The First Crisis in Cosmology Conference: Moncao, Portugal, June 23-25 2005.

The author attended the first Crisis in Cosmology Conference of the recently associated Alternative Cosmology Group, and makes an informal report on the proceedings with some detail on selected presentations. In May 2004, a group of about 30 concerned scientists published an open letter to the global scientific community in New Scientist in which they protested the stranglehold of Big Bang theory on cosmological research and funding. The letter was placed on the Internet* and rapidly attracted wide attention. It currently has about 300 signatories representing scientists and researchers of disparate backgrounds, and has led to a loose association now known as the Alternative Cosmology Group[dagger]. This writer was one of the early signatories to the letter, and holding the view that the Big Bang explanation of the Universe is scientifically untenable, patently illogical, and without any solid observational support whatsoever, became involved in the organisation of an international forum where we could share ideas and plan our way forward. That idea became a reality with the staging of the First Crisis in Cosmology Conference (CCC-1) in the lovely, medieval walled village of Moncao, far northern Portugal, over 3 days in June of this year.