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No . 26 Vernal Eq uinox 1980

CANADIAN ASTRor~OMICAL SOCIETY

SOCIETE CANADIENNE D'ASTRONOMIE

Editor: Col in Scarfe , University of Victoria

Assoc . Edito r: Doug Hub e , Univer sit y of Alberta

Deadline

The next (Summer Solstice) issue will no t appear unt il after the Ha -' ifax meeting , since the edit or \'"il1 be away f r om Victoria for most of June. The deadline , therefore , ,vil] be June JO , and will be a dhe red t o even mo r e rigorously than usual .

- 1 - 2

Editorial

The next annual meeting of the C.A.S. will not only be the first for six years to be held on the Atlantic coast, but will also be the first occasion on which our society has met jointly with the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. As most members are aware, especially the many who are also active members of the R.A.S.C. , this should provide a valuable opportunity for discussions be tween professional and amateur astronomers . I believe that such contacts are importa nt f o r s ever al reasons.

First, it is still true that observations by skilled amateurs, particularly of transient phenomena or variable obj e c ts, frequently fill important gaps in our knowledge of such matters, and we need t o continue to assure amateurs that their observing efforts are valued and app r eciate d.

Se cond, amateurs provide a valuable channel for dissemination of astronomical news and information to the general public. And, as those of us who have spoken to R.A.S.C. centre s know, there is a g reat difference between the sympathetiC' and knowledgeable audiences of the R.A.S.C., and the indifferent ones we sometimes face in other public lectures.

Third, support for astronomy has often been f orthc oming even when other basic sciences have suffered. This is due t o large measure, I believe, to a widesp read public interest in a stronomy , which is most obviously manifested by amateur astronome rs, who a r e of course many times more numerous than p rofession a ls .

I hope therefor e that ma ny members o f the C.A.S. will not only atte n d our own me etin g in Halifax but will s tay f o r the rema inder of the R.A .S .C. 's meeting. The joint me eting should prove bene fic ial t o professiona l a nd a ma t e ur a l ike , as indicated by J ohn Pe r cy in his letter in this issue.

Colin Scarfe 3

NOTES FROM THE SECRETARY OF CASCA

Notice of Motion

At the February 2 1980 meeting of the Council of CASCA, Council recommended that a motion be presented at the Annual General Meeting to be held in Halifax on June 27, 1980. The motion deals with increase in membership fees. Council proposes that fees be increased as follows: Present fee New Fee Ordinary Member $20 $25 Student Member 10 12 Corporate Member 50 60

Request for Notice of Motion

Council recommends very strongly that members, intending to present any substantial motion (one dealing with policy or opinion of the Society as a whole, or with financial matters) at an Annual General Meeting, give notice of motion to the secretary at l east two weeks before the meeting. The reasons for such a notice of motion are (a) the need of factual information for productive discussion of motion and (b) the need for Council and members to be briefed in detail on the circumstances pertaining to a motion calling for immediate action. I hereby request that any member, contemplating the presentation of a substantial motion, at the Annual General Meeting in Ha lifax on June 27, 1980, please send a notice of motion to me by June 13, 1980 ,

Richard Bochonko, Department o f Mathematics & Astronomy 373 University College, University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3T 2M8, Canada

NOTE S FROM THE FEBRUARY 2 1980 MEF.T JN G OF COUNCIL OF CASCA

1. At the Annual General Meeting h e ld in Vancouver on May 25, 1979, the following H:otion was moved and passed: Th,? CLJlI.adian AstY'onomical Society deplores the practice of some Canadian universi t1'.es of offering teaching rosi t1:0YlS /uU;h apP01:nUnents of less than one year. 4

The meeting requested that CASCA communicate the motion to the university community. Council has decided t hat it would be worthwhile to communicate directly with universities where teach ing appointments of less than a year are offered. In this regard, the president of CASCA, Carman Costain, requests that he be informed of universities where this practice is followed. He will then write to these universities to indicate our feelings. Please write to: Dr. C.H. Costain, Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory Box 248 Penticton, B.C . V2A 6K3

2. A partial solution to the problem (discussed at the last three Annual .General Meetings) of NSERC grants to rese archers who do not hold faculty appoint­ ments at universities appears in the proposed NSERC five-year plan. A provision for a University Research Associate program has been presented. Council welcomed this proposal.

3. Council expressed its great deli ght that the Associate Committee on Astronomy has enthusiastically placed the CASCA proposal for a Very Long Baseline Array as the top priority item of ma jor instrumentation i n As tronomy in Canada. Council congratulated the Radio Astronomy Committe e for its excellent work .

4. The journal Astronomy and Astrophysics ha s i ncrea sed its subscription rate by a factor of 3 . This adds to the s t rain that l ibraries are already experiencing. Council passed a motion protesting the increase in t he journal subscription rates and will communicate the protest to the editors . 5

T H E ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOC IETY OF CANADA LA SOCl ETE ROY ALE D'ASTRONOMI E DU CANADA

I ~.+ M E RTON STREET TUIZUNTU. ONTARIO M-.!S :22:2 t-!arch 4 , 1980

Dear CASCA ~embe r :

TIle Ro yal As tronomical Society of Canada and CASCA will be holding a joint meeting i n Ha lifax, r.s ., in the last week of June 1980 . Tenta tively , the RASC meeting extends f rom Friday , June 27 to Monday, June 30 , and the CAS CA me eting ext ends from Wednes day evening , June 25 t o Saturday even in ~ , :t' I1. E ~ fl . You will be receiving a det ailed outline of t he Uleet ing s hortly .

