a full-day excursion to Cefalu` and Caccamo on Saturday May 29. Reservations and tickets can be purchased at Hotel La Torre upon arrival. The anticipated cost is about LIT. 100,000 (to be confirmed), including lunch. Again, a minimum number of participants is needed and you are kindly requested to pre-book this tour immediately (by sending an e-mail message to us) to allow Fenicia Viaggi to reserve the bus.
It is advisable to arrrive in Mondello with some Italian currency in cash. The easiest way to get it is at Rome or Milano airports, before you transfer to the domestic flight to Palermo. There is a bank in Mondello where you can change foreign currency, but it will be open only during normal office hours (typically from 9:00 to 13:00 in the morning, Monday to Friday). Credit cards are widely accepted, except in the smallest places.
There are plenty of restaurants and shops in Mondello, mostly around the main square and along the seashore. All of them are easily reacheable on foot from Hotel La Torre. A detailed map of Mondello will be put shortly in the conference Web page to allow you to find your way around.
A city bus to downtown Palermo (N. 806) leaves from Hotel La Torre every half an hour. The travel time to Palermo is about 30 minutes. Incidentally, Mondello is part of the city of Palermo, albeit it may not look so.
The weather in Palermo in late May is usually very confortable. Daytime temperatures can be around 25 degrees Centigrade, and it should be possible to go swimming either in the Hotel swimming pool or at the beach. A light jacket or a sweater may be needed in the evening.
We hope the information above will make your travelling to Mondello easy and confortable. If we have forgotten anything, or should you face any unforseen problem, please do not hesitate to contact the LOC at either the Palermo Observatory before the conference (Tel: 091-233 230 or 091-233 231 or 091-233-251 or 091-233 111) or at Hotel La Torre during the conference (Tel: 091-450-222, Fax: 091-450-033). In case of a real emergency, you can also try to reach us on a cellular phone (0338-6061061). We will do our best to rescue you if you get lost.
We wish you a pleasant journey to Palermo and we look forward to seeing you soon.
With kind regards
Roberto Pallavicini
on behalf of the LOC