CESRA Workshop, 3rd announcement Dear Colleague, this is to give you further practical information for the fast-approaching CESRA Workshop, including the Programme. 1. Accommodation There are one or two minor changes to the information on the web pages, hopefully all to your advantage. The full board accommodation bill for someone arriving in the afternoon/early evening of Sunday 6 June, leaving after lunch on Friday 11 June and staying in a single room is 170.00 pounds sterling (British pounds - this is slightly cheaper than intimated on the web pages). Please come prepared to pay this amount to us (University of Glasgow). We will be happiest with payments by personal cheque, debit card or credit card, but cash is also OK. We cannot accept payment in Euros (see the note on money below). If you are staying for only part of the period 6 - 11 June, or in a twin room, we will advise you of the cost of accommodation separately. If you are staying in SMO before 6 June or after the afternoon of 11 June, please pay them (not us) for these extra nights/meals, at their Reception desk. 2.Money You should ideally aim to bring sufficient money for the stay in pounds sterling with you, or to change your own currency into pounds in Inverness or Glasgow or anywhere else in the UK you pass through en route to SMO. The nearest bureau de change is 16 kilometres away in the village of Broadford, on slow roads poorly served by public transport. Debit cards from many other countries may now be used in cash machines in the UK, but the nearest of these is in Broadford, too. We will try to help anybody who needs to use these facilities. Scottish banks (the Clydesdale Bank, the Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland) still issue their own bank notes. These are legal tender throughout the UK; they are British pounds, not some fictitious, different currency. Should you acquire any of these during your stay, however, you may wish to change them to Bank of England notes, in any bank or bureau de change, before leaving the UK, in case they prove difficult to change back at home. 3.Oral presentations There will be (Windows 2000 or XP) laptops and data projectors available, both in the plenary sessions and in the Working Groups. You may bring your presentation (e.g. as Powerpoint) on CD or a USB memory stick; or you may bring your own laptop. Please let us know if you would like to use an overhead projector, 35 mm slide projector, etc. If you have any concerns that your Powerpoint presentation may not be completely portable, attach it to an email and send them to Carlotta Graham at SMO (sm00cmk@groupwise.uhi.ac.uk), who will pass it to SMO technical staff to try out before your arrival. 4.Programme The programme is attached, as a plain text file. It is also available on the website, with links to abstracts of presentations. Please note the special items on Tuesday morning. A talk, 'Transits of Venus', given by Alec MacKinnon at 18:00 on Tuesday 8 June, is primarily aimed at the general public of Skye but CESRA participants are of course welome to attend - and indeed contribute if they wish. Short contributions on radio instrumentation and data analysis can be given in the Thursday morning session (09:00-10:00). Proposals should be submitted to the SOC by Monday evening, June 7. 5.Posters Submitted contributions which are not being given orally may be given as posters. There will be poster space for all such contributions, if necessary, during at least part of the week. Posters may be up to A0 size (841 by 1189 mm). Everybody who opted to display a poster will be accommodated; if you chose an oral contribution but are not in the plenary sessions, or did not specify 'oral' or 'poster' but would still like to display a poster, please let us know at cesra2004@astro.gla.ac.uk A preliminary timetable for poster slots, including in the first instance all non-oral offered contributions, will be available on the website almost immediately. Coffee will be served near the posters to facilitate poster viewing. 6. Internet access Internet enabled computers will be available for participants to check their email, etc. during the Workshop. 7. The Free Bus to and from Sabhal Mòr Ostaig (Courtesy Highland Council) On Sunday 6 June, the free bus will pick people up at two points: 1) Inverness train station (13:15 at the bus/coach parking area behind the train station) 2) Inverness airport (13:45 at the bus parking area: Exit the main entrance/exit & turn right. Note Inverness Airport is quite small, you can't get lost) We'll assume people arriving by train on Sunday 6 June or arriving by air before Sunday 6 June will meet at 1), while people arriving by air on Sunday 6 June will meet at 2). If you're arriving early on Sunday and wish to go into Inverness City and catch the free bus at Inverness train station please email Joe Khan to let him know. He's the member of the LOC who'll meet people at the station and airport and accompany them on the bus. The first (public transport) bus leaves the airport for Inverness city at 12:13 on Sunday! It is probably not worth taking that bus. So if you want to go to Inverness before that time then you'll have to take a taxi which will cost about £14. There will be major roadworks between the airport and city at the time so the journey may take 25 min or so. On the way to Skye the free bus will stop off at two places of interest in the Highlands for photos and to stretch your legs: Urquhart Castle http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/index/op_ourproperties/op_ourpropertiessearch/op_ourproperties_searchdetail.htm?id=90309 and Eilean Donan Castle: http://www.eileandonancastle.com/ The free bus will depart the conference venue, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, on Friday 11 June at 12:00. It will drop some people off in the center of Inverness and then proceed to the airport, arriving there at about 15:30. A sandwich lunch will be provided for people to eat on the bus en route. People who will travel Inverness --> Inverness Airport after Friday may wish to consult the bus timetable: http://www.rapsons.co.uk/area02.pdf (Busses 11 & 11C, pages 9-10). If you require accommodation in Inverness before or after the meeting, please phone the Scottish Tourist Board on +44 1506 832 121. They can book a place for you for a £3 fee. 8. Midges Summer visitors to the West Highlands know that midges may be a significant irritation and one or two people have been asking us about them. One of these small, biting insects is a very minor problem, but the clouds of them found in the later summer are seriously unpleasant. Early June is before the height of the midge season and they should not be too much of a problem. They are not a problem indoors although they may deter us from evening strolls after dinner, depending on the weather and on their population this year. They do not carry diseases. Creams and sprays, available locally, may be purchased to keep them away. In our experience these are of limited effectiveness, with those containing citronella possibly the most effective. 9. Bar Sabhal Mor Ostaig's bar will be open every for socialising each evening until 23:00, and until 01:00 after the conference dinner on Thursday evening. The next nearest bar is 3 km away, in Ardvasar. Looking forward to seeing you on Skye! The LOC.