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Workshop:
OBSERVING SIMULATIONS and
SIMULATING OBSERVATIONS

single GRaPE-4 computer board MMT on Mount Wilson
This is a one-day dialogue of a small group of experts consisting of roughly equal numbers of observers and theoreticians entitled: "OBSERVING SIMULATIONS AND SIMULATING OBSERVATIONS". The main goal of the discussion is to bridge the gap between the two worlds of observational and theoretical astronomy with emphasis on the observation and modeling of star clusters in the Galaxy.

Background:
The four of us have developed extensive software environments and simulation codes to model star clusters. Now we feel it is time to receive feedback from observers, so that we can present our increasingly realistic data in a way that is most useful for a direct comparison with observations. At the same time, we can give feedback to observers, indicating what would be most useful for us, to learn from new observations. And of course, in this process, we would like to compare notes with other theoreticians as well.

The discussion is planned for Tuesday 30 May, 2000, in the reading room of the Hayden Planetarium in the American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York City. Essentially all presentation devices, including computer projector hardware are available in the reading room.

Our discussion will start at 9 am, and will probably run till 4 or 5 pm. The following persons have confirmed to participate. Immediately following our meeting you are welcome to join the gala reception in the Planetarium where you will have the opportunity to register for the Conference on Stellar Collisions, Mergers and their Consequences, which starts the same day. During this conference, a panel with the same title, "Observing Simulations and Simulating Observations", will be chaired by Piet Hut. At that time, we will report the main results of our one-day dialogue, and invite others present at the conference to give their suggestions and critique.

For more information you are invited to contact Simon Portegies Zwart (e-mail: spz (at) bu.edu) or one of the other contributors: Piet Hut, Steve McMillan and Jun Makino.