Cerro Tololo and northern Chile are well known for superb observing conditions. The active and growing astronomical communities in Chile and elsewhere in South America are also giving rise to significant scientific meetings. Here is a sampler of two recent and one forthcoming specialty meeting to illustrate this vitality.
In December we attended a meeting on "Science With Gemini," hosted by the University of Florianopolis. The locale was the island of Santa Catarina, off the southeastern coast of Brazil. Representatives from the Gemini project, the US, and the Brazilian, Argentine and Chilean astronomical communities contributed to three days of illuminating science and detailed discussion. A few comments on the content:
1) A section of the Brazilian community is very interested in optotomography to study the chromospheres and accretion disks in interacting binaries, stellar pulsation, astroseismology, pulsars, and X-ray binaries. These studies will require time resolution of less than 10s and accurate timing (1 ms or better) which, apparently, only Gemini will provide. A wide range of other topics, from highresolution stellar abundances to cosmological studies, was also presented.
2) Rob Kennicutt (Arizona) proposes that 8-m telescopes will be able to do spectroscopic follow-up of IR surveys to be carried out by satellites (especially WIRE and SIRTF). From about 104 objects estimated to be detected by WIRE on a 800 deg2 survey at 12-25 ĩm (launch date September 1998), about 103 objects could be observed by GMOS, requiring some 400 hr (~ 50 nights). For the brighter sample, one could use 4-m time at a rate of about one 8-m night per two 4-m nights. The UV satellite Gallex will also use WIRE's field as its deep field.
3) Phil Puxley (on behalf of the Gemini team) gave two talks on the expected performances of Gemini and details of queue and classical scheduling. Doug Simons summarized the instrumentation complement and continuing upgrades. Wayne van Citters summarized the situation concerning Australian participation.
The large and stimulating Brazilian astronomical community also forms one of the partners in the SOAR 4-m telescope project at CTIO. Further scientific collaborations between the communities was a topic of extensive discussion. Meetings like this help greatly in the planning and implementation of our joint scientific programs.
A workshop on "The Evolution of Clusters of Galaxies" was held in Viņa del Mar (on the coast, outside of Santiago) in mid-December. This was organized by Universidad Catolica (Santiago) and sponsored by CONICYT (the Chilean analog to NSF), ESO, AURA, Carnegie, UNESCO and U. Catolica. About 50 international participants gathered to hear speakers from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Italy and the USA. Jim Peebles gave the opening talk and Ray Carlberg delivered the meeting summary. Evening discussion sessions were wonderfully successful, and the conference dinner, with breathtaking view of the Valparaiso harbor, was a joyous affair. El Niņo did affect the weather, so summer was not yet evident, but the invited speakers did a marvelous job in keeping our dispositions sunny at least. Congratulations to the organizers; annual workshops are to be expected for the future.
A workshop entitled "Quasars as Standard Candles for Cosmology" will be held in La Serena on 18-22 May. Quasars' spectra depend on their luminosities, but we need to find out if these effects can be calibrated well enough to use QSOs as standard candles in cosmological tests. This workshop is intended to review recent progress on correlations between the luminosities and spectral properties of quasars, as well as to revive interest in quasars as cosmological probes. The workshop will specifically address the following interwoven questions:
Bob Schommer (rschommer@noao.edu),
Rene Mendez (rmendez@noao.edu),
Jack Baldwin (jbaldwin@noao.edu)