IAU Xxiind General Assembly -The Hague 1994 Editor: SETH SHOSTAK Associate Editor: RENÉ GENEE No

Home , 816 Juliana, Bertil Lindblad, Dirk Brouwer, Ed van den Heuvel, Eta Normae, Froelich (crater)

The

IAU XXIInd General Assembly -The Hague 1994 Editor: SETH SHOSTAK Associate Editor: RENÉ GENEE No. 1: Tuesday, 16 August

he 22nd session of the IAU wide variety of research results, edu- As an easy first excursion, partici- General Assembly will attract cational presentations, and discuss- pants should go to Scheveningen, the nearly two thousand partici- sions of organizational questions such beach community adjacent to The T as naming conventions and other mat- Hague. lt is easily reached by walking pants this year. They will be privy to 23 professional sessions, and can parti- ters of general relevance to IA U three blocks down the Johan de cipate in 14 working groups and joint members. Witlaan to tram 7. The tram trip takes discussions. An impressive, and inti- Needless to say, we also encourage 10 minutes or Jess. midating, total of 600 talks will be those who are visiting The Hague for For those of a more athletic bent, given, and the poster presentations the first time to be sure to avail them- an aggressive walker can be in tally more than a thousand. selves of the many attractions and Scheveningen in 25 minutes- 30 minu- Ali in ail, participants will enjoy a diversions in this cosmpolitan city. tes if your walking style is phlegmatic.

Hugo van Woerden, Chairman of the National Organizing Committee, reflects on the history of this he red, white and blue logo for the 22nd General Assembly, year's General Assembly. T used to adorn posters and other official publications (and reproduced above in modest monochrome), was t's a great pleasure to welcome This time, the road stayed open. In designed by Arnold Berbers. Mr. astronomers to this General 1989, a Local Organizing Berbers, who resides in the city of Assembly. I have been a partici- Committee was formed with Ernst Meppel, notes that the colors, which I Raimond as its chairman, and since pant in 11 Assemblies, but this is my are those of the Dutch flag, were cho- first time as host. then he has carried the heaviest Joad. sen to signify the Assembly's host Because of his many duties for ISO, country. The train from Groningen to The Karel van der Hucht was no longer The circle represents a telescope's Hague takes Jess than three hours, available but others took his place. field of view, and the diagonally but this Assembly has required from And the new NCA chairman, Ed van placed lettering is an additional grap- me ten years- and in a way a lifeti- den Heuvel, proved to be very enthu- hie element suggesting a telescope. me - of preparation. siastic and an enormous supporter of Despite what the inventive minds of our work. Th us, the years of prepara- participants might imagine, Mr. In November, 1984, Jean Pierre tion sped by, faster and ever faster. Berber assures us that the red and Swings - then Assistant General blue stripes are not meant to represent Secretary - asked me whether it A decade of preparation, yes. But a redshifts or blueshifts. His logo is, would be possible for the IAU to lifetime? Yes again. The first then, apparently local. have its 1991 General Assembly in "Dutch" IAU was in Leiden (1928) The Netherlands. I promised to around my second birthday. I was investigate, and after considerable dis- not even an amateur astronomer then. Hugo van Waerden cussion (an Assembly is not a minor But from my earliest days as a student undertaking) the Netherlands I was steeped in the IAU spirit. Jan Committee for Astronomy (NCA) Oort was General Secretary, and we decided in favor of this plan. lts chair- students at Leiden were very much lt has been a great privilege to work man, Harry van der Laan, obtained a aware not only of his scientific stature, for this Assembly. With its new for- promise of support from the Ministry but also of his hard work for the mat, it will be very different than ear- of Education and Science. Together Union. lier ones. I hope and trust that every with Karel van der Hucht, I explored participant will enjoy this meeting, possible sites and facilities, and in When in 1948 the Zurich Assembly and this will contribute to a strong and 1985 could report that prospects were was approaching, I asked Oort healthy future for the IAU. good. An informai invitation was sent whether I might participate. He found to the Executive Committee in me rather too young, although he him- HUGO VAN WOERDEN September, 1986 but there was a com- self had attended an Assembly at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, peting proposai from Argentina, and age of 22. But in the end, Oort gave Groningen, The Netherlands the latter got priority. in (except for attendence at the banquet, which was still a very formai At Baltimore, in 1988, the new presi- affair). However, the army enlisted dent, Dr. Kozai, asked me whether an me, and I couldn't go. In the end, Assembly in 1994 would be possible. Dublin (1955) became my first Again, I promised to explore the idea. Assembly. nee every three years, the of time and space, to include it in one IAU General Assembly emer- of the issues of the Sidereal Times. ges from dormancy to provide Photos of Mr. Genee and myself Oa global forum for astronomical inqui- are printed here not as idle decoration ry and discovery. lt has done so for or to bolster our egos, but to make it three-quarters of a century, and a easier for you to locate us during the daily newspaper first appeared as part Assembly. The offices of the Sidereal of this happy ritual in 1932 when Times can be found in Commissiekamer 2. Y ou can also leave material for the paper in the appropriate pigeon hofe (number 719) at the Convention Center, or under my name at the front desk of the Hotel Bel Air. Young in comparison to the world's

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any organizations have con- Support, financial and in kind, for the tributed effort and manies to organization of the 22nd General make the 22nd General Assembly or for travel and participa- MAssembly possible. tion grants was provided by the host institutions and by: AM Hasts include the Astronomical and Nederland; Carl Zeiss, Germany; Space Research Institutes of the Credit Lyonnais Bank; European lndustrial Engineers (E.I.E.) (Italy); Seth Shostak Netherlands: Sterrenkundig lnstituut Anton Pannekoek (Amsterdam); European Southern Observatory; Cecilia Payne-Gaposhkin served as Faculteit Natuur- en Sterrenkunde, European Space Agency; Fokker the editor. Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam); The Space and Systems; Hewlett-Packard 1 am extremely grateful to the orga- Netherlands Foundation for Research Corp.; KLM Royal Dutch Airlines; nizing committees for the invitation to in Astronomy, ASTRON/NFRA Kluwer Academie Publishers; edit the Sidereal Times. lt is also a (Dwingeloo, Westerbork); Kapteyn Koninklijke PTT Nederland; Leids pleasure to share these responsibilities lnstituut (Groningen); Sterrewacht Kerkhoven Bosscha Fonds; with Rene Genee, of the Netherlands Municipality of The Hague; Rene Genee Leiden; Sterrenkundig lnstituut Foundation for Research in Utrecht; and The Space Research Netherlands Ministry of Education Astronomy. oldest science, the IAU is still suffi- Organization in the Netherlands and Science; Netherlands Ministry of However, persona! gratitude aside, ciently long-lived to have a rich tradi- (Utrecht, Groningen, Leiden) Economie Affairs; Schott Glasswerke the value of this publication is entirely tion. The Sidereal Times is pleased to (Germany); Stichting Physica; dependent on the enthusiasm and be part of this venerable heritage, and Technisch Physische Dienst /TNO. cooperation of General Assembly par- will strive to be a useful milepost ticipants. If you have a research result along the exciting course of astrono- or an announcement of interest to mical discovery those attending this meeting, l hope you will bring it our attention. We SETH SHOSTAK oding 'Designations will do our best, within the constraints Editor, Sidereal Times

by H. DICKEL & Comm. 5 WG

his Assembly is different from previous ones. It is preceeded OOK FOR THIS LOGO in meaning of source acronyms fo und in by three Symposia and will be upcoming issues for information the astronomicalliterature, where to Tfollowed by three others. Joint from IAU Commission 5 WG find guidelines for designating sources, Discussions and Joint Meetings will L and examples of good and bad on "Astronomical Designations"; such take place during this two week event, as where to look for the reference and designa ti ons. in which various scientific discussions will take place. For the past three years, a lot of interesting phenomena have occurred. As a result of very impressive, one might even say heroic work, the performance of the Hubble Telescope has Symposium 164: been improved, allowing for the first •164.142 Takuji Tsujimoto, Toshikazu Shigeyama and Ken'ichi Nomoto, "The time the possibility of obtaining dif- Alexander Boyarchuk Chemodynamical Evolution of Spheroidal Systems" fraction-limited images which willlead to numerous discoveries. Regular Royal N etherlands Academy of Arts Symposium 165: observations with the 10 rn Keck and Sciences for its invitation to hold •165.CV.201 J. Echevarria, et al., "Simultaneous Multiwavelength Observations Telescope, the world's largest, began. our 22nd General Assembly, and the of Dwarf Novae Outbursts; SU U Ma: Minihumps at mini-outburst?" The Shoemaker-Levy cornet hit Netherlands Foundation for Research •165.HX.202 J. F. Dolan, et al. , "UV Polarimetry of X-ray Binary Systems" Jupiter, and this very rare pheno- in Astronomy which assembled the •165.PS.203 J. Gil, "Structure of Pulsar Beams and the Spectra of Millisecond menon has been observed by nume- tremendous facilities necessary to Pulsars" rous ground-based and space telesco- carry out this event. I sincerely belie- •165.PS.204 J. Gil, "Microlensing of Pulsar Radiation in the Galactic Centre" pes. ve that this General Assembly will be •165.GS.205 P. Li , et al., "Deep ROSAT Obervation of the May 1, 1992 a success. The change in the General Gamma-Ray Burst Field" Assembly format allowed us to enhan- I wish all General Assembly partici- •165.GS.206 P. Li, K. Hurley, C. Kouveliotou, G. J. Fishman and D. Hartmann, ce its scientific significance and has pants a very fruitful conference, as "Flares and Gamma-Ray Bursts" attracted a larger number of young weil as a pleasant stay in the beautiful •165.PS.207 Andrej Cadez and Mirjam Galicie, "Are the Pulses of the Crab astronomers, which is a welcome country of The Netherlands. Pulsar Modulated?" change. •165.PS.208 Charles D. Dermer and Steven J. Sturner, "Gamma-Ray Emission ALEXANDER BOYARCHUK from Millisecond Pulsars" I take this opportunity to thank the President, IAU Symposium

