The conference and the lodging will be at the Hôtel Indépendance, downtown Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, is in the center of this country of Western Africa. The University of Ouagadougou has an Astrophysics program since 2007 (started with the help of the Université de Montréal and the Université de Provence) and a small Observatory, for teaching purposes. A project for a research telescope is under way: the Marly telecope (EROS project) is being moved from La Silla, in Chile, to mount Djaogari (13d 46' 17" N / 0d 08' 00" W), in Burkina Faso.

The Hôtel Indépendance has a lot of experience at holding such events. It is often used for large meetings for the whole sub-region (Western Africa) and it has meeting rooms that can accommodate up to 400 persons (we expect around 150 participants). For the meeting, we want to use two rooms, which are side-by-side: one room will be used for the talks and the other to set up the posters and the coffee breaks for the whole week. The exhibition stands will be in a large lobby in front of those two rooms. Wireless Internet will be available in both meeting rooms and in the guest rooms at the hotel. The meeting rooms are equipped with modern projection facilities. More information on the hotel can be found at http://www.azalaihotels.com/independance.php .

December is the best month to be in Ouagadougou. The rain season has ended two months before and the very hot months are two months away. Nights are cool and days are warm. Over the last ten years, on average in December, the minimum temperature has been 18C, the maximum 34C with 0 mm of rain (very dry)! Being close to the equator (~12d), the sun is less threatening than at higher latitudes. A good hat and sunglasses are still recommended. It is a very good time to travel in Western Africa. Tours will be proposed for before, and after the meeting and small excursions for the Wednesday afternoon and the accompanying partners and children on the other meeting days.