International Comet Quarterly

The IWCAs and their predecessors, the American Workshops on Cometary Astronomy (four AWCAs were held in the United States between 1982 and 1987), were established by the ICQ as a forum for bringing amateur and professional astronomers together with the goals of (1) improving the acquisition of cometary information, (2) increasing understanding as to what science can be gained through observing comets by both amateurs and professionals, and (3) providing a forum in which cometary astronomers can meet others from distant geographical locations and discuss various issues. This concept was continued for IWCA I (held in February 1994 in Selvino, Italy), IWCA II in Cambridge, England, IWCA III in Paris, and we plan to continue it for future IWCAs.

We are tentatively planning an IWCA to be held in Spain right after the total solar eclipse of 2026 August 12 there. IWCA VII will be held in memory of long-time ICQ Associate Editor Charles S. Morris (1952-2025). More details will be provided here as we have them, but it is expected that the meeting will last one or two days and will begin on Friday, 2026 August 14 (though a single day on Saturday, 2026 August 15 is not out of the question). This will be the seventh IWCA and the eleventh ICQ Workshop, dating back to 1982 (and would make the average time between successive Workshops 4-5 years).

Holding Workshops around the time of major astronomical events has the advantage of potentially bringing a more international group of attendees, drawing those who might not otherwise travel to such a meeting from a long distance.

Invited and contributed talks from the IWCAs are sometimes published in special Proceedings issues of the ICQ.

History of American (AWCAs) and International Workshops
   on Cometary Astronomy (IWCAs), including planned future meetings

Workshop    LOCATION                 DATE               Near time of ...
--------    --------                 -------            ----------------
AWCA I      Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.    1982 May 1
AWCA II     Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.     1983 Oct. 1
AWCA III    Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.       1985 June 17       Halley's comet
AWCA IV     Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.     1987 Feb. 21-22    Halley's comet

IWCA I      Selvino, Italy           1994 Feb. 18-19    good Alps skiing!
IWCA II     Cambridge, England       1999 Aug. 14-16    total solar eclipse
IWCA III    Paris, France            2004 June 4-6      Venus transit
IWCA IV     Shanghai, China          2009 July 23       total solar eclipse

IWCA V      Rio de Janeiro, Brazil   2009 August 8      IAU General Assembly
IWCA VI     St. Louis, MO, U.S.A.    2017 Aug. 23       total solar eclipse
IWCA VII #  (Spain)                  2026 Aug. 14-15    total solar eclipse
________
# = tentative

Cometary Science Center/Archive