Companions with Fatal Attraction On behalf of the Netherlands Astronomical Community, I warmly welcome all particpants and guests of the 22nd General Assembly. We are What do the following topics have in common: very honored that the IAU bas, for the second time in its 75-year history, Last year's Nobel Prize in physics. Discovery of the first extra-solar system planets. The strongest pos- chosen our country for this meeting. sible sources of gravitational radiation in the Universe. Millisecond pulsars in globular clusters. The Netherlands is only a small Gamma Ray Bursts. Supersoft Magellanic Cloud X-ray sources. Dwarf novae. Black hole "X-ray country, though with a strong astrono- novae"? mical tradition, particularly in the past century, starting in the days of J.C. Kapteyn. The answer: they ali are thought to be related to binary systems - present or past - that contain com- It has been said that Rolland bas pact stars: neutron stars, black holes, or white dwarfs. three main export products: tulips, cheese, and astronomers. There may be sorne truth in that. Indeed, many second radio pulsar by Don Backer Binary evolution and the Black Hole he above topics, and many prominent astronomers in other coun- and collaborators opened a rich field X-ray binaries. Piet Hut reviews the others, will be discussed at IAU tries, notably the U.S., had their roots of research: that of the millisecond dynamical processes in globular clus- T Symposium Number 165 in Rolland. Bart Bok, Gerard Kuiper, and binary pulsars. Although in 1982 ters that may lead to the formation of "Compact Stars in Binaries" during Dirk Brouwer and Willem Luyten are only three binary and one millisecond exotic abjects such as X-ray binaries the first week of the General sorne well-known examples. They left pulsar were known, the present count and binary and millisecond pulsars. Assembly. Leading workers will Rolland already in the 1920's and is: 44 millisecond pulsars (of which 21 Shri Kulkarni reviews the observations review the status of research and 1930's, to be followed by many others are found in globular clusters and > of binary and millisecond pulsars in recent developments in the field. New in the subsequent decades. results will be presented in over a 50% are in binaries), and 43 binary globular clusters, while Helen Luckily enough, a sufficient number dozen contributed talks and sorne 200 pulsars (of which 14 are in globular Johnston concentrates ber review on of prominent astronomers remained in posters. clusters). the globular cluster X-ray sources. The Netherlands to keep the Dutch astronomical school strong and alive. The field of compact stars in binaries The study of binary and millisecond Rashid Sunyaev, Phil Charles and dates to the 1950's and 1960's with the pulsars has produced a tremendous Karen Hasswell review the X-ray and Oort and van de Hulst (Leiden) in discovery by Merle Walker and Bob amount of new quantitative informa- optical observations of the "X-ray the late 1940's founded Dutch radio Kraft of the white-dwarf binary char- tion on the evolution of close binary Novae", now firmly established as astronomy, now one of the major acter of the cataclysmic variables. systems and of neutron stars and their being connected with black hale bina- branches of Dutch astronomy. These and related systems will be magnetic fields. The morning session ries in which the donor star is a Blaauw and his successors built out reviewed by France Cordova and of Wednesday, 17 August is devoted low-mass G- or K-dwarf or G-sub- the Kapteyn Institute in Groningen, a Keith Horne on Tuesday afternoon, to these abjects, with review talks by giant. Jean Pierre Lasota surveys the very strong center of extragalactic 16 August. The closely related super- Alexander Wolszczan (on pulsar pla- possible mechanisms causing these research, white the Institutes in soft ROSAT X-ray sources and their nets), Don Backer (on pulsars as accu- "nova" outbursts, and Roger Romani Utrecht and Amsterdame concentra- possible origins were reviewed by rate docks), Matthew Bailes (on pul- reviews the possible ways in which ted on the physics of the Sun and Joachim Trumper and Peter Kahabka, sar velocities), and Andrew Lyne and these amazing black-hole binaries may stars, a research tradition started by and by Saul Rappaport on Duncan Lorimer (on surveys for have formed. Minnaert and Pannekoek. Monda y. millisecond pulsars). Furthermore, van de Hulst, de Finally F. Mirabel will report on an Jager and Borgman, in the 1960's, The discovery of the X-ray binaries in It has become clear that most millise- important new discovery: the first founded Dutch Space Research, anot- the early 1970's by the UHURU team cond and binary pulsars have been galactic source showing superluminal her flourishing branch of Dutch astro- showed that neutron stars and black "recycled" by accretion in their proge- expansion. The symposium will be nomy, which made major contribu- hales can also occur in close binaries, nitor systems, which mostly were summarized by Jan van Paradijs. tions to the successful ANS and IRAS while the discovery of the Hulse- X-ray binaries. These evolutionary satellites. aspects are at least partially dealt with Taylor binary radio pulsar in 1974 We expect this to be an exciting sym- The Netherlands Committee for revealed that sorne binaries even in the Tuesday talks of Taam, posium, and we look forward to Astronomy, in which ali branches of manage to happily survive two super- Lipunov, and Podsiadlowski men- seeing many of you there. Dutch astronomy are present, is the nova explosions! tioned above, and in the review talk official representative of the Dutch by Dipankar Bhattacharya on astronomical community, bath nation- At the symposium, the observations of Wednesday morning. ED P.J. VAN DEN HEUVEL ally and internationally. On behalf of X-ray binaries will be discussed by F. Chairman, Scientific organizing this committee, I wish you ali a most Nagase, Walter Lewin, and Michiel Thursday morning is devoted to super- Committee IAU Symposium 165. fruitful scientific meeting and a most van der Klis, and on Tuesday morning novae in relation to binary systems, pleasant stay in The Netherlands. by H. Inoue, who will particularly with review talks by Bruno Leibuntgut review the newest discoveries made and Ken Nomoto, and proceeds to with Japan's ASCA satellite. Gamma Ray sources as reviewed by Gerry Fishman and Zwi Piran. The remainder of Tuesday morning is largely devoted to the evolution of Thursday afternoon is devoted to the binaries having compact stars, revie- sources of gravitational radiation and wed by Ron Taam, A. Lipunov, and its detection, with review talks by Kip The International Astronomical Queen Wilhelmina and H. M. Queen Philip Podsiadlowski. The last-mentio- Thome on possible sources, by Fred Union is pleased to announce that it Juliana. Since Queen Juliana's abdi- ned speaker will also discuss models Rasio on the coalescence process of has recently authorized the naming of cation, when her daughter, the present for the formation of pulsar planets. neutron star binaries (as weil as other an asteroid "Bernhard", after His Queen Beatrix succeeded her, she is Further on Tuesday morning, Simon binaries), and by A. Giazotto on the Royal Highness Prince Bernhard of known as H. R. H. Princess Juliana. Johnston and Vicky Kaspi will reveal Laser Interferometer gravitational The Netherlands. The number of this Queen Wilhelmina was her mother, sorne exciting news about the periast- wave observatories presently under asteroid is 2643 in the listing of orbital and Prince Bernhard is ber husband. ron passage of the radio pulsar PSR construction. elements of the I.A.U., and it is 1259-63, orbiting a B-emission star in therefore known as (2643) Bernhard. 3.5 years, and about the new Small The second half of Tuesday as well as TOM GEHRELS Thursday afternoons is devoted to Magellanic Cloud radio pulsar that is There have been other namings of University of Arizona poster sessions. orbiting an ordinary B-type star in asteroids for members of the Dutch Tucson, Arizona about 50 days. royal family. Long ago, (392) Friday, 19 August is the day for globu- Wilhelmina and (816) Juliana were The discovery in 1982 of the first milli- lar cluster sources, Low-Mass X-ray named, most likely in honor of H. M. Tuesday, 16 August Pa Four

. Announcements .

. ;: .-- --:- -- and Tidbits What could be more relaxing after a long day of technical talks then to listen to your fellow astronomers desperately trying to explain their craft to the general

_. public? Sure, it's easy for you to read an article on the curve of growth analysis of yttrium abundance in peculiar A-stars, but how do you turn this scintillating Symposium 164: Getting to Other, Nearby Cities scientific subject into a bang-up popular lecture? Stellar Populations Ten astronomers will address this problem in a series of evening lectures The Hague bas two main railway sta- intended for the public. The subjects and speakers are given below, and all of the lectures will be held in the nearby Museon, located at Stadhouderslaan 41. •Note that ali afternoon sessions start tions, Den Haag CS (Centraal Station) The presentations begin at 20:00 in the evening, and are scheduled for two hours. at 14:00. and Den Haag HS (Hollandse Spoor). Admission is 7.50 guilders. Be warned that sorne of the talks will held in Dutch, •Session 4 (Wednesday morning) will Y ou can take tram No. 7 to Den Haag and therefore offer a good opportunity for you to brush up on this important lan- be chaired by Jeremy Mould. CS (a stop is near the Nederlands guage. •Art Wolfe's review on quasar absorp- Congresgebouw), and tram No. 8 to tion !ines (Friday, August 19, 11:45 to Den Haag HS. You'll find frequent service to Amsterdam and Leiden, as Aug 15 "What Does an Astronomer Do?" Jacqueline van Gorkom 12:30) will not be given due to illness. Aug 16 "How are Planets Formed?" Rens Waters This time slot will be used for a poster weil as other domestic and international trains. Aug 17 "Is There Life Beyond Earth?" Seth Shostak session, and poster authors are reques- Aug 18 "Invisible Matter in the Universe" Herwig de Jonghe ted to take up a position near their Aug 19 "A Cosmic Catastrophe? A Cornet Impacts Jupiter" Richard Strom poster during this time. All major car rentai companies have offices in The Hague. Cars may Aug 22 "New View of the Universe from the Hubble Space Telescope" • Poster pa pers will be alloted 1 page Ronald Allen in the procedings. Authors will recei- also be rented at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam. In view of the high Aug 23 "Quest to the Big Bang" George Smoot ve the consent to publish form in their Aug 24 "Black Holes" Michiel van der Klis pigeon hales. The submission dead- quality and frequency of public transport in The Hague, you may find that Aug 25 "The Universe in 40 Steps" Vincent leke line in October 15, 1994. For further Aug 26 "Astronomy in the Backyard" George Cornelio information, see Gerry Gilmore having a car is more curse than bles- (1583) or Piet van der Kruit (168). sing.

