Palermo (Sicily), Italy -- December 31, 2000-January 6, 2001

ANNOUNCEMENT & CALL FOR APPLICATIONS AND PAPERS

We wish to inform you of the up-coming Third International Conference on The Inspiration of Astronomical Phenomena ("INSAP III"). This meeting will explore mankind's fascination with the sky by day and by night, which has been a strong and often dominant element in human life and culture. The conference will provide a meeting place for artists and scholars from a variety of disciplines (including Archaeology and Anthropology, Art and Art History, Classics, History and Prehistory, the Physical and Social Sciences, Mythology and Folklore, Philosophy, and Religion) to present and discuss their studies of the influences that astronomical phenomena have had on mankind.

The first two meetings (Castel Gandolfo, 1994; Malta, 1999) successfully brought together for the first time people from just such a range of disciplines to address topics of common interest. Papers from the first meeting were published in "Vistas in Astronomy" (1995) and in "Leonardo" (1996), and those from the second will appear shortly in book form. These papers (described on our Website under "the First (or Second) INSAP Conference") give an idea of the range of subjects presented at these meetings. A similar publication is planned for the third meeting.

The meeting will be held overlooking the Mediterranean, a few minutes from the center of Palermo, and will start with a New Year's Eve (and Millennium Eve) banquet December 31, 2000. The meeting rooms will include ample space for display (and sale) of works of art by attendees. Full information on INSAP III and on the earlier conferences, and an application form for the upcoming meeting, can be found on our Website (http://ethel.as.arizona.edu/~white/insap) or obtained from the undersigned. Attendance will be by invitation from among those applying. All presentations and discussions will be in English. This Conference is sponsored by the Palermo Observatory, the Vatican Observatory, and the Steward Observatory, and is hosted by the Palermo Observatory as part of the bicentennial of the discovery there of the first asteroid, Ceres, on the nights of January 1-3, 1801.

Please circulate or post this announcement.

Prof. Salvatore Serio, Palermo Observatory (Chair, Local Organizing Committee) (insap3@oapa.astropa.unipa.it)

Dr. Rolf M. Sinclair, Chevy Chase MD (International Organizing Committee) (rolf@santafe.edu)

Prof. Raymond E. White, Steward Observatory (International Organizing Committee) (REWhite1933@aol.com)