I t is my pleasure as Na tional Pres ident of the RASC to invite yo u to t ake f ull part in t he joint aspects of t h e meetinp.:s , a nd to stay over for the r emainder of the RASC meetinr, . The two Local Organizing COT!11l1ittees have gone to great effort t o arrange an i nteresting program of events, especially for June 27 and 28, the overlapping portion of the meetinp.:s . I know t hat you will f ind a l l the events of t he RAs e meeting inter esting and enjoyable , and that you will benefit from l earni~g about and supporting the work of the RA se.

This is the first joint IT'e e tinp of our two societi es . Cor.,e ar.d heIr rr:a ke it a freet success :

Yo urs s incerely,

John R. Per cy rational Fresicent 6

NOTICES OF MEETINGS

SIXTH INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON ULTRAVIOLET AND X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY OF ASTROPHYSICAL AND LABORATORY PLASMAS (IAU COLLOQUIUM NO. 55)

PLACE: Centre f or Research in Experimental Space Science, York University, Toronto

DATES: July 7 - 10, 1980

STRUCTURE AND TOPICS: The format of the meetings will be very similar to those of previous Colloquia in the series (Utrecht 1971, Ha rvard 1974, Imperial College 1977). There will be a series of invited papers, reviews, presentations of recent results of large research programmes, bound together with contributed papers which are solicited. It is anticipated that many of the papers will centre on observations from the Internationa l Ultraviole t Explorer Satellite. It is also anticipated that sessions will be held on Solar, Stella r, Interstellar , Cosmic and Laboratory Plasmas, t ogether with a session or panel discussi on on Instrumentation . Poster sessions may be organised if appropriat e.

CONTACT ADDRESS : Professor R.W. Nicholls Director , Centre for Research in Experimental Space Science, York University 4700 Kee]e St., Downsview, Onta rio M3J lP3, Cana da 7

UNIVERSITY

Departnent o f ~stLono~y David Dunlap Obser vatory

J U N E INS TIT UTE 1930

HODERll ASTRO~:mfY A:JJ ASTROPHYSICS

The Gradu:'! ::e Depa rtEl ent of As tr:mQ r:!y end t he David Dunlap Observatory of t he Univers i t y o~ Toront o announce the 1980 JU~t: I NSETtTTL Th i s Hill be h el f1 fro:!} Tl!ESDAY June 3 to FRIDAY Jl;l,E 6 inclus ive, on t he St. George ca mpus of the Unive.n;ity. Four invi ted speakers \>d.11 E';::. ch preseut four lectures on topics related to r ec e nt developments in astronomy and astrophysics. The speakers and their major fields of interest are:

W. DAVID AP.:'lETT - Univers ity of Chica go Nuc1 C-O,!l !:f }l;tf ~ ~AJ.:, o.f".d dyr'.a. mzc.ai. C-\w iu..tto H 06 .6-tc/1..6

ARTHli1{ N . cox - Los Alarr:os Scientific Labora tory

ST EPHEN S. HU RP... :'\ Y - Ce;:-.t r e f or Astrophysics, Camb ridge, Mass.

BEN M. ZUCKERHAN - Univ ersit)' of H 2 rylal~c

TIle proceedings will be infor~l , and there will be many oppo rtuni ties for the speaker s and participants to meet together, dering the day and a t evening social events.

GEacuate students ) faculty r:: ~: rr:ber 5 and o ther sd.elitists whose inter ests lie in one or more o f these fields are invited to attend and participat e.

If you are interested in attenclng , a nd wo uld like to receive r egistration infor ma tion, please writ e to:

PROFES SOR JOHN R. PERCY DEPA RTHENT OF ASTROm:~ UNI VERS ITY OF T O Rot~TO TORONTO , CAN.ADA HSS 1.1:.. 7

a s soon as possible.

Rooms f or s ingle p E ~so ns and G~rr i e d persons (un2ccorn panied by childr en) will be available in the Univer s ity residences at a non:inal cos t. Th ere ~,!ill 1::-e 2. !!lodes t regis tration f ee f or par ticipants fron out s i de the tnive~s i ty of Toront o. 8

POSITION AVAILABLE

Department of Physics

The University of Calgary

Astronomy postdoctoral position available immediately for

...,ork on synthetic light curvE!"and related work on close binaries. The ap pointment is f'Jr one year, possibly renewable.

Sen d app I ·Icatlon, . curr ·lculum v·ltae and two letters of reference or enquiries to:

Dr. E. F. Mil on e Department of Physics The University of Calgary Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N IN4 (403-284-5412/53 85)

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

An opening ~"ill exist at the bottom of the AssIstant Professor rank starting July 1, 1980, at The University of Calgary. The appl !cant

should have research expe ~ len ce in one of the following: astrophysics and astronomy; applied radioactivity; atmospheric physics; biophysics;

electron paramagnet ic resonance; mass 5p cc tro~ etry. Appl icants should submit a resume and have three letters of reference sent to .. Dr . C. A. Coombes Department of Ph ysics The Uni versity of Ca lgary Calgary, Alberta , Canada T2N tN4 9

REPORT OF TEE CASCA EDUCATlmT Cm~ITTEE 1979

The cOTmnitt ee consists of Drs. S . Demers, D.L. DuPuy , D.P. Rube, J.R. Percy , and C.D. Scarfe. The committee met once during 1979 (at the IAU in Mo ntrea l in August) , and has heen engaged in the following projects.

1. "Education No t es" continues t o appear bi-monthly (usually) in the Journal of the R.A.S . C., under the editorship of Drs. Demers and DuPuy . The column is financially SUPforted by CASCA and the P~SC .

