This is the second workshop of the Astrophysics of Neutron Stars Project, building on the success of the first workshop in July 2007. All of the exciting research on neutron stars, the topics listed for the inaugural 2007 workshop will be included in the second workshop. A major theme of this year's workshop will be XEUS which was just selected for the Cosmic Visions. As a first preview, we note the description of the last year's workshop.

We are still riding a tide of exciting new observations, and many recent developments in theory that may be converging to an understanding of main properties of neutron stars. A mass and radius determination is likely to be at hand. Internal structure and dynamics is being discussed again with claims of precession and possible excitation of various modes. The thermal spectra of neutron star surfaces and atmospheres are posing intriguing questions, as well as clues to magnetic field strengths on the surface. The multipole composition of magnetar fields is being addressed and may be determined soon. This question is linked with the possible presence of fallback disks around some neutron stars, and therefore with the range of initial conditions of neutron stars. Kilohertz QPOs, now observed from the slowly rotating SGRs as well as x-ray millisecond pulsars and other LMXBs, are providing leads to the dynamics near the neutron star, perhaps pertaining more to the disks around the star. The workshop will focus on all these new developments in the field.

Another major aim of this meeting is to bring the teams that build instruments for high energy astrophysics together and discuss their work and future plans. Several very exciting national and international high energy astrophysics missions have currently been built and some of them are at advanced planning stage. We expect contributions from instrument teams to guide researchers into what we can expect to achieve in the future with the new generation of missions.