Food for Thought

In arder to facilitate your decision as •Chicken schnitzel Symposium 164: to whether to partake of the exquisite •Cauliflower and fresh vegetables •164.136 Annette Ferguson, Rosemary Wyse, Jay Gallagher and Deidre Hunter, lunchtime culinary offerings at the •Choice of drinks Congresgebouw, the Sidereal Times "Where Does Star Formation End in NGC 1058?" •164.137 B. M. Poggianti and G. Barbara, "Evolution of Galaxies in Distant will be printing the anticipated menu a All of this can be yours for a mere 15 Clusters " day in advance. guilders. Y ou must buy lunch tickets •164.138 Francesco Paresce, Guido De Marchi and Martino Romaniello, "Very at least a day in advance. They are Law Mass Stars and White Dwarfs in NGC 6397" For Wednesday, August 17, the lunch available at the Social Events desk in •164.139 Michael A. Pahre, Jeremy R. Mould, S. Djorgovski, Keith Matthews, will consist of: the Congresgebouw main hall. David Shupe and Reinaldo de Carvalho, "Infrared Surface Brightness Fluctuations, Color Gradients, and the Fundamental Plane" •164.140 David Fisher, Garth Illingworth, and Marijn Franx, "Line-strength Profiles in Early-type Galaxies" •164.141 J. Anosova, K. Tanikawa and Y. Funato, "Binaries in the Universe: Possible Dynamical Mechanisms of Formation, Evolution and Disruption if Different Kinds of Constituents of the Universe" The

XXIInd General Assembly -The Hague 1994

Editor: SETH SHOSTAK Associate Editor: RENÉ GENEE No. 2: Wednesday, 17 August Royal Innofo

A visit to the office of Ernst Your chance to meet the Queen. Raimond, in Dwingeloo, is definitely worth the trip. The 22nd General Assembly Inaugural ceremony will be attended by Her This somewhat cluttered space, in Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. Ali participants and registered which a machete is usually necessary guests are invited to attend. The ceremonies will begin at 14:00 in the Prins to traverse the 3 meters between door Willem Alexander Hall, and the doors will not remain open for late-comers. and desk, bas been the nerve center of Consequently, you are kindly requested to be seated before this time. the Assembly for the past three years. Following this majestrial offering, participants are encouraged to attend a The computer terminal beeps, FAXes reception at the very heart of the democratie Dutch state, the Ridderzaal (Hall roll in, and the telephone rings insi- of Knights) located in the Binnenhof. stantly. It is here, in this confluence of activity and chaos, that the Assembly Y ou can get to the Binnenhof by tram 7 or 8, or bus 4. Get off at the stop cal- sprang to life. led 'centrum', and cross the street to the binnenhof. You will pass through a gate. An alternative route is to take tram 10 and to get out at the same stop. At the traffic lights you go to the left, and after 200m look to your right-hand side. Ernst Raimond is Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee. Next time you see him, shake his hand.

he way that accretion occurs Keplerian orbital frequency of the onto a magnetized neutron star blobs around the magnetosphere, and T was set into sharper focus by a the rotation of the neutron star. stunning observation shawn to the The QPO frequency doubled as the Symposium 165 audience on Monday X-ray intensity rose to a maximum On Thursday and Saturday after- The Thursday session coïncides with afternoon. because the additional mass accretion noons, from 14.00-18.00, special the afternoon session of JD2 on the The X-ray binary 0535+262 went compressed the neutron star's magne- sessions are scheduled for the latest origin and detection of planetary sys- into outburst in February this year tosphere and diminished the blobs' results on the observations of the tems. reported M. Finger, due to a sudden orbital distances. At the same time impact of cornet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on increase in mass transferred from the that the QPO frequency rose, the the planet Jupiter. Don 't miss this chance to get the facts Be primary star onto its neutron star spin-up rate of the neutron star was you'll need to impress the hoi poilai companion. accelerated by the greater momentum More information on the program will who will accost you at your next cock- The extra energy released on transfer of the numerous blobs' be in the Thursday and Saturday edi- tail party. impact onto the neutron star surface impacts onto the neutron star surface. tions of the Sidereal Times. showed as an increase in X-rays. But This confirmed the greater accretion matter flowing through the magne- rate and linked the observational tosphere of the neutron star was evi- parameters in a unique determination dently blobby, because the X-ray of the magnetic field characteristics of release was highly irregular. the neutron star. However, the X-ray output showed Finger pointed to characteristics of both very regular oscillations that are the X-ray modulation that indicated evidence of the neutron star's rota- that we have a particular view of the A pen bas been !ost in the poster area of the Van Gogh room. It is a metal tion, and Quasi-Periodic Oscillations neutron star in 0535+262, looking Parker. If you have found or accidentally removed this recording deviee, please (QPO's), indicating modulation of the dawn on its pole. If confirmed by contact the information desk in the entrance hall. mass transfer rate. other observations, this would be a Finger visualized this as blobs of strong indication that the blobby JACCO V AN LOON accreting material, orbiting the mag- accretion mode! is accurate. netosphere of the neutron star, funne- led in bursts onto the surface of the PAUL MURDIN A poster by Cesare Chiosi (pigeon hole #1338) on Chemical Evolution Models, neutron star as the blobs pass over its Particle Physics and Astronomy disappeared from the poster board. Should your scientific enthusiasm have magnetic pales. The QPO frequency Research Council, U.K. caused you to remove this poster, please consider the greater scientific good, and represents the beat period of the return it forthwith . A Critical Moment in the History of Stellar Populations

n May 20-28, 1957 a them Population I (the one with the Conference was held at the bright blue stars) and Population II OVatican Academy of Sciences (the newly discovered one). This latter on the tapie 'Stellar Populations'. The one he readily identified with the pop- concept of stellar populations bad ulation that we were already familiar been introduced in 1944 by Walter with from the globular clusters in the Baade. Galaxy.

In 1943, during the Second World It saon was realized that the two pop- War, when the night sky at Mt. ulations are samples of stars at widely Wilson was not disturbed by city different evolutionary stages: lights, Baade was able to benefit from Population I the younger ones, and hours of exceptional seeing and suc- Population II a very old one. ceeded in photographing the Andromeda Nebula and its satellites Fourteen years after Baade's disco- M32 and NGC 205 dawn to fainter very, the Vatican Academy made the apparent magnitudes than had ever Stellar Populations the subject of one been possible before. of their Study Weeks ("Semaines d'Etude"). It led to a much more refi- To his surprise and deep satisfaction ned classification system, with bath he discovered that, once photographie Population I and II subdivided into a magnitude 22.4 had been reached, a younger and an older one, and in population of red stars (col our index between I and Il, a new class: the Disk +1.3) in these systems appeared in Population. The Vatican Conference immense numbers. This population, marked an important epoch in galactic moreover, bad a very uniform distri- research, because the sequence of stel- Some of the participants during a session of the Vatican Conference. From left to bution over these systems, quite diffe- lar population classes saon became the right: D. Chalonge, A. Blaauw, B. Stromgren, Abbe Lemaitre, G. Herbig, D. rent from the much sparser population basis for studies of the evolution of O'Connel! (Director Vatican Observatory), O. Beckmann. of bright blue stars that are scattered the Galaxy. along the spiral structure in the Andromeda Nebula. Baade concluded ADRIAAN BLAAUW that we are dealing with two different Kapteyn Astronomical Institute kinds of populations, and he labelled Groningen, The Netherlands

he story of the human race was incompletely known story of multiple once visualised as the present generations and population mergers . T epoch of change and war, pre- For example, the apparently homo- ceded by a pre-historie Golden Age of geneous globular cluster system of our peace and tranquility. Galactic history Galaxy consists of numerous subsys- could likewise be perceived as the pre- tems with a large spread of ages. The After the Conference, Walter Baade, Jan Oort, Mrs. Oort and Blaauw spent afew sent interesting epoch of active puls- globular clusters which lie at great dis- relaxed days at Amalfi, on the coast of ltaly, where he took this photograph. ars, black hales and X-ray stars, prece- tances from the galactic center tend to ded by a long, quiet and rather boring have plunging retrograde orbits, in the Magellanic Cloud and the of stars is joining with our Galaxy's at period in which not much happened, contrast to the globular clusters near Magellanic Stream. lt looks as if these this very time; earlier mergers of except, at its start, the formation of the galactic center, whose more circu- globular clusters migrated from the other similar galaxies may have contri- globular clusters. lar orbits foilow the rotation of the Magellanic Clouds to join our Galaxy. buted, even wholly been responsible From this biased perspective, the Galaxy. This implies that two (or Like the mass migrations of human- for, the thick disk and halo of stars in cutting edge of modern astrophysics is more) groups formed from material kind, this migration of stars was not the Galaxy, as weil as sorne of the represented by Symposium 165 on moving in different orbits and at diffe- without cast: these are ali puny globu- other globular clusters. compact stars in binaries here at the rent times. lar clusters (as Flavio Fusi Pecci Even within a single globular elus- General Assembly, while Symposium Again, there is a subgroup of five remarked, they don't have NGC num- 164, on stellar populations, is tidying ter there are sometimes multiple gene- very metal-poor (and therefore very bers, so you can infer by inspection up the few loose ends which remain in rations, not the single generation that old) globular clusters which have the that they are not bright). It seems that an astronomical study which is nearly a first glanee suggests. The formation same age - presumably they ali for- sorne of their stars feil by the wayside of globular clusters is therefore not finished of a single set of events which med in a common event of long ago, in the migration process. At the time always a simple process. NGC 2808 happened long aga. distinct from the rest. By contrast to of capture by our Galaxy, they would bas a bi-modal color-magnitude dia- In fact, the detail of galactic pre-his- this old subgroup, there is a much have looked like the newly discovered gram looking like a mixture of the tory, beginning to be revealed by younger subgroup of globular clusters dwarf spheroidal galaxy in Sagittarius, color-magnitude diagrams of NGC 288 modern astrophysics, is as complex a (Arp 2, IC 4499, Ter 7 and Rup 106) tidally distorted into a long thin sau- and NGC 362. Illustrating the spread story as modern archaeology has reve- with colour-magnitude diagrams which sage by our own Galaxy. Indeed, the of ages in a single star system, Hesser aled human pre-history to be. As Jim seem to indicate a common, relatively Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal galaxy flashed up new data showing that the Hesser, Flavio Fusi Pecci and Gerry recent time of origin (lü Gyr aga). seems to be associated with the sub- color-magnitude diagram of the Gilmore showed in Tuesday's session Interestingly, ail the members of group of four young globular clusters of Symposium 164, star formation in this subgroup of four lie in the same and the Magellanic Clouds. continued on page 4 our Galaxy is a complicated and plane around our Galaxy containing According to Gilmore, its population ...... i.'......