2. The committee was involved in the planning of a very successful series of meetings of Commission 46: The Teaching of Astronomy, at the IAU in Montreal in Aurust. These included a workshop , for high school teachers, on the t eaching of astronomy . Dr . DuPuy , as Canada ' s representative to Com.mission 46, played the major role in these arrangements.

3 . The revision and expansion of the booklet "Source }~a terials for the Teaching of Astronomy" has been comp l eted (as of February 1980), and copies of the new version are being sent to 40+ astronomy teach­ ing depart ments in Canada, observatories a nd planetaria in Canada, a nd i ndividuals ",ho are involved in the coordination of education in astronomy . The production and mailing of this bookl e t were made possible through the support of the Erindale Campus, University o f Toronto .

4. Th e cont ents of a set of 20 slides on astronomy in Canada have been decided upon, and t he slides are nov! being assembled. This work should be completed in time for orders t o be taken at the 1980 CASCA / RASC meetinf.s in June.

5. Individual members of the ccrr.mi ttee have been active in var ious proj ec t s in the teaching of astronomy at the local l evel.

March 19 RO John R. Percy Chairman 10

19th Meeting of the Associate Committee on Astronomy and t he Canadian National Commit t ee for the IAU.

The 19th mee ting of NRC's Assoc iate Committee on Astronomy and the Canadian National Comm ittee for the IAU was held on February 4, 1980 in Ottawa. Rumour has it that some members were reluctant to ven ture into Ottawa in the dead of winter, but so far as we know, there were no casualties.

Most of the IA U business centered around Alan Batten's report on the Mont real General Assembly. Th e re gistered a ttendance at the G.A. wa s 1, 965 and it is probable that the total a tten dance, including those who did not register, exceeded 2 ,100. It appears that the total attendance at General Assembli es has stabi 1 ized a t between 2,000 and 2,500 in spite of increases in IAU membership. Alan poi nted ou t that the overall success of the Ge neral Assembly was due to the hard work of many people. The Chairman of the Local Or ganizing Committee was Gill es Beaudet. Tony Moffat was primarily responsible for the organization of the social programme which was generally s uccessful . Some d i ff icul ti es were encounte red in a few of the tours, large l y because the tour company did not believe the Organizing Committee's est imates of the demand for these tours. Serge Demers was responsible for ho tel and residence accommodations, and Gilles Fontaine made t he nece ssary arrangements for cafeteria services. MIl e Hugu ette Gui lbault worked full · time on ar rangements fo r the conference, Georges Micha ud organized the projecti onis t s and Madeleine Berge vi n c hose and s upervised the large numb e r of other short- term employees . John Gla spey and Marie Giard looke d after the exhi b its. During t he Assemb l y the Organizing Committee ran a dai 1y newspaper edited by Michael Oven den at the personal cost of not at t e nding any of the sc i entific sessions. Alan a l so pointed o ut that t he Canadian astro­ nomical community should be e s pecia l ly grateful to the Un i ve r site de Montreal whi ch hosted the IAU and generously sup~orted the confere nce.

The total financial turnover uf the Na tiona l Organiz ing Committee was a bou t $430,000, and Al an reported that , after a ll t he dust has sett l ed, there would be a surplus of about 516 , 000 . Th e Commit t ee decided that the 11

bulk of this surplus should be held in trust by the National Organizing Committee, and used to provide travel grants for Canadian astronomers to attend the next General Assembly, whi ch is expected to be held in Athens, Greece in 19 82 .

Th e Committee offered a formal note of thanks to the members of the National and Local Organizing Comm i ttees and particularly to the Committee Chairman, Alan Batten and Gilles Beaudet, for their work in connection with the Gen era l Assemb l y.

Th e members then turned the ir atte ntion to Assoc iate Committee bu si ne ss. Ian Halliday report ed tha t the VLBA proposal and a l ette r containing the text of the Associate Committee mo ti on endors ing it had been submitted to Dr. Schneider, President of NRC. There has not been sufficient time for an official response yet, but Jack Locke indicated that he felt the proposal had been favourably received by the President. Official indicati on of NRC support fo r the proposal would be its inclusi on in the 5-year plan presentl y being prepa red by the Council. Ultimately, approval wi 11 have to come from Treasury Board or the Cabinet.

You may recal l that one of the other matters that kept the commi ttee members awake at the previous meeting was the unexpected failure of NSERC to provide travel fu nd s for fis cal year 1979-80 i n support of university astronomers who we re g i ven time on the CFHT. Fortunately (or unfortunately , depending on your viewpoint), comp letion of the te l escope was sufficiently delayed that this did not pose a serious problem. However, there is cl early a need for such s upport in 1980-81, and Ian Halliday reported that he had written t o NSERC, emphasizing this ne ed and the concern of the ACA that i t should be met. Georges Michaud, who is a member of NSERC's Grant Selection Committee for Physics and Astronomy , expressed his understanding that this money had been al located for 1980-81.

Sti 1 1 wi th CFHT busines s , the re hav e been a numb e r of person ne l changes at the t op. At Dr. Schn e i der's request , the ACA had submitted the names of four a s tronomers f rom wh i ch he chose t he first two as the new Can adian appointees t o the Sc ien t ific Adv isory Counc i 1, replacing Bill Wehlau and Gord on Walker . The t wo new me mb ers a re John Landst reet and Da vid Hartwick, who join Bob Ga r rison and John Hutchings as the Canadians 12

on the SAC. The se f ou r now con s t itute t he Canadian Applica t i ons Committee

(CAC) for the CFHT, 50 be nice to them - they hold the fate of your proposals in the i r hands .

