International Comet Quarterly

The IWCA II was held at the University in Cambridge, England, [not in Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., as reported in the IAU Information Bulletin 84] on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, 1999 Aug. 14-16. This allowed a couple of days travel time for those observing the total solar eclipse of 1999 August 11 from continental Europe and Asia (and indeed we had people attending the IWCA II who observed totality from every country between England and Iran, inclusive). The IWCA II was sponsored by the ICQ and the British Astronomical Association (BAA).

The IWCAs and their predecessors, the American Workshops on Cometary Astronomy (four AWCAs were held in the U.S. during the 1980s), 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 II, and we hope to continue it for future IWCAs.

Invited and contributed talks from IWCA II were published in the January and July 2001 issues of the ICQ.