.. : ..

. Symposium : :. i 164 ...... '' ...

AU Symposium 164, to be held and subsequent developments until the during the first week of the Vatican Symposium. The second session I General Assembly on the tapie of is devoted to globular clusters, their stel- Stellar Populations, coïncides with the lar content, systems of globular clusters in 50th anniversary of the classical paper our own and external galaxies, and halo by Walter Baade that introduced the stars in between them. concept. Baade, in this seminal paper announcing the resolution of the Then the conference moves on to the gal- Andromeda galaxy M31 and its ellipti- actic disk (open clusters, earl y type stars, The Himalayan site of the new radio observatory. cal companions into stars, realized ages, metallicities, che mi cal evolution) that spiral galaxies consisted funda- and the transition from disk to halo. mentally of two distinct populations: How distinct are disk and halo? What is Population I in the solar neighborhood and Population II in the globular clusters (and the central bulge of the thick disk"? Is there indeed infall of gas from intergalactic space? The next session has a detailed look at the starsi:f i New Instruments Will M31). The distinction was locally also Local Group galaxies and addresses issu- evident in the low- and high-velocity es such as the time dependence of star stars. formation. Peek from ·World's The concept was extended in the next decade to the understanding that Population II was old and in general metal-poor, and Population I Session 5 is entirely devoted to dark mat-ter, reviewing the evidence for it, and the amount of it in the disk of the Galaxy, spiral and ellipticalgalaxies and clusters. Highest Peaks younger and more metal-rich. This Then follows a session on elliptical came mostly as a result of detailed galaxies and questions of the amount of models for stellar evolution beyond young stars (the UV-upturn), population fter years of searching a good (GMRT), working from meter to deci- the Main Sequence stage, measure- synthesis and gradients of stellar popula- observatory site has apparent- meter wavelengths, is nearing comments of stellar absorption !ines as tions and the effects of the environment A ly been found in the high pletion in India. As seen from preli- probes of heavy element content, and and merging. Session 7 then maves to Himalayas in India. minary observations, a matching opti- the development of the concept of larger redshifts, where the structure of cal!IR facility will be essential, as the nucleosynthesis. galaxies and their populations, evolution The Ladhak Plateau is a high altitude, existing facilities in India will not fully as evidenced in fain t counts and quasar dry desert, 4.5 km high, with Jess than utilize the capabilities of the GMRT. This development culminated in the absorption !ines as probes of galaxy for- a millimeter of precipita ble mois ture famous "Vatican Symposium" of 1957, mation and evolution are being reviewed nearly year-round. Satellite observa- Scientific organizations or individuals where the concept was extended to a and discussed. tions over the last three years indicate interested in the project may contact scheme of five population types with that cloud-free skies can be expected Prof. J. C. Bhattacharyya (pigeon hole Baade's original two the extreme The final session will start with an over- as often as 300 nights per year. The #1819) at this meeting, or write to ones. In addition it was the basis of view of theories of galaxy formation and site is now being intensively investiga- Prof. R. Cowsik, Director, lndian a synthesis of aU knowledge into a pic- developments from stellar evolution theo- ted by a team from Bangalore; a spot Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore ture of the collapsing Galaxy, in which ry of relevance to the problem. A panel near a place called Hanle appears to 560034, India. the halo formed first and the disk later discussion will address the question of the meet the necessary logistic demands, on (see Oort's contribution to the classification and terminology of stellar and detailed site surveys have been J. C. BHATTACHARYYA Vatican proceedings). populations, followed by a summary. The initiated. Bangalore, India subject of stellar populations encompas- Since then, our understanding and ses almost all aspects of astronomy and A Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope perceptions have changed to the astrophysics. point where the Vatican terminology is no longer adequate. Also, our lt is fitting to discuss this in front of a detailed studies of the distributions of large audience as expected for an IAU stars and their ages and metallicities General Assembly, and a timely tribute have thoroughly destroyed the simple to Baade's pioneering work. The scienti- oding Designations picture of the 1950's, while studies of fic organising committee (of which Gerry nearby galaxies and systems at large Gilmore and I are the chairmen) looks by H. DICKEL & Comm. 5 WG redshifts have given us many, often forward to a very exciting meeting. conflicting elues concerning the origin and evolution of stellar systems. The PIET VAN DER KRUIT existence of dark matter, population Kapteyn Astronomical lnstitute, and metallicity gradients in galaxies, Groningen the occurrence of merging in clusters, OW MANY SOURCE ACRONYMS BEGIN WITH KH? Consult the sweeping of gas from galaxies, bursts "Interactive Dictionary of Acronyms." of star formation in distant galaxies, age distributions of stars in Local H On Internet: telnet simbad.u-strasbg.fr (which is 130.79.128.4); login as "info" (no Group dwarfs, and possible inflow of password). At the "info" prompt, type "cati KH" for the list and follow-up with matter from intergalactic space (to "-1 cati KHG" for more details and the reference for a specifie entry (e.g. KHG). name a few) have a profound influence on our understanding of galactic formation, structure and evolution. HERE CAN I FIND THE IAU "specifications concerning names, designations, and nomenclature for astronomical radiation sources lt is the purpose of this symposium to outside the solar system"? address these matters. The first W session was historical and related to Telnet to simbad.u-strasbg.fr, login as "info" and on the info line type "IAU," or the anniversary of Baade's discovery look in the yearly indexes of Astronomy and Astrophysics (e.g., 1993, A&A 280 and reviewed events leading up to it, A12-15). Mergers and Migrations, cont'd. chronology, as well as infrared arrays whose data is less susceptible to confu- Carina dwarf galaxy has not only a sing reddening effects. But, as Hesser mixture of types of giant stars, but pointed out, even low-technology aids also a main sequence with at !east two like a pair of binoculars, will reveal turnoffs, indicating multiple genera- the globular cluster M 15 in the night tions of stars that have reached diffe- sky tonight (despite the light-polluted rent stages of evolution at the present Hague!). M15 was formed at a time he editor respectfully, if immodestly, points out that tonight's public lec- moment. in galactic pre-history represented by ture will be "Is There Lite Beyond Earth?" This discussion of modern a cosmological redshift barely within T efforts to uncover evidence for intelligent extraterrestrials will be presen- For the future, new techniques which the horizon of the biggest telescopes! ted by Seth Shostak, of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California. In will help sort out the phases of galactic arder to challenge the local populace, the talk will be in English. Note that the pre-history include the high resolution public lectures begin at 8:00 pm in the Museon, a short walk from the capabilities of the Hubble Space PAUL MURDIN Congresgebouw, and cast a modest 7.50 guilders. Lectures conclude by 10:00 Telescope, producing color- Particle Physics and Astronomy pm. Y ou are encouraged to come and ask difficult questions. magnitude diagrams from data about Research Council, UK. resolved stars and therefore a clear

everal lAU participants have zones you traverse. This can be deter- remarked that use of the Dutch mined by checking the maps that S "strippenkaart" is a bit of a puzz- are posted at bus and tram stops (for le. The Sidereal Times, in the inte- your benefit, and also for the rests of mobility, will try to ameliorate benefit of graffiti artist). From the this difficulty by noting the following: Congresgebouw to Scheveningen, for example, requires the minimum The strippenkaarten are good for expenditure of two strips. Therefore, transport on trams and busses as you board the tram, fold your strip- Food for Thought throughout the country. Y ou can buy penkaart so that when you stuff it them at the Assembly at Congress into one of the yellow stamp machines For Thursday, August 18, the !un- Remember, ali of this can be yours for Desk 1, any railway station, post offi- on the tram, it marks the strip ebeon being offered in the elegant a measely 15 guilders. ces, or in hotels and tobacco shops. two down from the fast used strip (see dining facilities of the Congresgebouw The cast is 11 guilders, fo r which you illustration). If you still find this mys- will consist of: Y ou must bu y lunch tickets at !east a get 15 "strips." terious, have the driver stamp your day in advance. They are available at card for you - you will then see how •Chopped park the Social Events desk in the Use of the cards is intended to be it is done. •Pasta Congresgebouw main hall. comprehensible to the general public. • Vegetable salad Ergo, it is undoubtedly also compre- Y ou should also be aware that travel- •Choice of drinks (but you pay!) hensible for attendees at the General ling without a valid, stamped card can Assembly. Trips cast two "strips" or result in international embarassment more; the cast depends on how many and, more to the point, a fi ne.

For Symposium 166: E. Hoeg, I. D. Novikov, and A. G. Polnarev, "MACHO photometry and astro- nometry."

loot, the artist whose cartoons appear in this paper, is in reality Olaf Kolkman, a graduate student in astronomy at the Kapteyn Institute in K Groningen. When he's not busy at the drawing board, Olaf studies the interaction between star formation and interstellar matter in the nearby galaxies M31 and M33. He is an important contributor to the production of the Sidereal Times, and drinks more India ink than coffee. The

XXIInd General Assembly -The Hague 1994

Editor: SETH SHOSTAK Associate Editor: RENÉ GENEE No. 3: Thursday, 18 August

Solar Research has .Bright Future JJoint Discussion 3 .

