"The Third International Meeting of Dynamic Astronomy in Latin America, (Tercera Reunion sobre Astronomıa Dinamica en Latino-America) which we named ADeLA-2004, was held on November 22-24, 2004 in Merida. It represents the consolidation and continuity of a series of meetings about Astrometry and related topics. The first meeting took place in 2001 in San Juan (Argentina), followed by the second meeting in 2002 in Araraquara (Brazil). Astrometry, after an original and basic contribution not only to Astronomy as a branch of science but also to the direct development of society, starts declining when in the middle of the twentieth century it gets far from astrophysical research and the human mind finds alternative ways to solve the upcoming development problems. This fact has progressively made the financing models for scientific projects focus on and expandtowards the more "productive" areas of Astronomy, leaving aside Astrometry, which we consider a vital area. Even when preparing themselves academically, the astrometrists with their meticulous work, do not find easily government support and ways to compete. The rapid development of detectors and observation techniques during the last decade has almost completely transformed Astronomy. The data collected from observation are once again the main source for the theoreticaldevelopment of this science. Moreover, observations have often changed many theoretical concepts. Astrometry has not been left behind and the future, almost magical, observations include the space projectssuch as GAIA and SIM. These projects should be seen as the spur for the adaptation of Astrometry to the new era, making this area a basic one in the professional training of any astronomer. The astrometrist is the one whomust enlarge his scope to encompass data interpretation, taking advantage of the meticulous and craftsman-like character that this work has always had in order to access the big data bases that will be generated and arein danger of being considered as sources of statistical information. This concern for the future of Astrometry was discussed in this meeting. ADeLA-2004 had two additional innovations. The first one consisted in including a workshop, or a series of conferences on topics related to Astrometry, addressed to students interested in astronomy. This meeting has offered the opportunity to gather important foreign researchers. The participation of ESO Vitacura (Chile) researchers in ADeLA 2004, as well as the usual ADeLA meeting participants, facilitated a wide and diverseseries of lectures on related topics. These lectures were addressed both in a pedagogical and a professional atmosphere which encouraged Venezuelan undergraduate, and graduate students interested in or majoring in astronomy, to participate in both events. The so-called "Taller de ADeLA-2004" took place after the meeting on November 25 and 26. The workshop improved the relationships between the Venezuelan scientific and student communities."

IX LIST OF PRINCIPAL SPEAKERS XI LIST OF PARTICIPANTS 1. REGULARIZATION E. STIEFEL / A Linear Theory of the Perturbed Two-Body Problem (Regul- ization) 3 J. WALDVOGEL / Collision Singularities in Gravitational Problems 21 D. C. HEGGIE / Regularization Using a Time-Transformation Only 34 J. BAUMGAR TE / Stabilization of the Differential Equations of Keplerian Motion 38 F. NAHON / The Particular Solutions of Levi-Civita 45 O. GODAR T / Example ofIntegration of Strongly Oscillating Systems 53 w. BLACK / The Application of Recurrence Relations to Special Perturbation Methods 61 D. G. BETTIS / Numerical Solution of Ordinary Differential Equations (Abstract) 71 II. THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM V. SZEBEHELY / Recent Advances in the Problem of Three Bodies 75 R. F. ARENSTORF / Periodic Elliptic Motion in the Problem of Three Bodies (Abstract) 107 G. KATSIARIS and c. L. GOUDAS / On a Conjecture by Poincare 109 G. KATSIARIS / The Three-Dimensional Elliptic Problem 118 P. G. KAZANTZIS / Second and Third Order Variations of the Three Dimensional Restricted Problem 135 c. G. ZAGOURAS / Planar Periodic Orbits Using Second and Third Variations 146 E. RABE / Elliptic Restricted Problem: Fourth-Order Stability Analysis of the Triangular Points 156 P. GUILLAUME / A Linear Description of the Second Species Solutions 161 III. THE N-BODY PROBLEM AND STELLAR DYNAMICS G. CONTOPOULOS / Problems of Stellar Dynamics 177 w. T. KYNER / Invariant Manifolds in Celestial Mechanics 192 s. J.

Proceedings of the 109th Colloquium of the International Astronomical Union, held in Gaithersburg, Maryland, 27-29 July, 1988

This book is one of the first to provide a general overview of order and chaos in dynamical astronomy. The progress of the theory of chaos has a profound impact on galactic dynamics. It has even invaded celestial mechanics, since chaos was found in the solar system which in the past was considered as a prototype of order. The book provides a unifying approach to these topics from an author who has spent more than 50 years of research in the field. The first part treats order and chaos in general. The other two parts deal with order and chaos in galaxies and with other applications in dynamical astronomy, ranging from celestial mechanics to general relativity and cosmology.

Concise, highly readable book discusses the selection, set-up, and maintenance of a telescope; amateur studies of the sun; lunar topography and occultations; and more. 124 figures. 26 halftones. 37 tables.

This is an unusual book, combining as it does papers on astrobiology, history of astronomy and sundials, but—after all—Woody Sullivan is an unusual man. In late 2003 I spent two fruitful and enjoyable months in the Astronomy Department at the University of Washington (UW) working on archival material accumulated over the decades by Woody, for a book we will co-author with Jessica Chapman on the early development of Australian astronomy. The only serious intellectual distraction I faced during this period was planning for an IAU colloquium on transits of Venus scheduled for June 2004 in England, where I was down to present the ‘Cook’ paper. I knew Woody was also interested in transits (and, indeed, anything remotely connected with shadows—see his paper on page 3), and in discussing the Preston meeting with him it transpired that his 60th birthday was timed to occur just one week later. This was where the seed of ‘Woodfest’ began to germinate. Why not invite friends and colleagues to join Woody in Seattle and celebrate this proud event? I put the idea to Woody and others at UW, they liked it, and ‘Woodfest’ was born.