Communications in Asteroseismology, Vol. 142 (December 2002)

This is no empty bag! During the last decade, Asteroseismology has grown to a level where the customary, wonderful informal contacts between different workers in a small field are no longer enough to stay organized. So, why not bundle our expertise in a more organized way, apply for financial assistance that individuals could only dream about, and use some of these funds to support young scientists and allow them to move between different groups? And to be a bit selfish, why should you have to reinvent the wheel in your own country in your attempts to try to persuade the various funding agencies that asteroseismology is an important astronomical field? The supporting sci entific arguments used in your proposal have already been written down several times by your colleagues in other countries. It appears that a loose association of asteroseismologists needs to be formed to support these and many other common interests. Enter BAG, the Belgian Asteroseismology Group. Do not be misled by the unassuming name! Under the leadership of Conny Aerts, in October, this group invited representatives from different institutions to Leuven in order to plan an Asteroseismology Society and to write a joint proposal to the EU to establish a European Network of Excellence in Asteroseismology (ENEAS). The meeting was a smashing success with a high level of science. The discussions on details of new committees and offices and how the offices are to be filled were kept to a minimum. Such (necessary) discussions make people like me turn and run away fast. Conny divided the time beautifully. Since the chances of obtaining EU financing for the ENEAS proposal to the EU regrettably are small, the formation of an asteroseismological society to assist the scientists may turn out to have the largest long-term impact. What does this editorial on the organization of the asteroseismologists have to do with a Delta Scuti Newsletter? I may be biased in this matter, I admit. But the growth in our knowledge of the behaviour of Delta Scuti and related stars has been almost exponential during the last decades. Due to this work, Delta Scuti stars form one of the main areas in asteroseismology. Furthermore, it appears that every discovery of a new type of pulsating variable in the end leads to the same unsolved astrophysical questions such as mode selection, amplitude and period variability. The answers to these scientific questions may come from selecting the suitable pieces of the puzzle from many different types of stars. Successful asteroseismology means many types of stars, from solar-type all the way to the hot PG 1159 stars.......... We hope that you find this issue of the newsletter interesting. The next volume of the Communications will again be devoted to all aspects of asteroseismology. So keep the news and articles coming!