Traditional conferences "Magnetic Stars"

at the Special Astrophysical Observatory, Nizhnij Arkhyz

The Special Astrophysical Observatory of Russian Academy of Sciences is one of the leading center of stellar magnetism study. Here for more than 30 years magnetic field observations of different star types were made.

Our observatory every 3-5 years holds an International Conference "Magnetic Stars" during past 30 years. We invite a not very large number of participants (usually about 50) but collegues who visite us are our real friends. We especially appreciate that our friends support us during difficult times, when Russia was in the period of political transformation. In particular, these unstabilities revealed themselves here in North Caucasian region.

Our first conference was made in October, 1980; participants were astronomers from East-European (socialist at that time) countries. Abstract of talks were published in journal "Communications of SAO", volume 32 in 1981.

Talks of all next conferences were published entirely as as separate Procedings books. All of them are indexed in different data bases, in particular, NASA ADS.

Second conference was hold in October 12-17, 1987. The Chairman of Scientific Organizing Comittee was Werner Sch?neich, and the Chairman of Local Organizing Comittee – Yurij V. Glagolevskij. About 40 astronomers from Bulgaria, GDR, Czechoslovakia, Poland and USSR took part in the meeting. Conference contributions were published in book "Magnetic Stars", Editors-in-chief Yu.V. Glagolevskij and I.M. Kopylov (Leningrad, Nauka Publishing House, 1988), 328 pages.

Third conference was hold in the period from September, 30 to October, 5, 1991. That was the time of violent political changes in Eastern Europe, in the end of August, 1991 an attempt of military take-over took place in Moscow. Nevertheless, more than 40 astronomers from USSR, France, Germany, Czecho-Slovakia, Bulgaria, Switherland, Finland and USA were participated in our conference. The Chairman of SOC was A. A. Boyarchuk, the LOC Chairman – Yu. V. Glagolevskij. The conference proceedings were published in book "Stellar Magnetism", Editors-in-chief Yu.V. Glagolevskij and I.I. Romanyuk (Saint Petersburg, Nauka, 1992), 270 pages.

Next, forth conference was hold from May 13 to May 18, 1996. The Chairman of Organizing Committee was Yu. V. Glagolevskij. The conference was dedicated to 100 years anniversary of the Zeeman effect discovery, to 50 years anniversary from first measurements of stellar magnetic fields and to 20 years anniversary of the magnetic observations with the 6-m telescope. The political background at North Caucasus at that time was unstable. In Chechnya military engagements took place. Not all of invited speakers had courage to visit Caucasus. But, with exception of astronomers from former USSR, John Landstreet and Gregg Wade (Canada), Jean-Louis Leroy (France), Kazimierz St?pie? (Poland) and Jan Budaj (Slovakia) participated this conference. Conference Proceedings were published in book "Stellar Magnetic Fields", Editors-in-chief Yu.V. Glagolevskij and I.I. Romanyuk (Moscow, 1997), 236 pages.

Fifth conference was hold in the period from Spetember 24 to 27, 1999. The Chairman of Organizing Committee was Yu.V. Glagolevskij. The political situation in North Caucasus region was very unstable, second Chechen War was started. Terrorists in Moscow blew up a few buildings. Even the question of conference annulation was discussed. But conference was carried out succesfully, about 30 participants took place in our meeting. This conference was the last SAO magnetic meeting with participatition of Vera L. Khokhlova – the founder of magnetic CP-star searches in former USSR. More than 50 talks and posters were presented. They are published in book "Magnetic Fields of Chemically Peculiar and Related Stars", Editors-in-chief Yu. V. Glagolevskij and I. I. Romanyuk (Moscow, 2000), 274 pages.

Sixth conference was hold, as usually, in conference hall of observatory in Nizhnij Arkhyz, from August 27 to 31, 2003. It was dedicated to the 75 years anniversary of the first SAO director – Ivan M. Kopylov. About 40 astronomers participated in the conference. We have invited the leading experts of the world magnetic astronomy with reviews. Very interesting talks with the data of new observations and results of its processing were presented. Conference Proceedings were published in book "Magnetic Stars", Editors-in-chief Yu. V. Glagolevskij, D.O. Kudryavtsev and I.I. Romanyuk (Nizhnij Arkhyz, 2003; ISBN:981-256-049-1), 294 pages. The memories of V.L. Khokhlova from our permanent participants are also published in this book.

Previous, seventh conference was hold from August 28 to 31, 2006. It was dedicated to the 40 years anniversary of the Special Astrophysical Observatory. The Chairman of Organizing Comiittee was I.I. Romanyuk. More than 50 astronomers from Russia, Ukraine, Canada, Germany, Czech Republic, Sweden, Austria and South Korea participated in it. About 60 talks and posters were presented during the Conference. Conference Proceedings were published in the book "Physics of Magnetic Stars", Editors-in-chief: D.O. Kudryavtsev and I.I. Romanyuk, (Nizhnij Arkhyz, ISBN:5-91155-009-1), 368 pages.

For exception of SAO staff members, who very actively worked on organizing of our conference, the large contribution in the organization of meeting our guests in Moscow during last 30 years have been made by Tatiana Ryabchikova. Without having a hand of Tanya, the organization of international conference at SAO would be impossible. For many years, Tanya was the first person seen by our foreign participants after they crossed the border of Russia. Now Misha Sachkov assist her in this noble task.

The Organizing Committee acknowledge assistance from the administration and staff of SAO and personally from the Director Yu.Yu. Balega for his constant assistance of our conferences.

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