Since the early 1960s, the surface of the Sun has been known to be in a regular pulsating motion with periods of about 5 minutes. While various explanations World's Oldest Radio Telescope Discovers New Galaxy were offered early on, only in the 1970s was it recognized that these so-called solar oscillations are manifestations of global motions of the Sun about its equili- .... brium. Helioseismology is the name of the branch of astrophysics that deals with deciphering these data, which caver the whole range of spherical harmonies from . simple radial to very high angular arder. Thanks to modern observational data of superb quality (each of the oscill ation frequencies is measured accurately to better than one part in ten thousand), our knowledge of the Sun has leap-frogged in the last 20 years. For instance, we now know the run of temperature inside the Sun, and have good information about the internai solar rotation. In regard to the solar neutrino problem, the data from oscillations have become an important test for any madel proposing to explain the discrepancy between observed and theoretically predicted solar neutrinos. Asteroseismology is the effort to extend helioseismic techniques to the stars . . What has so far emerged? Nothing really analogous to solar oscillations has yet been found, although severa! groups have tried to observe them. However, there is progress, and that will certainly be reported at this General Assembly. The principal difficulty cornes from the fact that stars are so far away that they are

.. not spatially resolved. Unless one resorts to tricks, such as travelling bumps in spectrallines, the star only reveals the lowest-order modes. Of course, the smal- ; ler the number of frequencies is, the less we can infer about the stellar interiors...... In other words, the analogy to helioseismology is weaker. .. In this situation it is wise to look at the existing multi-periodic variable stars to Infrared K-band image of the Dwingeloo galaxy, obtained by Remo Tilanus, gather experience. Such multi-mode variable stars do indeed exist. Essentially Colin A spin, and Tom Geballe at UKIRT. The scale is roughly 3 arcminutes on a there are three classes of such stars: 1) Pulsating white dwarfs, 2) Rotating Ap side. The image is suggestive of the central core of a (possibly barred) Sb galaxy. stars, 3) Delta Scuti stars. Although the aforementioned objects already margin- ally qualify for asteroseismology (in the eyes of sorne researchers, at least), there is tremendous interest in seeing oscillations of solar-like stars. We could learn how average (or peculiar) our Sun really is. A large, nearby spiral galaxy has that even at the latitude of this object, been discovered as part of the -0.1 degrees and 138.5 degrees longitu- We are interested in stars that are superficially similar to the Sun. Dwingeloo Obscured Galaxy Survey de, sorne light manages to struggle Asteroseismology could reveal if these stars also resemble the Sun in their in teri- being carried out with the 25-m tele- through the obscuration caused by the or. Such information would have a tremendous impact on the theory of stellar scope. Milky Way. Burton noted that the evolution. Built in 1956, this venerable old Dwingeloo galaxy, which is located workhorse is being used to find about 1.5 degrees from Maffei 2 has a WERNER DAPPEN, galaxies in the Zone of A voidance. systemic velocity of 256 km/s with University of Southern California This was reported yesterday by Butler respect to the Milky Way. Burton of Leiden Observatory, repre- The Fisher-Tully relationship provi- senting collaborators Kraan-Korteweg des a preliminary distance estimate of in Groningen, Loan, Lahav, Lynden- 3 Mpc. Burton and his colleagues Bell at Cambridge University, and interpreted their data as indicating an Henning and Ferguson in the U.S. Sb galaxy with a hydrogen mass of The first hint that the galaxy's neu- order 5 x 10 8 solar masses, which tra! hydrogen signature had been makes this one of the largest nearby detected came on August 4, and by spirals, not quite as large as the Milky the time of the General Assembly a Way or M31 , but with the potential to number of other telescopes had been affect the dynamics of the Local brought to bear on the suspect. The Group. The Dwingeloo galaxy is itself Westerbork Synthesis Radio a likely member of a sub-group consis- Telescope, when tuned to the radio ting of IC342 and Maffei 1 and 2, and signature of the hydrogen gas, re- clearly represents a major new addi- vealed the charactersitic patterns tion to theinventory of nearby expected from a rotating galaxy. The galaxies. UKIRT in Hawaii obtained a K-band image. Co-workers at Cambridge University identified a faint smudge GERRIT VERSCHUUR on a Palomar red plate which shows U.S.A. . . __ THE GREAT COMET CRASH

ust one mon th aga we ail witness- results will take place here in The ed an event unique in the history Hague on Thursday and Saturday of of astronomy - the collision of this week. Jtwo solar system bodies. Between 16 A special Seminar on the cornet and 22 July, more than 20 fragments collision is sponsored by Commissions of Cornet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 impac- 15 and 16. The Chair of the he practice of keeping records ments to provide basic information ted the far side of Jupiter, just out of Organizing Committee is Catherine de of astronomical observations about its contents, and readily accessi- direct line-of-sight from the Earth. Bergh (VP Comm. 16), supported by commends itself strongly nowa- ble. Both a database and an archive The energy from each of these impacts T Mike A'Hearn (VP Comm. 15), Alan days. Examination of the history of are objective entities. amounted to millions of megatons Harris (Pres. Comm. 15), and David sudden events and abrupt changes, or Neither constitutes information or (TNT equivalent). Morrison (Pres. Comm. 16). the refinement of long-term periodic knowledge, which are subjective; If a similar event bad happened on The special sessions will be held on orbits and their elements, is impossi- information embraces measurements this planet, it would have precipitated Thursday afternoon (Room Jan ble without the preservation and made on the observations and is the severe environmental collapse and Steen), replacing the second half of accessibility of past observations, and main ingredient of catalogues of quan- possibly a mass extinction. JD 2, and Saturday afternoon (Room signatures of evolution itself can be tities like source positions and paral- The worldwide astronomical com- Rembrandt). The program includes detected if the time-base is sufficiently laxes and centres like the CDS and the munity mounted an observing cam- presentations of results from the long. ADC, while knowledge is the wisdom paign of unprecedented magnitude to Hubble Space Telescope, the Galileo The availability of observations derived from interpreting information. derived from different types of instru- study the impacts and their effects mission, the NASA Kuiper Airborne The ward data is frequently applied ments provides an opportunity to upon Jupiter. For a 2-week period, Observatory, the UKIRT, Keck, and too loosely to an observation at each expand and improve knowledge that nearly every telescope on the Earth, IRTF telescopes on Mauna Kea, the and every stage or even to anything bas been acquired from a more restric- not to mention orbiting observatories European Southern Observatory, Pic- digital, and therefore requires a quali- ted project; it also creates possibilities and the Galileo probe, were focused du-Midi, NOT, Calar-Alto, and fier such as raw data, reduced data, for teaching, hardware and software on Jupiter. Before the impacts took various radio observatories. An data bank. place, we had no idea wbether the attempt to reconcile these observa- development, simulation experiments, The IAU recognizes astronomy's events would be easily visible. As it tions with theory will also be given by etc., not to mention safeguarding basic need to pursue archiving policies turned out, they were spectacular be- Kevin Zahnle. against accidentalloss. Once regarded as an optional extra, demanding addi- where feasible, and has set up yond our highest expectations, and the For those who will come to the ses- tional resources and therefore difficult Working Groups in three major areas large and persistent scars on Jupiter sion on Saturday but may not be able to justify as a stand-alone venture, the -Radio Astronomy, Wide-Field were visible even in small, amateur to attend on Thursday, Mike A'Hearn practice of saving observational data is lmaging and Spectroscopy - to inves- telescopes. will include a summary of the first ses- nowadays becoming accepted as an tigate the requirements of the dif- The timing of the present General sion at the beginning of the Saturday essential ingredient in astronomical ferent activities. Ali three WGs have Assembly could hardly be better for meeting. Various observers are also design, mission and research. Recent done their best to encourage, persu- receiving initial reports from these welcome to remain after the sessions advances in computer technology ren- ade and educate in their respective observing programs. During the on bath days to compare notes and try der it feasible, even easy. fields, and with the turning of the impact events themselves, much of the to resolve any possible areas of con- world tide of opinion in their favor lt is important to recognize the fun- preliminary data were made available tradiction. they have achieved considerable damental differences between a data via internet, and there was widespread While these sessions may be a little progress, given that their members act base and an archive. A telescope in discussion in the press. This publicity hectic, we expect that they will provi- only as volunteers in a non-executive space, for instance, sends back every- stimulated interest in the events but de a stimulating opportunity for us all capacity. thing generated by its instruments into did not in itself yield much in the way to see and participate in an ongoing an observations database. Such a data- The time is now ripe to discuss the of new scientific knowledge. research effort, dealing with a pheno- base therefore includes, separately incorporation of global efforts into an Now, however, after severa] weeks menon never seen previously. and in raw format, each individual official enterprise, to be led by a of examining the data, astronomers modest number of experts in the are able to compare their observations component that is necessary for con- DAVID MORRISON verting the observations into intelligi- necessary skills, and possibly seconded and begin to draw sorne tentative con- from existing agencies, and acting clusions. NASA Ames Research Center ble units (i.e., calibration of pixels into Mountain View, California frequencies, photon counts into abso- under the auspices of an impartial This first opportunity for observers lute fluxes, etc.). A database is there- organization like the IAU. The Joint and theorists to present both data and fore a sine qua non for the creation of Discussion to be held on Wednesday an archive, but the latter is not syno- August 24 will focus on these matters nymous with a database. An astrono- of policy and principle, and your parti- mical archive consists of a selected cipation is warmly invited. subset of its data base, calibrated as far Special Session on the Collision of Cornet as is reasonable within a generalized ELIZABETH GRIFFITH framework, supported by sufficient Cambridge, U.K. Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter documentation, keywords or corn-

Thursday, August 18, 1994 (14h- 18h 20 – Room Jan Steen):

14h: Overview of the event (M. A'Hearn) 14h45: Hubble Space Telescope visible imaging during the crash (H. Hamme! et 15h: Observations of the Jupiter's synchrotron radiation throughout the SL-9 al.) impacts (I. de Pater et al.) 15h 10: Results of UV imaging with the Hubble Space Telescope (J. Clarke et 15h 20: Review of Calar Alto imaging, photometry, and spectroscopy of the SL-9 al.) impacts (T. Herbst et al.) 15h35: The altered composition of Jupiter's atmosphere after cornet SL-9 from 15h 30: Calar Alto results from the A and Q impacts (D.P. Hamilton et al.) HST, UKIRT and IRTF spectroscopy (K. Noll et al.) 15h45: Results from IRTF imaging (M. A'Hearn et al.) 16h 15 - 16h45: Coffee Break 16h: 0.35-1 micron imaging and 0.67-1 micron spectroscopy of impact sites at 16h45: Keck observations of the SL-9 impact on Jupiter (I. de Pater et al.) ESO (K. Horne and R. Schoenmakers) 17h 05: Near-infrared spectroscopie monitoring of Jupiter at the time of the SL-9 15h15-16h45: Coffee Break impact from ESO-NTT (R. Schulz et al.) 16h45: lmaging and spectroscopy from La Palma (I.P. Williams et al.) 17h25: Near-infrared imaging from ESO (K. Jockers et al.) 17h: Pic-du Midi spectroscopy and imaging (M. Roos et al.) 17h40: lü-micron imaging from NOT and ESO (P.O. Lagaga et al.) 17h 20: Millimetric observations from JCMT and IRAM (Owen et al., Lelouch et 18h: Continuous monitoring with the IUE satellite of the Jovian upper al.; report by C. de Bergh) atmosphere during the Shoemaker-Levy 9/Jupiter collision (W. Harris et al.) 17h 35: KAO observations (report by D. Morrison) 17h 50: Models of the cornet collision (K. Zahnle) Saturday, August 20, 1994 (14h-18h20- Room Rembrandt): Organizers: 14h: Overview of the event (Repeat) (M. A'Hearn) 14h45: Summary of the presentations of August 18 C. de Bergh, D . Morrison, M. A'Hearn and Harris. Pulkovo, etc. astrometrists are justi- fied in reconsidering their plans for SYMPOSIUM 166: future investigations. Clearly, prefe- rence should be given to projects that will make sorne kind of significant High Accuracies and High Expectations addition to the resul ts obtained via space astrometry.

