Heidelberg, August 06, 2009

Dear colleagues,


Many thanks for registering for the Heidelberg conference on "The Milky
Way and the Local Group - Now and in the Gaia Era".  The (almost) final
program as well as instructions for presentations can be found here:

http://www.ari.uni-heidelberg.de/meetings/milkyway2009/program.html


1. Poster formats

In addition to the 144 talks, we have approximately 92 posters.  The
poster boards are designed to hold four posters in portrait format,
two on either side of the board.  We recommend to use ISO A0 format
(841 x 1189 mm) for your posters, but we can accommodate posters with
a width of up to 94 cm or 37 inches.  Pushpins will be provided.
Please feel free to put up your posters already during the reception on
Sunday afternoon.


2. Reception/registration on Sunday, August 30

There will be an informal reception on Sunday, August 30, at the meeting
venue (building 308 on the Neuenheimer Feld campus) from 16:00 to 19:00,
during which you can register.  Sandwiches and drinks will be available.

    *We encourage you to pass by on Sunday in order to pick up
     your registration materials, to put up your poster, etc.*

This will be very helpful in order to allow us a timely start on Monday
morning.


3. How to get to the meeting venue by bus or streetcar

The conference management organisation UniTT has provided instructions
on how to reach the meeting venue as well as a map at this web page:

http://www.unitt.de/dboutput/stdoutput.hei?table=eventpages&context=365&nr=4378&lang=1&context=365&id=8

In addition, you may find this schematic overview of the Heidelberg
public transportation system useful:

http://www.vrn.de/imperia/md/content/linienplaene/stadtlinienplaene/heidelberg_schematisch.pdf

If your hotel is located in the historic old town of Heidelberg
("Altstadt"), the bus lines 31 (getting off at "Bunsengymnasium") or 32
(exiting at "Kopfklinik") provide convenient connections to the meeting
venue.  If your hotel is located in the vicinity of the main train
station ("Bergheim" or "Weststadt") then you may want to use the bus
line number 32 (exiting at "Kopfklinik") or the streetcar lines number
21 or 24 (getting off at "Bunsengymnasium").  Your hotel staff can
advise you on bus or streetcar connections and direct you to the most
convenient bus or streetcar stop near the location of your hotel.


Additional information will be made available by UniTT at the above
web page.


4. Weather forecast

A six-day weather forecast for Heidelberg can be found here:
http://www.wetteronline.de/Baden-Wuerttemb/Heidelberg.htm
Only the first three days will be displayed.  To see the extended forecast
for the next three days, please click on "Trend" in the menu underneath
the weather symbols.  For sunrise and sunset times, please press "Geo".


5. Conference dinner and transport back down

About 160 people have signed up for the conference dinner on Wednesday,
September 2 after the guided tour of the Heidelberg castle.  For those
participating in the castle tour it is a short walk up to Molkenkur.
For information on how to reach Molkenkur by public transport (funicular),
please refer to the "Social Events" web page.  Since the funicular stops
operating after 20:20, we have arranged for three buses to transport
people down.  The first two buses will depart Molkenkur at 22:00, and
the third one at 22:30.  The buses are provided for free.  Each bus can
take approximately 50 passengers.  Alternatively, the Molkenkur staff will
be happy to call a taxi for you.  If you share the taxi with others, this
should only cost you a few Euros if you are going downtown.


6. Instructions for talks

The typical talk times are 20 or 30 min including discussion.  In each
of the two auditoriums there will be a PC and a Mac laptop.  We
encourage you to transfer your talk to one of these prior to the
beginning of your session.  Alternatively you may use your own laptop,
but there is only a limited number of additional beamer connections.
If you choose to use your own laptop, please make sure that you set it
up and try it out before the beginning of the session in order to avoid
any loss of time.  Our program is quite packed.  We also ask that you
make pdf versions of your talks available to us during the meeting so
that we can post them on the meeting web pages.


We look forward to seeing you in Heidelberg in a few weeks.
Have a safe trip,

Eva Grebel and Uli Bastian