In h i s report on the CFH Telescope, Don MacRae me nt ioned some other chang e s o f i nt ere st. He and J ack Locke have been replaced on the CFHT Board by Si dney van den Berg h an d Bi l l We hlau . Also, Dr. Cayrel is resigning as Di r ector of t he Ob servatory , an d negotiations are underway with Ren e Rac ine t o become h is s uccessor. In a ll , the CFHT staff wi 11 total 34 in 1980, i nclud i ng t he Di recto r , Associate Di rector , 3 other astronomers and 2 engineers seconded by CNRS and NRC for t he dura t ion of the running-in phase .

Jack Locke reported on instrumen tation de ve l opment s at DAO. Work on the secondary Cassegrain mirror and the f/?4 Coude spectrograph is proceeding satisf ac t ori ly . However, Spect rog ra ph I is progressing more s low l y than anticipated a nd it is not expected t o be ready until March, 1981, at t he earliest.

Bi 11 Wehlau summarized recent activities of the SAC. It has recommended t hat Spect rograph II I U/3.?) be bui l t a t the DAO with a budge t of $240,000, a nd t hat the automated Perot - Fab ry be acquired through 1 'Observatoire de Marsei lIe for $50,000. Bill a l so di scussed the rules es tabl ished for al locating CFHT observi ng time . The Ti me Al locat ion Comm ittee, which consists of 5 memb e rs - 2 from Ca nada , 2 from France and I from Hawai i , wil l assign final priorities to the propo sals s ponsored by the CFHT agencies. In 50 doing, the TAC wil I be guided by the priorit ie s assi gne d by the sponsoring age nci es - for Can adi an s this means t he priorities assigned by the CAC . Also, the TAC is to take into consi deration the fea s ib i l ity of t he proposal, the need for eff icient use of the te l escope , the des i rabil i ty of maximum coope ration among the astron omers rep resent ed by the 3 aqenc i es, and a fair assignment of bright and dark obse rving per i ods . Th e recommenda t ions of th~ TAC wil l be transmitted to the Direc tor who wi 11 produce the observing schedule as nea rly as poss ibl e in accordance with these recomme ndati ons.

A report from the CAC indi cated that, during the first 6 mo nt hs of 1980, Canada's share of observing time wi 11 be 21 nights. Th ere we re 30 Can adian proposa ls , requesting a t ota l of 150 nights fo r t h is period . Only two proposa l s fo r Canadian time \-Jere received from "outsiders" . 13

Other subcomm i ttee re ports included a summa ry by Ralph Nicholls of developments in conn e c t ion wit h the t a s k force set up by the Space Science Coordinat ion Of fi ce of NRC to assess the Canadian Space Telescope proposal . Th e t ask f orce ha s recomm ended tha t a fea s i b i 1 ity study be undertaken on all aspect s o f the CST . Th e Associate Committee defer red a ny e ndo rsement o f this recommend a tion unti 1 the me mbe r s had an opportuni ty to read the repo rt of the tas k force .

Pro f. Nicho ll s al s o re porte d that sugges tions wou ld be we lcome for top i cs and name s of pote nti a l orga ni ze r s fo r the COSPAR Space Astronomy Sympos i um to be held i n 1982 in Ot t awa. An y recommendat ions a r e needed in time for t he COSPAR meeting in Ma y , 1980.

On e rather long-standing a rea of conce rn fo r the ACA and its Subcomm ittee on Theoretical Astronomy has been the re l ative weakness of theoretical astronomy in Canada. You may reca ll that an appea l had been made t o NSERC t o esta b1 ish spe cial pos i t ions tenab le at Ca nad i an universities for work in theo retical as tronomy. In thi s con ne ction, Dr. Gi ll e s Jul i e n, Executive Dire ctor of NSERC, a tte nd ed t he ACA mee ti ng t o describe the new Res e arch As s oc iate Prog ram be ing instituted t h i s year In the universities. Fund s wi ll be a va il a bl e this ye a r fo r 100 Associat e s hips of $20,000 each , with the fir s t awa rd s avail a bl e in Septemb er. Th e Associateships are to be distri buted over a ll disc ip1 i nes of science and eng ineering, alt houg h it may be poss i bl e to s i ng l e out certain discipl ines a s especiall y deserving of support. The awa rd s wi 1 1 be for 3 yea r pe riod s and might be renewed for an additi ona l 2 yea r s , wit h a poss i b i 1 ity of a second 5 ye ar te rm for some as soc i a t es . The AC A adopted a resoluti on req ues ting t hat NSERC awa rd at least one associatesh ip ann ually for work i n t heoretical astronomy. I n addit ion, it was requ es t ed tha t astronome r s be all owed to take pa rt in the gene r a l com pe t ition.

Ca rma n Costain reported on h i s negotiations wi t h NSERC in connect ion wit h the recommendation of the Fyfe Cornlll ittee Report that a Comm it tee fo r Ph ys ics and Astronomy for NSERC be set up to adv i s e the Al locat ions Commi t t ee . On be ha l f o f CASCA, Carman has nominated Rene Racine as the astronomy representat i ve on this new committee. 14

A final matter that might be of interest concerns the Scientific Exchange Program with China. At the suggestion of the Department of External Affairs, interested Canadian astronomers have been encouraged to submit proposals for such exchanges. A total of 11 astronomers did so, and the

proposals were for~arded to the appropriate officials in External Affairs. For reasons that are unclear, non e of these astronomical proposals were accepted , and, for a long time, our efforts to learn about the status of this program were largely unsuccessful. We have recently been officially informed that External Affairs no longer has funds to directly support scientific exchanges with China, and so the program is now dead. Unfortuna­ tely, for astronomers, it was never really alive. Presumably, the Chinese opted for exchanges in other discipl ines.

