NVO Fall Team Meeting

Socorro, November 17-18 2004

The NVO fall team meeting will be held in Socorro, New Mexico, November 17-18 (Weds/Thurs). The meeting will take place in the auditorium at the VLA AOC (http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/), on the New Mexico Tech campus. You may assume the usual 1-1/2 day schedule, beginning ~9am on Wednesday and concluding around lunch time on Thursday. A detailed agenda will be prepared in the coming few weeks, although you may be certain that a major focus will be the January science applications.

For those who wish to see the VLA a tour will take place in the afternoon of Tuesday the 16th. It takes 3-4 hours to drive to the VLA site and back and to tour the site, so plan on the tour taking most of the afternoon.

Also of interest is the Festival of the Cranes, which takes place 16-21 November, at the height of the fall bird migration down the Rio Grande. For those with the time, a visit to the Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge 15 miles south of Socorro could be well worthwhile. Many associated events are planned during the Festival, for example one can tour Trinity Site where the first atomic bomb was tested. More information on the Festival can be found at http://www.friendsofthebosque.org/crane/.

Most people will want to travel to Socorro by flying to the Albuquerque International Airport (ABQ), renting a car, and driving to Socorro. Socorro is located about 60 miles south of the airport and the drive takes about an hour each way. The airport is on the south side of Albuquerque just off I-25 hence the drive is very straightforward.

We have reserved a block of 18 rooms at the Holiday Inn Express in Socorro, and another 12 rooms at the NRAO Guest house. The rooms are blocked for the nights of 16-18 November. The Holiday Inn is located on the main road through Socorro, about 1 mile from NRAO headquarters, close to restaurants and shopping (although nothing in tiny Socorro is far away). The NRAO Guest house is located in a pleasant setting on the NM Tech campus within walking distance of NRAO headquarters. The rooms in the Guest house are more spartan than those at the hotel, but the setting is nicer.

The deadline for making hotel reservations at the Holiday Inn is November 1. The rate is $72.23 including tax. Please specify the group name as NRAO-NVO when making your reservation (if this doesn't work the internal hotel pick-up numbers are 64598300 and 64597397; contact us if you have any problems). We recommend making your hotel reservations as soon as possible, especially if you will be coming in early or departing late, as all the hotels in Socorro will fill up for the Festival.

Holiday Inn Express
1100 California NE
Socorro, NM 87801
(505) 838-0556

To reserve a room at the NRAO Guest house you can either contact the NRAO Reservationist, Christine Wingenter at nmreserve@aoc.nrao.edu or 505-835-7357, or fill out the Web form at http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/cgi-bin/newv.pl. The rate for a single room is $32, double room is $37 and apartment (2 bedrooms) is $53 per night.

Bob Hanisch
Doug Tody

-- BobHanisch - 11 Oct 2004