Cool Stars 14 - Submitted Abstract # 35 This version created on 05 October 2006 Pinning Down the Solar Neon Abundance using non-LTE Results from Orion B stars Katia Cunha, NOAO Ivan Hubeny, University of Arizona Thierry Lanz, University of Maryland We present results from non-LTE neon abundance calculations for a sample of B stars in the Orion association. The neon abundances were derived by means of non-LTE model atmospheres which are fully blanketed and by adopting an extensive neon model atom constructed with updated atomic data. Our calculations show that the non-LTE treatment results in a much lower neon abundances when compared to the simplified LTE values; the non-LTE results being lower by roughly 0.5 dex than the LTE. In addition, we find that the young Orion stars show a very homogeneous neon abundance distribution with an average neon that is higher by roughly 0.3 dex than the most recent assessment of the solar abundance. We discuss B-star abundance results for other light elements, such as C,N,O,Mg and S available in the literature and compare with the solar abundances in order to argue that the derived neon abudances for the Orion B-star sample are a good representation of the solar neighbourhood neon abundance. We argue that the Orion abundance of A(Ne)=8.1 should represent a reliable indirect estimate of the solar neon abundance value. ----------------------------------