This meeting of the Associate Committee on Astronomy was the last one for the present members, whose terms of office expire Apri lIst, 1980. At the time of writing, CASCA Council is preparing a list of its nominees for new members , and presumably the commi ttee will be reconstituted in time for it to meet, as it traditionall y does , at the time of the next annual CASCA meeting.

Lorne Avery Secretary, ACA, CNC/IAU 15

RADIO ASTRONOMY AT WAR C 1979.

The radio regulations which govern the inte rnat ional use of the radio spectrum were revised by the member nations of the International Telecommuni­ cations Union at a World Ad ministra ti ve Radio Confe rence held in Geneva Sept . 24-Dec . 7, 1979. A small group of rad io astronome rs worked well together to effect a considerable improvement in the protection accorded radio astronomy.

Almo st every band in which radio astronomy had some measure of protection was changed to improve rad io astronomy's position . In the following bands, the width, the strength of a footnote , the competing services or the geographical coverage have been ch anged to improve the protection for radio astronomy but its fundame ntal s tatus rem ains the same: 37 . 50-38.25 MHz, 73-74.6 MH z, 150.05-1 53 MHz, 406.1-410 MHz, 1400-1427 MHz, 2690-2700 MHz, 4990-5000 MHz, 10.6-10.7 GHz, 15. 35-15 .40 GHz, 23. 6-24 GH z, 31 . 3-31 . 5 GHz,

36.43-36.50 GHz and 86-~2 GHz.

In the f o llowing bands there is ei ther a new allocation where none existed previously or t he improvement in an existing allocation constitutes a ve ry significant change in t he status of radio astronomy.

1. 13360-13410 kHz; a new allocat ion, primary shared with the Fixed service. 2. 25550-25670 kHz; an exclusive allocati on t o rep lace 21850-21870 kHz. 3. 32 2-328 . 6 MHz; new pri mar y all ocation sharing with Fixed and Mo bil e services re pl aces weak f ootnote , f ootnote permitt i ng mob il e satellite has been suppressed in this band . 4 . 608-614 MH z ; new prima r y t able al locat ion in Reg ion 2 , Mobi le satell ite (except ae rona utica l mob il e satell ite) in earth t o space direction secondary , broadcas t ing s upp re ssed , i n Regions I and 3 new secondary status repl aces footnot e except in African Broadcas ting a rea where RA has pe rmitted stat us and in China prima ry status. 5. 1330 - 14 00 MHz; spectral 1 i ne s ta nda rd foot note re places weak f ootnote

cove ring the na r rowe r band 1350 -1~OO MHz. In add i t ion a recomm end a ti on was adopt ed wh i ch ca ll s on a fut ure WARe to imp rove the protection for radio as tronony. 6. 1610.6-1 6 13. 8 MHz; new secondary allocation rep laces weak footnote which app 1 ied t o the nar row band 1611.5-1612.5 MHz. 7. 166 0- 1670 MHz; primary a l location maintained but s har i ng s i tuat ion mu ch cllanged. Meteorological Aids serv ice suppressed i n 1660-1668.4 MH z. Aeronau tica l mob ile - satel 1 ite (carth-to-space) added 1660 - 1660 . 5 MHz , 16

Fi xed and Mobile (except aeronautical mob ile) adde d' on a secondary basis in 166 0. 5-1668.4 MH z and on a pri ma ry basi s 16 68.4-1670 MHz . 8. 1718 . 8-1722 . 2 MHz; new secondary allocation replace s weak f ootnote which appli ed to the na r rower band 1720-172 1 MHz. 9. 2655-2690 MHz; new secondary allocation replaces wea k foot note which app l ied to the narrower band 2670-2690 MHz. Sharing i s with Broadcasting Satellite and with Fixed Satell ite, earth-to-space and space-to-earth.

10 . 3260 -3267 MHz; } New standard spectral I ine footnot e for CH 3332-3339 MHz; observations 3345 . 8-3352.5 MHz: 11 . 4800 -4990 MHz; new secondary allocation (sharing with Fixed and Mobil e ) replaces weak footnote. In the bands 4825-4835 MHz (H2CO) and 4950-4990 MHz the ae ronautical mobile service is excluded. In Argenti na, Australi a and Canada the bands 4825 -4835 MHz and 495 0-4990 MHz are alloca ted on a pri mary basis . 12 . 14 . 47- 14 .5 GHz; ' new second ary al locat ion replaces st rong footnote, secondary allocation to space re search (space- to-earth) suppressed . 13 . 22 . 21-22 . 50 GHz; new primary all ocation replaces all ocat ion by footnote appl i cable to narrower band 22. 21- 22.26 GH z; s haring is with Fixed and Mobi le except aeronautical mobile services, the suppression of ae ronaut ica l mo bile i s new; s tandard spect ra l 1 ine footnote also added f o r ba nd 22. 01- 22.21 GHz, s t andard continuum footnot e added for 22.21-22.50 GHz. 14 . 22.81-22 . 86 GHz; I New s tandard spectra l line footnote for NH 3 23. 07-23.12 GHz ; observations. 15. 31.2-31.3 GHz; new stand ard continuum footnote. 16. 31.5-3 1.8 GH z ; new allocation, exclusive pass ive in Reg ion 2, sha red with Fixed and Mobil e except aeronauti cal mobile services secondary in Region 1 and 3. 17. 42.5-43.5 GHz; new primary al locat ion sharing wi th Fi xed, Mobi le except aeronaut ical mobile and Fixed Satell ite (earth-to-space) se rv ices. Footnot e asks for specia l protection for SiO observat ions in band s 42 . 77-42.87 GHz, 43. 07-43 . 17 GHz and 43.37-43.47 GH z. 18. 48.94-49.04 GHz; new prima ry allocati on by foot note to share with Fixed , Mobi l e and Fixed-Satell ite (eart h-to-space) services . An additional footnote prohibits emi ssions fr-om airborne s tdtions in this band. 19 · 51. 4-54 . 25 GHz ; 58 . 2-59.0 CHz; New fOl,tnotc protection , but firs t three bands 64.0-65 .0 GHz ; arc exclusive ly P,")S 5 i vc. 72.77-72.91 GHz ; }

