Dynamic Astronomy in Latin America

Book excerpt: "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."