COMMISSIONS 27 AND 42 OF THE IAU
              INFORMATION BULLETIN ON VARIABLE STARS
                          Number 3964

                                                 Konkoly Observatory
                                                 Budapest
                                                 27 December 1993

                                                 HU ISSN 0374 - 0676




 
                       FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT OF
             IAU COLLOQUIUM No. 151 "FLARES AND FLASHES"



  IAU Colloquium 151, Flares and Flashes: a multi-wavelength approach to short-term phenomena,
in honour of the 65th birthday of G.A. Richter and W. Wenzel, will be held in Sonneberg (Thuringia),
Germany, from December 5-9,1994. IAU Commissions 27, 42, 44 support the colloquium.

  The scientific organizing committee consists of H.W. Duerbeck (Germany), G. Fishman (USA), R.
Gershberg (Ukraine, chair), J. Greiner (Germany), M. Kato (Japan), A. King (UK), J.-P. Lasota (France),
M. Rodono (Italy), J.I. Smak (Poland) and M.K. Tsvetkov (Bulgaria). The local organizing committee
consists of the members of Sonneberg Observatory, H.-J. Brauer, B. Fuhrmann, P. Kroll, R. Luthardt
(chair), S. Rossiger.
  The conference aims to bring together specialists from different fields who have a common interest
in observing and interpreting short-term (seconds to minutes) events near and on stellar surfaces and
in stellar interiors. It will provide a platform for the discussion of flare and flash events observed at all
accessible wavelengths, and for the exchange of views on the nature of the physical processes involved.
At the same time, the conference should stimulate discussions on how to make existing sky surveys better
available for general use and to define the characteristics of future sky patrols - wavelength regions,
sensitivities, and time resolutions - which promise best returns according to our present understanding
of the phenomena. The programme outline is:
1. Review talks (without contributed papers)

Solar flares - Gamma-ray bursts

2. Flares (reviews and contributions)

Flares in late type stars, RS CVn stars and T Tau stars (observational studies across the electromagnetic
spectrum) - Theory of flares

3. Flashes (reviews and contributions)

Stellar variability in late evolutionary stages - Radio flashes from transients, cataclysmic variables, Cyg
X-3 - Rapid X-ray variability in AM Her systems - X-ray bursts

Modelling of high energy flashes - Disk instability models of dwarf novae and X-ray transients - Overflow
models

4. Flickering (reviews and contributions)

Flickering in cataclysmic variables - Quasi-periodic oscillations in low-mass X-ray binaries and transients
- Flickering at high energies

5. Instrumental developments / Sky monitoring / Flash search (reviews and contributions)
Plate collections of the world - The Harvard plate collection - The present and future of the Sonneberg
Sky Patrol - Future of optical sky patrols - Results of all-sky monitoring at X- and gamma-rays
Techniques of flash searches (gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, gravitational micro-lensing) - Techniques
and results of rapid follow-up observations of gamma-ray bursts


     More information is available from:

                 H.W. DUERBECK,
                Astronomisches Institut,
                Wilhelm-Klemm-Str. 10, 48149 Muenster, Germany
                Tel. +49-251-83-3561 Fax +49-251-83-3669
                e-mail: iauc151@cygnus.uni-muenster.de (Internet)

                 or

                 J. GREINER,
                Max-Planck-Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik,
                85740 Garching, Germany
                Tel. +49-89-3299-3577 Fax +49-89-3299-3569
                e-mail: mpe::iauc151 (SPAN)