20. 93.0-;-9J . 27 GH?; ncv.J SLlfl

21. 97.88-98.08 GHz; new primary allocation by footnote . to share with Mobile Mobile -satel I ite, Radio na v igation and Radio navigation-satell ite serv ices . 22 . 105-116 GHz; new exclusive passive band replaces 130-140 GHz band.

23. lJ~0.69-JLI0.98 GHz; new primary allocation for spectral line observations plus footnote prohibiting airborne and space borne emissions . 24 . 144 . 68-144. 98 GHz; New primary allocation for spectral line 145.45-145.75 GHz; observations , sharing with Radiolocation. 146 . 82-147 . 17 GHz; } 25. 150-151 GHz; new secondary allocation by footno te for spectral line observat ions. 26 . 164-168 GHz; new exclus ive passive allocation. 27. 174 . 42-175.02 GHz; New second ary allocation by footnote for 177.0-177 .4 GH z; spectral 1 ine observations. 178.2-178.6 GHz; } 28. 182-1 85 GHz; new exclusive passive alloca tion. 29.186 . 2-186.6 GHz; new secondary allocation by footnote for spectral l ine observati ons . 30 . 217-231 GHz; new exclus ive passive band re places 230-240 GHz band. 31. 250-25 1 GHz; a new footnote allocation in an exclusively passive band. 32 . 257 . 5-258 GHz; a secondary al location by footnote for spectral 1 ine observations. 33 . 261 -265 GHz; a new primary allocation by country footnote in FR Germany, Arg entina, Spain, France, Fi nl and, India, Ital y , Net herlands and Sweden. 34. 262.24-262.76 GHz; a new prima ry allocation by footnote for spectral l ine obse rva tions. 35 . 265 -275 GHz; new primary table allocation shari ng with Fixed, Mobile and Fixed S~tel lite (earth-to-space) se rvices. Footnote asks f or special attenti on to the ban ds 26 5.64-266.16 GHz, 267 . 34-267.86 GHz and 271.74- 272 .26 GHz .

36 . >275 GH z; the re a ~ e no allocations to an y service but a footnote draws attention to spect ral line measurements for passive services. For radio as tronomy the bands 278 -280 GHz and 343-348 GHz are noted.

The major non-allocation item relating to radio astronomy was the adoption of a a rt icle of the regulations devoted entirely to radi o astronomy. This brings together i n one pl ace within the regulations a numb e r of issues affect ing inte rference at radio ob se rva tories. It's too early to assess the va lue of thi s article. 18

A recomme ndation was adopted cal I ing for admInistratIons to take all necessary steps to reduce second harmonic radiation from Broadcasting Satell ites at 12 GHz into the 23 . 6-24.0 GHz radio astronomy band to level s contained in CCIR recommendations.

App endix 4 of the regulations which deals with the levels of spurious emission was improved by both a reduction i n the l eve ls of such emission and by a cons iderable expansion of the frequency range.

Finally, new article reserves the us e of the entire radio spectrum on the shielded side (far side) of the Moon for passive se rvices except for a few specified active bands for space research.

A fuller account of t he Conference and its decisions wil I be publ is hed elsewhe re .

Lorne H. Doherty

SOURCE MATERIALS FOR THE TEACHING OF ASTRONOMY

This 3J-page booklet was ori~inaJl y prepared in January 1977 by the Education Sub-CoTIID littee of the ~. R.C. Associate Committee on Astronomy, under the chairmanship of Dr . David L . DuPuy . A revised and Expanded version of the booklet has now been prepared by the Education Commit t ee of the C.A.S. /S .C.A. Copies have been sent to more than 40 astronomy teaching depart­ ments in Canada (J.R.A. S .C. 72, 296 (1978)) , to observatories and planeta riums in Canada, and t o the education co-ordinators of the A.A.S., A.S.P. and I.A.D.

C.A . S./S.C.A. members can ohtain individual copies of this booklet by wr i ting t o the und er signed, clo Erinda1e Campu s, University of Toronto, Mississauga , Ontario L5L lC6.

John R. Percy 19

Dr. Helen Sm..ryer Hogg, C.C., F.R.S.C.

Across Canada, and in all parts of the world, astronomers without fail associate the name of Dr. Helen S. Hogg with variable in globular clusters. As Helen was the first President of the Canadian Astronomical Society, it was indeed a pleasure to receive her permission to publish in Cassiopeia this lucid account of her contributions to this exciting field of astronomy.

The excellence of her research on variable stars in globular clusters has been recognized through the awards of honorary degrees from her own university, Mount Holyoke College, and from the University of Toronto which she has served so well for more than forty years. Other similar honours have come from McMaster University and from the University of Waterloo. She has also been the recipient of a number of prestigious prizes and awards from many societies.

