MULTI-SPIN GALAXIES 2016

Conference venue

Location.
The Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences is located in the western part of the North Caucasus in Karachay-Cherkessian Republic. The administrative centre, library, scientific laboratories, computer centre, hotel, and apartment houses of the observatory are located in the observatory campus called Nizhnij Arkhyz, which is 25 km to the south from village Zelenchukskaya. Nizhnij Arkhyz (local name is Bukovo, because of the beech forests around - [`buk] as pronounced in Russian) is located in a valley of the river Bolshoy Zelenchuk at a height of 1300 м above sea level. The observational optical base of the Observatory is in 17 km far from the campus in the mountainside of Mt.Pastukhova at a height of 2100 m A.S.L. in the Alpine meadow zone and includes the telescope with 6m main mirror diameter (the Big Telescope Azimuthal - BTA) that is the largest in Europe and also small telescopes with the 1-m and 0.6-m diameter mirrors. The RATAN-600 radio telescope is located in 25 km far from Nizhnij Arkhyz in the Southern part of Zelenchukskaya village. It has an original design of array with a variable structure of the reflecting surface executed in the form of a circle with a diameter of 600 m. It is the largest tool in the world within this class of radio telescopes. A parabolic dish array of 32 m diameter is located between RATAN-600 and Bukovo. This radio telescope belongs to St.-Petersburg Institute of Applied Astronomy.

Transport.
The nearest airport is Mineralnye Vody ( MRV), it's an international airport while the most of international flights use connections thought Moscow or St. Petersburg. There is a normal quality auto-road connection from the main nearest transport nodes: a/p Mineralnye Vody (~200 km) and railway station Nevinnomyssk (~130 km). SAO will provide buses and/or vans to meet the conference participants in both places and to return them after the meeting to these places.

Outdoor
The program of the meeting will include a time for outdoor activities. This time will be devoted to excursions to the SAO main facilities---the 6-m optical telescope BTA (15 km from Nizhnij Arkhyz, at an altitude of 2100 m above sea level) and the RATAN-600 radio telescope (20 km downstream from Nizhny Arkhyz, near the district center Zelenchukskaya) and to the ancient capital of the Alania (with the temples of the Xth century which are the most ancient Christian monuments in Russia), and/or to the mountain resort Arkhyz.

Weather.
The weather in the middle and end of September is usually quite warm in the daytime (around +20 C) and chilly at night (+5-+10 C). s

Participants arrive/depature to Mineralnye Vody airport: PDF