Arvind Paranjpye, at the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Pune, India, announces the formation of a new section of the International Occultation Timing Association, the South West Asian section, or IOTA/SWA. The officers of the main IOTA welcome this new section and will do what they can to encourage its growth. Arvind's message giving some details of the new section follows. This is fitting, because my own serious interest in astronomy began in southwest Asia, when I was 11 years old and my father was working on an aid project in Karachi, Pakistan. I taught myself the constellations there under the mostly clear, dark, desert skies (we lived at the edge of the city where there was little light pollution at the time).
David Dunham, President, IOTA
-----Original Message----- From: Arvind Paranjpye Subject: SWA section Hello, This is an update on the SWAsian section of IOTA. Col. J. E. S. Singh was in Pune and I had a long discussion with him. He has agreed to be Vice President, India, of the section. We may evolve the following strategy to launch the SWASection. The founder member Office bearers Arvind Paranjpye - President Babak A. Tafreshi - VP Iran Ali Matinfar - Treasurer Iran - Editor, Iran (May I suggest mohaddesseh's name) Col J E S Singh - VP India Amruta Modani - Treasurer, India Vinaya Kulkarni - Editor, India In addition we need a publicity officer. (We need similar posts for Pakistan and Bangladesh) To begin with we propose to bring out ON (occultation newsletter) very similar to the main IOTA ON. Four issues of about 12 pages. The first issue will have an article by the President (we request you David) IOTA, Col Singh has agreed to contribute one, I am preparing predictions (bright stars and asteroid) for Iran and India using Occult 3.1 by D. Herald. We will put the newsletter on the web too. We plan to post the first ON by mid September 04 and then the second one comes by mid December and so on. But hope to send the first draft to Iran by first week of September so that, if required some text can be translated. The individual countries shall decide the membership fees. We in India plan to keep about Rs 150/- which is about 3.7 USD per year. Regards, Arvind -- Arvind Paranjpye ------------------------- Sci./Tech. Officer Public Outreach Programme Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics Post Bag #4, Ganeshkhind, Pune 411 007 - India Phone +91 20 2569 1414 +91 20 2569 9415 :: Fax +91 20 2560 4699 +91 20 2560 4108 (direct office) +91 20 2560 4303 (direct lab)