Please find below some information to help you with the final preparation of your presentation and your travel to Cancun. To help us with the organization, please send us any missing information before October 8.

PROGRAM: ORAL SESSIONS AND POSTERS

Thanks to the excellent response we now have a great programme of both oral and poster sessions. The final programme will be available on our Web site after October 1st, together with an updated list of participants.

For oral papers, two overhead projectors will be available, as well as a cannon for power point (PPT) presentations. Unless a special request is made, there will be no slide projector. PPT presentations should be prepared with a font size large enough for projection in front of a large audience. Please bring your PPT presentation on CD-Rom, making sure that all figures are copied. During the evening, we can then load all presentations of the next day on our laptop, to save time during sessions.

The posters will remain on display during the whole meeting and there will be ample time for discussion, formal and informal.

The abstracts received by October 8 will be included in the abstract booklet to be posted on our web site and distributed at the meeting. If you wish to make the whole text (and figures) of your presentation available before the meeting, please send us the URL of the web page where you have posted it.

PROCEEDINGS

The proceedings will be published by ASP. Ten pages will be allocated to invited review papers, 6 pages to contributed oral presentations and 2 pages to posters.

In the preparation of your manuscript, please follow the instructions to authors provided on our web site. In particular, it is important that you do not alter the style file.

To help build an object index, we would very much appreciate if in your manuscript you could enclose each celestial object in an \index environment, following this example:

The copies of the proceedings book cannot be shipped to P.O. boxes. Therefore, if you provided us with a P.O Box (apartado, casilla, postfach, etc), please send us also your street address to avoid loosing your copy.

ARRIVAL AND STAY IN CANCUN

At Cancun airport, you can take a taxi or a collective van. Vans run from 8:30 to 18:30 - look for them on your right when going out of the airport building. The Westin hotel is a short distance away.

The registration desk will be open
- Saturday Nov. 9 from 15:00 - 18:00 (3-6 pm)
- Sunday Nov. 10 from 15:00 - 18:00 (3-6 pm)
- Monday Nov. 11 from 8:00 - 11:00 (am).

To enjoy our special rates, all hotel rooms should be booked through the LOC. If you have received an aknowledgement of your prepayment or are beneficiary of a grant, your room at the Westin hotel is already reserved. Otherwise, please send an e-mail to iau215@astro.ugto.mx to confirm your intention of attending the meeting as soon as possible and let us know how you plan to pay the registration fee (250 USD) and room deposit (120 USD): wire, cheque or upon arrival. Please note that the registration fee cannot be paid by credit card.

Your room will be booked at the Westin hotel starting from your stated arrival date. Therefore it is very important that you tell us your arrival date and time, as well as any change of plans, otherwise the hotel will charge a 'no show' penalty.

For three days before and three days after the meeting you can enjoy a special rate of 85 USD per room (whether single or double). This rate does not include meals. During the meeting, the package daily rate (130 USD in single room, 95 in double) includes all meals and drinks from Sunday evening to Saturday morning, as well as all tips to hotel personnel.

Besides Mexican pesos, US dollars are accepted everywhere in Cancun. The hotel also accepts major credit cards. You will find automatic cash dispensers (ATM) in town. At the date of this writing the exchange rate is: 1 USD = 10 pesos.

In November, the weather in Cancun is warm but not very hot, the humidity is low and no rain is expected. Isidore affected the Northen coast of Yucatan further West from Cancun, not Cancun. The hurricane season never lasts beyond mid-October. Therefore, we expect a great wheather for a great meeting.
Clothing in Cancun is casual.

Electrical plugs (110 Volts, two flat pins) and modem connectors (RJ-11) are the same as in the U.S.A.

Please refer to the second announcement for matters regarding visa and insurance.

SOCIAL EVENTS

One of the greatest Maya sites, with special appeal to astronomers, is Chichen Itza, located 200 km from Cancun. We will dedicate Saturday November 16th to a visit to the site, followed by lunch and a swim in a nearby cenote (see our web page for details and photographs). The return to the hotel is scheduled between 17:00 and 18:00. The price of this excursion is 55 USD and is based on a minimum of 40 participants. Could we therefore ask you to tell us by e-mail if you are interested and if your participation is certain or probable. Also, if accompanying guests will take part. The excursion can be paid upon arrival, at the registration desk.

Other social events include a welcoming reception (on Sunday the 10th at 18:00), a choice of activities on Wednesday afternoon (from snorkeling to salsa dancing) and the closing banquet on Thursday the 14th. The welcoming reception and the banquet are included in the package, as well as the use of hotels facilities such as tennis (during day time), gym, kayaks, sauna, etc.

CALENDAR

All the following information
should be sent by e-mail to:
iau215@astro.ugto.mx

BEFORE OCTOBER 8:

If you are interested in the excursion to Chichen Itza, please send us an e-mail specifying:
- the number of people;
- whether your participation is certain or probable.

Unless you have received an aknowledgement of your prepayment or are beneficiary of a grant please:
- confirm your intention of attending the meeting;
- tell us how you plan to pay the registration fee and room deposit: wire, cheque or upon arrival (see the second announcement for details).

If you have not yet done it, please send us also:
- your arrival information: date, time, fligth number;
- whether you intend to share your hotel room;
- your abstract (using the latex form on our web site);
- the URL if you make your whole paper(s) available on the web;
- any request for a slide projector.

ON NOVEMBER 10:

- Bring your PPT presentation on CD-Rom.

BEFORE NOVEMBER 30:

- Send your manuscript to iau215@astro.ugto.mx
- and if we only have a P.O. Box, please give us a street address for shipment of your copy of the proceedings.

We look forward to seeing you in Cancun!

Andre Maeder
Philippe Eenens