A most distinguished ast~onomer, a diligent and painstaking research scientist, a scholarly professor and lecturer, a former Director of Bell Canada, Helen has excelled in whatever endeavour she has undertaken. Th~ high respect which she is accorded by her colleagues in these diverse and responsible activities is the best indicator of the distinctive qualities of the individual who taped this brief story of var.iable stars in globular clusters . It is a simple and direct exposition in which Helen has demonstrated clearly her superb mastery of a complex subject. The text should inspire students to enter the field of astronomy and discover, as she has done, the excitement which is still to be found in diverse areas of research within this discipline.

University of Saskatchewan J.E. Kennedy Saskatoon December, 1979

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article just missed the deadli.ne for the winter solstice issue, and has been held over for the current issue. Fortunately, it has a rathe r timeless quality. 20

VARIABLE STARS IN GLOBULAR CLUSTERS

by Dr. He len S. Hogg

I am glad to have a chance to speak about va riable stars in globular clusters. This is one of the a reas of astronomy i n wh ich Canadian telescopes have been busy for four decades , and I myself have worked with these variables for more than half a century.

These are the stars which are found to vary in 1 ight in the great globular clusters wh ich are systems of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of stars i n beautiful spherical s ymmet ry . The percentage of these stars which does vary in I ight is small, but these vari ables can make an important contribution to our understandi ng of t he clusters and indeed of our gal axy. These clusters are the oldes t objects known in our galaxy, around 14 bill Ion years In age, give or t ake ~ billion or two. They are composed of population II obj ects as defined by Dr. Wal te r Baade, an old stable population.

My own research on globular c luster s began at the Harvard College Observatory In 1926 when I was a graduate student under the f amous Dr. Harlow Shapley, at that time the world's expert on globular clusters. I became interested in tracking down the variables when an astronomer from Columbia University , Dr. Jan Schilt, at a meeting of the American Ast ronomical Soc iety in 1927, said that -he was tired of astronomers making sweeping statements about the kinds of variables in globular clusters, when in fact very few of them had actually been investigated. He was quite right, I found, when I returned to the observatory after the mee tings and started tabulati ng a 1 I the references to research work on themw So I then set about for my docto ral thes is, studying one cluster after another, from the very extensive accumulation of photographic plates taken over many years at the Harvard Observatory.

In 1931, my husband, Dr. Frank Ho gg, wa s appointed to the staff of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, and the Director, Dr. J.S. Plaskett , gave me the use of the won derful 72-inch telescope t o continue the program, at that time the second largest in the world. Littl e d id I thi nk that 45 years later I would stil I be work ing on t he program. Th e DAO reflector was used f or 4 years and beginning in 1935 when the Da vid Dun lap Ohservatory of the Unive rsity of Toronto , located in Richmond Hill, Ontario , opened we began to use the 74-inch telescope. Smaller telescopes have wor ked on the program too. Th e 19-inch at the same observatory, the 16-inch at t he University of Toron to on the St. George Campus, and begi nning in 1971. the 24-inch U o f T tel escope on the groun ds of the Southern Ob servatory of the Ca rneg ie Institution of Washing t on at Las Campanas in Chi le. Many students and assistants have worked a season or two on the pro- gram and some of them have gone on to become professiona l as tronomers i n sim ilar f ields .

The pu r po se of the program is to take phutographs of va rious clusters. These are t hen compared on a "bl in k q':crosccp'.' " c!l,d stars wh ich vary in I ight are noted . When variables are known , a ser ies of plates is taken to determine how l ong it takes each vari ab le to go f r,HIl f'L 3'

During \vorld War II, only a· few astronomers anywhere were working in this field, but now there are dozens and many research papers are being publ ished. Through all this half century, I have maintained a card catalogue of all references in the literature to glQbular clusters. I look over al I the material as it comes into our library. From this, three catalogues of variable stars in globular clusters have been publ ished by the David Dunlap Observatory. The last one, in 1973, had 2, 119 variables with 108 globular clusters searched and pertods for the variables determined in 55 of these clusters. Now about 130 globular clusters are known in and around our galaxy, though probably there are several dozen more that we have not yet photographed because they are hidden behind clouds of absorbing material.

When J began this study a half century ago, of 93 globular clusters known, only 45 had been searched with 886 variables found. But in only 9 of the clusters had actual periods of the variables been determined and you don't know much about the variable if you don't know its period, unless it doesn't have a period. Now we have a much better idea of the variable stars in globular clusters. Some clusters are ve ry rich in variables. The variables really pop out at you when you put a pair of plates on the bl ink microscope. Other clusters have been searched for many hours by different people on photo­ graph~ taken with different telescopes and not a single variable ; has been found. When the colour-magnitude diagram of a cluster has been determined, then you ·can see the reason for the presence or absence of variables.

Most of the variables in clusters are RR Lyrae stars with periods less than one day. These were found in large numbers near the turn of the century by Professor S. I. Bailey of Harvard. They are numerous in a few of the clusters first investigated and he called them cluste r -type variables. Probably eighty per cent or more of the variables in globular clusters are of this type. The cluster richest in variables is in Can~s Venatici with 212 variables. When Dr . Martin Schwarzchild worked on thi s cluster in 1940, he cal led attention to the fact that these RR Lyrae variables occupy d special p lace on the colour­ magnitude di agram of t he cluster, a domain of instabi lity cal led the gap. Most of the stars in this reg ion prove to be RR Lyrae variables, and if the colour - magnitude diagram of a cluster has no stars here, then it has no RR Lyrae variabl es. Clusters that have a rel ati ve ly high metal content in their composition have no RR Lyrae stars o r very few .