he last decade bas witnessed astrometry. Hipparcos is a product of Magellanic clouds, the cosmic distance However, at first it will be necessary tremendous achievements in 1980's technology. So is the Hubble scale, reference frames as well as con- to make comparisons between classi- T astrometry. Space Telescope. Only a very small sequences for the study of the solar cal astrometry and the new methods While most classical ground-based portion of th e Galaxy is accessible system or Earth 's motions. of space astrometry. astrometry (meridian circles, astro- with sufficient accuracy with these in- ln conclusion, this symposium is, labes, astrographs) continue to cape struments. The figure shows the distri- one might say, a preview for astrono- For this reason, during the next deca- with precisions of the arder of 0.1 arc- bution in distance of stars in the my of the first part of the 21st century, de it will be important to continue tra- sec or more, Hipparcos is now produ- Hipparcos program compared with the and we hope that the dreams that will ditional observations, using the meri- cing positions, annual proper motions, mean error in distance which is expec- be presented here will soon become dian and photographie instruments, and parallaxes to better than 1.5 mas ted for single stars. Even taking into reality. including the newer ones. After that, (milliarcseconds) fo r more than account the statistical improvement only those programs will be continued 100,000 stars. Tycho will provide when considering many stars of the that can be considered as supplemen- somewhat less accuracy for a million same type or at the same distance JEAN KOVALEVSKY tal programs to the space astrometry stars. Very long baseline radio interfe- (clusters), the limitation will be in any Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur efforts. This is my point of view on rometry (VLBI) is now well under the case of the arder of 1,000 parsecs. France the future developments of classical milliarcsecond precision for 400 radio So, there is much to be gained with astrometry. sources. Ground based optical interfe- better data. Now, with CCDs, interferometry also works in the range of a rometrie techniques, high speed recei- DIMITRY POLOJENTSEV few mas. The symposium wi ll review vers, and on-board data processing, it Pulkovo Observatory these achievements during the first is becoming possible to build satellite two half days, with an emphasis on instrumentation which can achieve hen one considers the deve- The figure shows the distribution interferometry, Hipparcos and the accuracies of 10-4 to 10-5 arcsecond for lopments in space astrome- in distance of stars in the Hubble Space Telescope. try the success of severa) tens of hundred million stars W Hipparcos program compared The astronornical and astrophysical up to magnitudes of the arder of 17 to Hipparcos, the Hubble Space consequences of these advances will 20. Current projects will be presented Telescope, the AiST Project in with the mean error in distance be one of the main driving forces in during the last day of the symposium. the progress of stellar astrophysics and But the core of Symposium 166 is galactic astronomy during as the cen- devoted to the scientific opportunities tury ends. As examples, one could that these new prospects will allow. mention for the field of galactic dyna- An increase of a factor of 20 to 100 in mics important contributions to the precision, and 100 to 10,000 in the following problems: determination of number of measurable stars will in- the local expansion of the Galaxy, deed change a lot. tests between spherical and cylindrical models of the galactic potential, asses- A major fraction of the Galaxy will sing the reality of the Gould belt and be surveyed for trigonometrie distan- other kinematic structures, recognition ces, proper motions and double star of various types of stellar population, dynamics. Astrometry will reach sig- etc. Velocity and distance distributions nificant results not on ly for the and the luminosity function will be the Magellanic Clouds but also fo r the major tools to reach these goals. local group of galaxies. For all types of 5 Similarly, new stellar masses, absolute stars, including the supergiants, precise absolute luminosities will be luminosities of a large number of dif- 4 ferent stellar types as a function of obtained and many more masses will metal content, rotation, temperature, be derived. Direct dynamical data on and gravity will be the inputs for black matter and MACHOs will be major developments in stellar structu- obtained. These tapies, and sorne others, will be described in more than re and evolution theories. Many ex- 2 amples could be given in other thirty presentations and sorne posters. domains such as open clusters, the The subjects will include stellar astro- cosrnic distance scale, search for physics, binaries, stellar populations, brown dwarfs, dark matter, etc. the search for extra-solar planets and dark matter, galactic kinematics, dyna- D But this is only a prelude for larger mics and evolution, clusters, and more fundamental advances in

Some of those developments are as the US Project STAR (Science Community groups develop plans for technological. Computers, electronic Teaching through its Astronomical a local planetarium or science center, databases and networks have an incre- Roots). which acts as a focus for astronomy asing impact on education in all fields, International development of astro- education. Imaginative, dedicated at alllevels. Textbooks are being sup- nomy is a major concern of the IAU, teachers develop astronomy curricula, The health of astronomy is pro- plemented by video and CD-ROM and many of Commission 46's pro- and creative astronomers (bath ama- foundly affected by the quality and material, or replaced by multimedia grams are aimed at the developing teur and professional) write books, quantity of astronomy education. "electronic textbooks". CCD's have world. The hope is to share the edu- produce radio or TV programs, to Education plays a direct role in attrac- become simple and inexpensive cational and research successes of the "spread the word". In the developing ting and training the next generation enough for school and amateur use, astronomically developed countries countries, one lone astronomer often of astronomers. It contributes to the and software, manuals and activities with those less fortunate. The means does all of these things. awareness, understanding and appre- have been developed for educational of doing so must be very carefully tai- Astronomy educators form a world- ciation of astronomy among the tax- settings. lored to the specifie nature and needs wide network of "kindred spirits", payers who support us. As well, there are conceptual deve- of the targeted countries. dedicated to improving knowledge Education is the specifie mandate lopments, such as research which The most remarkable achievements and appreciation of astronomy. At of only one of the IAU's 40 commis- shows that school children (and there- in astronomy education often consist JD4, these kindred spirits (and ali who sions : Commission 46 (The Teaching fore adults) have serious misconcep- of creative exciting programs and pro- wish to join them) will gather to cele- of Astronomy), and it is the tapie of tions about even the simplest astrono- jects developed by enthusiastic local brate recent achievements, and to plan only one of the many symposia and mical tapies: gravity, light, seasons groups or individuals. Thousands of for the future. meetings at this General Assembly : and moon phases. These rnisconcep- amateur astronomers work to organize JD4 ("Current Developments in tions can be overcome by carefully "International Astronomy Day", to JOHN R. PERCY Astronomy Education"). designed, activity-based curricula, such bring astronomy to the public. University of Toronto, Canada Popular Lecture Series Announcements onight's public lecture is by Professor Herwig Dejonghe, from Ghent in Belgium, and is entitled "Invisible Matter in the Universe." As always, T this offering -- designed to bring sorne of the excitement of contemporary and Tidbits research to the general public -- will be held in the Museon, a few hundred meters from the Congresgebouw's blocky blue edifice.

Y ou may join the throngs by showing up at 20:00 this evening, and paying the Food for Thought to Stohl and Kresak. Following is rather small sum of 7.50 guilders. Incidentally, this talk will be in Dutch, in defe- the program as currently planned: rence to the locals. Given the subject matter of Dejonghe's presentation, you The gourmet offerings reported to us should expect good visual aids. for the Congresgebouw lunch on Session Chair: A. W. Harris, Friday, August 19, are as follows: President, Comm. 15

•Fish Tribute to J. Stohl (5 min) day's illustration on the use of these •Mashed potatoes I. P. Williams, Acting President, cardboard passports was published •Carrots Comm. 22 upside down. Either that, or the illust- •Choice of drinks (not included) Tribute to L. Kresak (5 min) ration was published correctly and the A. Carusi, President, Comm. 20 rest of the paper was printed upside Once again, this not-easily-forgotten Meteor-Cornet Relationships (15 min) down. dining experience is available to all for A. Hajduk (Slovakia) ould it be that the folks who We trust that Assembly attendees, a modest 15 guilders. Meteor-Asteroid Relationships print the Sidereal Times have and particularly the Australians, have (15 min) D. I. Steel (Australia) never used a strippenkaart? To already figured this out. Our apolo- Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 (15 min) Cour editorial embarassment, yester- gies. Y ou must buy lunch tickets at least a day in advance. They are available at D. K. Yeomans (U.S.A.) the Social Events desk in the Trans-Neptunian abjects (15 min) Congresgebouw main hall. I. P. Williams (U.K.) (243) Ida and its satellite (15 min) D. Late Posters Morrison (U.S.A.) JOINT COMMISSION Symposium 164: ("BUSINESS") MEETING: 164.152 T. K Chatterjee, "Enhanced Star Formation in Binary Interacting New Meetings Friday, 19 August, 11:00 - 12:30 Elliptical Galaxies" Space Interferometry Science 164.145 A. Arellano Ferro, L. Parrao, L. Mantegazza, "Supergiant Stars as Co-sponsored by Commissions Working Group, Chaired by Deane Tracers of Galactic Chemical Composition" 15, 20 and 22 Peterson, will meet on Thursday at 164.146 G. De Marchi, F. Paresce, M. Romaniello, "Sifting Through the Ash 14:00. The ESA Committee, chaired Heap" During the last triennium, two leading by Chris Dainty, will also meet on 164.151 B. M. Poggianti, G. Barbara, "Determination of Young Population astronomers in the field of cornets, Thursday at 14:00. Ages in Cluster Galaxies" minor planets, and meteors passed 164.153 A. Vallenari, G. Bertelli, C. Chiosi, S. Ortolani, "The History of Star away. Jan Stohl, then President of Missing Boards? Formation in the Large Magellanic Cloud" Commission 22, Director of the Tatras The black boards that give the upda- 164.154 T. P. Stecher, "The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope: Past and Future Observatory, and Vice-President of ted agendas for sessions are located in Results from the Astro-1 and Astro-2 Mission" the Slovak Academy of Sciences pas- the Paulus Potter room, downstairs sed away on March 21 , 1993. He spe- (where the posters are situated). You cialized in meteor astronomy, particu- will find the aH-important boards to Jovians No Longer Jovial larly the dynamics of meteor stream the back and to the right. It seems that Earth's gain is Jupiter's loss. While many astronomers, including orbits. Lubor Kresak, a past-President sorne of the readers of this publication, have benefitted from the recent cornet of both Commissions 15 and 20, and suicide, there are other, flatter beings that have bad their entire day ruined by acting President of Commission 22, Appointment of the the event. As you can see from the publication below, the Jovians have appealed and a Vice-President of the IAU from Resolutions to Earth for help. Dutch organizations have established a Giro number for con- 1979 to 1985, passed away on tributions to aid our bilious buddies on Jupiter. Others who may wish to finan- January 20, 1994. Kresak's specialty Committee cially aid these victims of solar system aggression should bring their checks and was the interlationships between cash to the offices of the Sidereal Times. No methane, please. meteors, cornets and asteroids. The Executive Committeee proposes Commissions 15, 20 and 22 will pay the establishment of a Resolutions tribute to these two leaders in a joint Committee unde'r the chairmanship of session of scientific papers highlighting Dr. J.-C. Pecker, with Drs. M. F. J. sorne of the recent developments in McCarthy, J. Sahade, Smak, P, tapies relevant to the fields of interest Wayman, and B. Yallop. The

