Today’s schedule was short, we had the afternoon off to do whatever we wished. Actually the conference organisers offered to put on a trip of some sort after a vote to find out the most popular choice, but that fell through as organising such a mammoth activity would be too difficult.

This session was the most relevant to me and my work, as it involved the observational side of things. We had some great talks from some friends of mine, and other colleagues in the field.

A very interesting talk was given about statistically ascertaining the point at which planets become gassy, through probabilities. Another was about bow shocks around giant planets, and another was a method to use simultaneous RV and transit methods to reduce stellar noise effects.

But the crowning glory of today was the afternoon bike ride and subsequent dinner/pub. We cycled around 30km int he end (about 19 miles in old money) around the south of Vancouver island. Very nice scenery. We had tapas for dinner, followed by a nice pub trip.

A good day in all.