The RR Lyrae variables are impo rtant because t hey can be assumed to ha ve a specific mean , usually taken around +0.5, a nd when compa red with the apparent mag n itude, it is simple to derive the distance of the cluster. Distances of globular clusters in our galaxy, range from the nea rest, about 6000 I ight years away, up to those very distant. Wh i l e they probably belong to our galaxy, they actually 1 ie beyond its d iscernible 1 i mits, at di s tances as great as 300,000 I ight years.

An other type of variable in globu l a r (. iusters, though not f o und in ial-ge numbers, only about 40 in all, i s the long-per iod Ceph e id . These s tars known as W Virginis vari a bles or Type II Ce ph e ids, serve to oul l ine the important period- luminosi ty rel at ion, that is the longer the period of a Cephe id, the 22 greater its absolute magnitude. These provide an important check on the dis­ tances of the clusters, independent of the RR ly rae stars.

In recent years, the second most frequent type of variable in globular clusters , has been f oun d to be red variables, near the tip of the giant branch in the colour-magnitude diagram of t he cl uster. Some of these prove t o be Mira Type, l ong-period var i ables , but in these c l usters their periods are relatively short, most of them around 200 days. However, ma ny of the newly found red variables have smal I ranges, only a few tenths of a magnitude, and are doubtl ess irregular t hough they have not yet been studied extensi vely. Incidentally , proving that a variable is irregul ar in its variat ion can be a time-consuming process requiring many photographs and much computa t ion. You a lways have the fee l ing that if you work a I ittle more, you wil I be able to deduce a peri od from the measures confronting you, but actually there are plenty of stars that vary in a very irregular manner and no amount of work is going to produce a good l i ght curve over ma ny periods.

There are a few RV Tauri stars, those variables which have alternate deep and shal low minima and occasionally just exchange one for another. There are only two or t hr ee ecli ps i ng binaries which are considered to be cluster members .• It is not easy to say that a star is a definite member of the cluster and not a foreground or a background star. If you have a radial velocity for it that conforms to the velocity of the cluster , that is the best proof. But not many r adial veloc ities are known for ind ividual stars in globular clusters . .

There are a very few examples of the exc i ting novae in globular clusters. The firs t one came v i sua ll y in 1860, when European astronomers albers and Pogson independently looked at the lovely compact known as Messier 80 in Sco r pi us. On May 21st, 1860, the whole appearance of the cluster ha d changed from a few weeks earlier with the addition of a star estimated at visual mag­ nitude 6.5 to 7. 0, nea r ly naked eye visibil ity . The star f aded over a peri od of weeks to 10 .5 by mid-June. This was before the days of astronomical photo­ graphy an d no photographic record of this star remains.

The next was found i n 1949 when Mrs . Mar garet Mayall at the Harvard Obse rvatory was look i ng over spectr um pl a t es taken earl i er in the region of NGC65 53. NGC stands for the number in the made by Dreyer. fn the region of the cluster, Mrs. May a ll found spectra taken in 1943 which we re that of a new star , but no direc t photograph of t he nova is available.

Then the thi rd nova rea lly belongs to Ca nada . It was found by Dr . Amelia Wehlau on pla t es of t he globul ar cl uster Messi e r 14 which I took with t he David Dunlap 74- inch reflector in June 1938. This nova reached only magnitude 16.0, that is, t en thousand times fainter than naked eye visibi l ity. On these plates, take n in 1938, i t was not not i ced un t il Dr. Wehlau was working on t hem yea rs late r in 1964. It appears on ei ght plates taken every ni ght that we ek and not on any o ther pl a tes i n the wor l d , because we asked o ther obser­ vatories to check their plate col lections. No one rea l l y knows how frequent ly novae appear in globular clusters. We have hopes t hat on t he thousands of g l ob ula r cluster pl a tes we have now i n our collect ion a t the David Dunlap Obser­ vatory , we may sometime find anot her nova.

* The most recent spec troscopi c observations ha ve now ru l ed ou t cl us ter member­ shi p for these stars. 23

This, then, is a brief story of variable stars in globular clusters. There are many important face ts of the subject I have not discussed in this brief summary. These are beautiful objects outlining our galaxy and giving US clues to many things regarding the structure of our Mi lky Way system.

Perhaps you are still wondering why astronomers bother to spend long hard nights with a telescope, hours and hours with the "blink microscope" to find variables, more hours with a machine measuring the images on the plates, and then hours with computers, trying to fit the measured magnitudes and dates into an orderly pattern, so that they know what the s t ar is 1 ike. If you try it, you will see that the reason we do it is for the satisfaction, even thril I we have, of obtaining just a little more information about our wonderful universe.

Erratum

Sidney v a n den Bergh has kindly pointed out a minor e rror i n the r eport from the Associate Comm ittee on Astronomy that a ppeared in the l ast issue . It con cer ns the planned Sa udi Arab i an t e lescope , for whic h a dec ision to go ahead has n o t ye t been ma d e , but is c ontingent on finding a good site. 24

Table of Contents

Editorial 2

Notes from the Secretary D.R. Bochonko 3 Letter from the President of R.A.S.C. 5 Notices of Meetings - IAU Colloquium 55 6

- 1980 June Institute 7 Positions Available 8

Report of the Education Committee 1979 J.R. Percy 9

Reports of Meetings - NRCACA - CNC/IAU L.W. Avery 10

- WARC 1979 L.H. Doherty 15

Source Materials for the Teaching of Astronomy J. R. Percy 18

Variable Stars in Globular Clusters by Dr. Helen S. Hogg J.E. Kennedy 19 Erratum 23