IAU XXIInd General Assembly -The Hague 1994 Editor: SETH SHOSTAK Associate Editor: RENÉ GENEE No. 4: Friday, 19 August

Because of its proximity, this "superluminal microquasar" may now offer the best opportunity to gain a Faster Than Light? general understanding of relativistic MAR 27 ejections seen elsewhere in the universe. At a distance of 12 kpc, as deter- APR Superluminal Motions in France) and Luis Rodriguez (UNAM, mined by Mirabel and Rodriguez on the Galaxy Mexico, and NRAO) observed a the basis of HI absorption, GRS remarkable ejection event from a 1915+105 frequently becomes the compact source of gamma-rays known most powerful X-ray source in the APR esearchers using the Very as GRS 1915+105. The discoverers Galaxy, with a luminosity of ~10 times Large Array have reported the infer that material has been shot out that of the classic stellar black hale first apparent superluminal in opposite directions at physical velo- candidate, Cygnus X-1. Rmotion ever detected in our Galaxy. APR 16 cities of 92% the speed of light. Such GRS 1915+ 105 appears as a scaled- Due to relativistic time dilation powerful ejections are known in dis- up version of the famous stellar radio effects, the observed plasma clouds tant quasars, but the abject found here jet source, SS 433, once believed to be appear to be moving at 125% the is a black hale or neutron star within unique in the Galaxy. However, GRS speed of light. APR 23 our own Milky Way Galaxy. 1915+105 is capable of more powerful Felix Mirabel (Saclay, CEA, ejections: plasma clouds having masses ~1/3 that of the Moon at 92% the speed of light. APR The researchers expect that ejecta Queen Attends Our Inauguration with superluminal expansions will now -- 1" be found not only in distant quasars, but also in high energy sources of stellar mass in our own cosmic neighbor- Pairs of plasma clouds moving away After the ceremony, the Queen was hood. from the high energy source GRS er Majesty Queen Beatrix of 1915 +105. These maps were made at invited to the exhibition area, and was The results will be published in the the Netherlands honored the the Very Large Array at 3.5 cm wave- introduced to sorne of the participants. September 1st issue of Nature. Assembly with her attendence length, with a bearn size of 0.2" and a Hat the Inaugural Ceremony on She expressed great interest in the positional accuracy of 0.02". Wednesday. She was officially wel- latest developments in astronomy, and comed by professors van den Heuvel was less than strict in sticking to a very and van W oerden. Griet Van de tight schedule that would have had her Steene, now finishing her thesis at the leave somewhat earlier. Astronomy's Future to be University of Groningen, offered a Queen Beatrix is one of the best- traditional floral bouquet to Her loved monarchs in Europe. Her Decided Saturday! Majesty as she entered the charm, grace, and interest in the Congresgebouw. world's oldest science impressed all in attendance. on't forget that an extra mee- The mechanisms of international ting is planned for Saturday cooperation to develop joint facilities afternoon, 20 August, 14.00 to have evolved since the 1960's. Have 17.30,D in meeting room Mesdag 1, to we found the right mechanisms for Astronomy graduate student Griet Van de discuss strategies for "Future Large major collaborations, or are there Steene welcomes Queen Scale Facilities in Astronomy." Plans other possibilities? Can an approach Beatrix with a spheri- for a number of proposed but as yet be found to help us maintain strong cally symmetric assort- unfunded large observing facilities will national programs while also provi- ment of flowers. be presented, and the necessity of, and ding for very large telescopes through the strategies chosen for the interna- international consortia? tional collaboration necessary to make Consensus has proven an important them happen will be discussed. element in obtaining support for The climate for financing science is national projects. Should we try to changing rapidly in many countries. reach consensus on a world-wide A notion commonly encountered in basis, possibly with a role for the IAU government policy-making circles or for the OECD Mega-Science these days is that we are moving to a Forum, on which facilities should be The Queen speaks with future situation where only one large planned for, and in which arder, Professor Ed van den observational facility in the world of during the early decades of the new Heuvel, of the each type will be affordable. For poli- century? University of tical reasons we astronomers should The meeting on Saturday after- Amsterdam, before the perhaps not reject this idea out of noon will provide a forum to consider opening ceremonies hand, but consider how we might react these matters. A detailed program of begin. in a constructive way to ensure the speakers will appear in Saturday's next generation of astronomers also Siderial Times. has access to advanced facilities in all wavelength regions. Friday, 19 August

Ed van den Heuvel greets the Queen. not be excused just because you offhandedly remark " I know you probably can't read this table in the Yes, Virginia there is a SETI! back ... " Give the yellow, pink and orange pens to your kids or to one of the many aspiring Dutch graffiti oday, there are three SETI Project Phoenix is a continuation of artists. The common trick of sliding observing programs on telesco- what would have been NASA's opaque material down the sheet to pes around the world, a fourth Targeted Search. Alas, the Sky dramatically reveal new truths is guar- T Survey was too intimately dependent anteed to make enemies. is about to come back on line, and Project Phoenix is rising from the upon NASA's DSN telescopes to suc- Finally, speak to the entire hall, not ashes. cessfully make the transition to private just to the unfortunates in the first five The Berkeley piggyback program funding. Since October of 1993, the rows. SERENDIP is at Arecibo, the SETI Institute has raised $7.5 million Planetary Society's META SETI is at to continue the search. In January of Harvard and META 's clone continues 1994 it will deploy the old NASA from Argentina. The long-running equipment, now more than doubled in JD 6 Handles Hot Stuff: sky survey at Ohio State wi ll saon be capability, to Australia where it will back on the air, and ali these systems search the southern target stars using Sunand Heliosphere have upgrades in their future. That's antennas at Parkes and Mopra conti- four. nuously for 5 months. oint Dicussion 6 co vers an inter- What about NASA's big SETI pro- Meanwhile, the SETI Institute will disciplinary tapie that goes gram - the High Resolution continue working to establish an somewhat beyond what astrono- endowment so that the remaining J Microwave Survey that encompassed mers normally deal with: the Sun and bath a Sky Survey from 1 to 10 GHz goals of the old NASA Targeted the Heliosphere. and a Targeted Search of a thousand Search can be completed by the end of nsiders have reported to this publi- The discussion in general addresses nearby solar-type stars from 1 to 3 the decade. Such an endowment will cation the sad fact that a few challenges fo r solar-terrestrial physics, GHz? Dead; the victim of at last provide a stable source of annu- I attendees have not yet learned the magneto and hydrodynamics. rudiments of public speaking. Congressional budget slashing. al funding for systematic, exploratory Sorne of the papers deal with in-situ In the interest of improving the pre- Senators proved their fiscal prudence programs seeking evidence of other measurements rather than the familiar sentations of ali speakers, and to the folks back home by eliminating technologies. remote-sensing observations. Such particularly those whose talks are the $1 0M for HRMS from the FY 93 Will they succeed? I would not bet measurements in the terrestrial mag- more conducive to sleep than to budget! So much for its 10-year against the fundraisers, and if (as this neto-sphere (the most accessible cos- thought, the Sideral Times offers the observing program. So much for intel- author believes) there are Alien mie plasma), in the solar wind and in following talk tips: ligence in Washington! Astronomical Unions somewhere out th e heliosphere in general are the Y our talk should have three parts: a Fortunately for those who believe there, then eventually the searches basis of three papers on 'non-equilibri- clear, not-tao-short introduction to the that SETI is important, there is intelli- will also succeed. um processes' (based on actually problem (if your first slide is of a gence and vision among the wealthy measured deviations of particle popu- dame on a cold mountain top, you individuals who pioneered the hard- lations from Maxwell distributions), JILLTARTER probably haven't explained the astro- ware and software that ultimately on 'fractionation of the solar wind' SETI Institute nornical problem), what has been makes SETI possible. and on 'acceleration processes in Mountain View, California done to address the problem, sorne heliosphere'. details of the research (this section includes the more boring stuff, but The one-day meeting will, of cour- don't stoop so low asto include the se, also contain papers based on remo- calibration), and the grand finale, your te sensing: there will be reports on conclusion. 'irradiance variability and luminosity No Planets Yet Around Normal Stars changes of the Sun', on a 'unified view Remarkably enough many speakers of the structure of the solar magnetic assume explication of the problem is field' and on the 'magnetodynamics of implicit in the title of their talk, speed Many planets "discoveries" have been within 5 AU. Extremely high preci- the solar corona' (especially as obser- through every single observational announced in the past. Y et, despite sion radial velocity observations (to 20 ved by Yohkoh). increasing precision in bath astrome- m/s) of about 30 stars carried out detail and run out of time before get- The Discussion is organised in three trie and radial velocity surveys, there by severa! groups also have negative ting to the conclusions. This leave main topics: is still no conclusive evidence for pla- results, indicating that < 5% have only the boring part. Y our listeners nets beyond our own solar system, "planetary" companions with masses will curse you in the public lavatories. I. Global Effects of the Solar except for the pulsar planets. greater than 3 Jupiters. Overhead sheets, poorly prepared, Magnetic Field are a curse on mankind. Use no more Il. Plasma Heating and In fact, Geoff Marcy reported to the George Benedict reported that HST than 10 to 15 !ines per sheet. Y ou will Acceleration of Particles, and audience at Joint Discussion 2 that astrometry has also failed to detect III. Heliosphere and Earth as radial velocity surveys of more than evidence of planets orbi ting two of the Cosmic Sensor, 500 stars heave not yet yielded detec- nearest stars, Proxima Centauri and where the last topic, in a way, closes tions even of brown dwarfs! The Barnard's star. Ali these reports sug- Isaac Newton lnstitute the cycle. observations of a handful of Iow-mass gest that planetary systems are companions can be understood as difficult to detect and may, in fact, be Branch in Moscow The third and last part will consist being stellar companions observed at rarer than optimists have in The Isaac Newton Institute, a of a presentation on the 'modulation high inclination angles. the past suggested. Chilean private institution for astrono- of the cosmic radiation and its mani- mical research fo unded in 1978 by festation of cosmogenic isotopes' and Dr. Marcy concluded that fewer than DAVE MORRISON Gonzalo Alcaino, has recently opened - to highlight the gaps in our understanding of the influence of the mag- 1% of single main sequence stars NASA Ames Research Center a branch in Moscow. The group is netic field - a discussion, led by Peter can have brown dwarf companions Moffett Field, California composed of seven scientists from both the Sternberg Observatory of Foukal on the question: 'is the cosmo- Lomonosov University, and the genic isotope variation connected to Institute of Astronomy of the solar irradiance variations, and if so, New Turkish Observatory Seeks Collaboration Academy of Sciences. It works under how?' the local direction of Nikolai Sam us If recent developments, as, for exa- The Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey is developing a site and has the sponsorship of the mple, helioseismology are a guide, the at 2,500 rn altitude with excellent seeing at Bakirlitepe, near Antalya, for a President of the Russian Academy of detailed investigation and comprehen- national observatory. The road and power lines to the summit will be ready at Sciences. Fundamental research sive study of our 'cosmic habitat' is of the close of the summer, and construction for a first small dame to house a 40 cm tapies include the study of globular broad interest to astronomy: in this telescope from Utrecht will begin next summer. clusters in bath the Galaxy and the case it concerns the deeper understan- The Turkish Astronomical Society is seeking collaboration with universities Magellanic Clouds. Most of the data ding of Sun and heliosphere - a para- and observatories, offering infrastructure and observing time in exchange for are obtained at ESO, La Silla, by the digm of stellar and circumstellar astro- telescopes and equipment. An agreement already exists with the Engelgardt Isaac Newton staff in Santiago. nomy. Observatory, Kazan, Russian Federation to install their 1.5 rn telescope. C. BINGHAM Please contact Ali Alpar, Chairman, Turkish Astronomical Society, for further GONZALO ALCAINO ESA,ESTEC information and for a paper describing the seeing statistics at Bakirlitepe. Santiago, Chile The Netherlands Distant Eclipses Discovery ,of Could Reveal Cepheids in the At Wednesday's Inaugural Ceremony you were entertained not only Planets by sorne distinguished IAU members Virgo Cluster and invitees, but also by two great t a morning session on August musicians. Carmen Keijser on piano Galaxy M100 16th, David Morrison descri- and Barbara Langendijk on bed a possible method of flute played two pieces by Gabriel ne of the most frustra ting Adetecting Earth-sized planets round Faure: 'Sicilienne' and 'Morceau de remaining problems in obser- solar-type stars. The transit of such a Concours'. Carmen and Barbara also vational cosmology is the lack planet across the star would produce a essayed an intermezzo by Francis 0 of an accurate value for the Hubble drop in magnitude which, of the order Poulenc: 'Cantilena,' which gave the constant, the parameter which speci- of 0.008 % for an Earth-sized planet, Secretary of State incentive to note fies the present expansion rate of the is within the limits of detectability the appropriateness of music at an universe. In 1985 measurement of this Carmen Keijser with CCD equipment used from astronomical conference. quantity was designated as a key pro- space. Dr. Morrison said that it was clearly essential to monitor a large number of ging, it would also be straightforward. M100: VIRGO GALAXY CEPHEID V7220 stars over a long period, since the If funded, such a telescope could be chance of suitable alignment for the in orbit in about 3 years. transit of a planet such as Earth or The project would complement Venus was only about half of one per- other searches (such as those using cent. But if, say, 5000 suitable stars astrometrie methods) which are could be monitored simultaneously, it looking for Jovian planets. There was conceivable that the rate of ob- would also be scope for "spin-off" T T served phenomena could be as great programs, such as studies of star-spots as one per week - though there are and stellar rotation. of course great uncertainties. A 1.0 to T 1.5 metre space telescope could be used specifically for the purpose, and PATRICK MOORE although the project would be challen- U.K. 1.5 2

Light curve for the Cepheid ject by the Space Telescope Science Life in the Universe Looking Up V7220 in M100. Institute. The primary goals of the key project A Canadian video crew is interviewing are twofold: 1) to discover Cepheid For all you water-loving carbon- that these primitive photosynthesizers ali scientists interested in speaking variables and to measure accurate dis- based Eukaryotes out there, nice that existed in the oceans took about 3 about their research or field of study. tances to about two dozen spiral places to live in the Galaxy may be billion years to terraform the Earth's You can contact Mark Moidel or galaxies useful as calibrators for a more abundant than you previously atmosphere into a free oxygen compo- Marie France Henrie (#1809), or in wide range of secondary methods, and thought. nent (these were Earth's "salad days") Commissiekamer 2 if interested. 2) measurement of the distances to the A mix of Planetary Science, before complex biology emerged. Virgo and Fornax clusters. The ulti- Astrophysics, and Biology for the But even this time scale may be mate goal is to provide a measure of investigation of Circumstellar shortened if a Jess reducing initial pla- H0 to 10% accuracy. Habitable Zones has recently resulted netary atmosphere can be formed. in substantially more optimistic esti- There is, of course, too much about In an optimally-spaced sequence of mates on the number of possible our home among the stars to report observations obtained with the homes for the peculiar type of biology here, but a volume entitled WFPC2 in April through June, 1994, th at exists on terra firma. The inn er "Circumstellar Habitable Zones," edi- Just as the Van Gogh Museum in the Virgo Cluster galaxy M100 was boundary of the Habitable Zone (HZ) ted by the author, should be coming Amsterdam shows the artist's rewor- imaged at 12 seperate epochs in the V is now determined by the runaway out later this year reporting on the kings of Millet and other predecessors, band and 4 epochs in the I band. A greenhouse effect while the outer conference. so the Beethoven version of "The sample of about 20 Cepheids has been boundary is defined by the condensa- In summary, it is clear, that astro- Heavens Are Telling" sung by the identified, and light curves and mean tion temperature of CO2, limits that physicists need planetary data to cali- Spakenburg Choir at the Inaugural period-luminosity relations obtained are about an order of magnitude wider brate solar evolution models, biolo- Ceremony cao be considered his own at V-1. The newly-discovered than previous studies indicated. gists can no longer ignore cornets reworking of the similar earlier piece Cepheids have periods in the range of The bad news is that the Earth will when thinking about the evolution of from Haydn's "Creation." 15 to 60 days, These results were leave the solar ecoshell in about 2.4 species, and planetary scientists cao- According to Haydn's biographer, presented at the Stellar Populations billion years (stellar evolution can not understand the evolution of the Professor Landon-Robbins, that com- Symposium 164 on Wednesday mom- sometimes be an inconvenience ). The Earth's atmosphere without including poser wrote his "The Heavens Are ing by Freedman (Carnegie good news is that K stars cao be quite both the effects of biological modifica- Telling" (a setting of Psalm 19) as a Observatories, Pasadena, California) comfortable to live around. Even M tion and solar evolution modeling. direct inspiration from his visit to star HZ planets, in spi te of being tidal- The results of this mixing of research William Herschel's telescope (if I The key project team is now working ly locked in rotation, can also be habi- fields has resulted, in general, in a remember correct! y, the gia nt 40-foot on an independent ground-based table as long as the atmosphere can more optimistic estimate of the preva- reflector ). calibration of the HST photometry maintain at least 100 millibars of to lence of circumstellar habitable zones. and expect to have a reddening-cor- Haydn mentioned in a letter how rected distance to M100 shortly. co2 to keep the atmosphere from As it has sometimes been said, impressed he was. The historical Current estimates of the distance to freezing out. "There's no place like home." l'rn record doesn't show any documenta- the Virgo Cluster range from 15 to 27 beginning to wonder who else in the Recent simulations of terrestrial tion from Herschel himself, though as Mpc. The depth of the Virgo cluster Galaxy might be saying the same? planet formation have also indicated a composer of considerable compe- is small compared to this factor of 2 that about one terrestrial-mass planet tance, Herschel must have doubly discrepancy, and hence these new should form within the ecoshell distan- LAURANCE DOYLE appreciated Haydn's visit. In any HST data will provide a very first test event, Herschel was one of the sub- ce from stars regardless of spectral SETI Institute of the two competing 'long' and 'short' scribers to the published edition of type. Biologists also surprised every- Mountain View, California distance scales. one by indicating that the time for bio- Hadyn's "Creation. genie materials (in water brought prin- WENDY FREEDMAN cipally from cornets) to form the most Carnegie Observatories primitive prokaryotes could be as OWEN GINGERICH Pasadena, California short as ten million years. It is known Cambridge, Massachusetts Friday, 19 August

Announcements Popular Lecture Series

upiter's recent lunch on Shoemaker-Levy 9 was comparable, mass-wise, to a and Tidbits human feasting on a hamburger smaller than a grain of sand. No matter. The excitement is out of proportion to the serving size. Tonight's popular Jlecture will be by Richard Strom, of Dwingeloo, and bears the tempting title, "A cosmic disaster? A cornet collides with Jupiter. Food for Thought If too many talks have y ou on a short fuse, consider attending the Fireworks The lecture, which begins at 20:00 in the Museon (10 minute walk), costs 7.50 The fine fare you'll find steaming and Festival, August 18 - 21; guilders, and will be in Dutch. Y ou are encouraged to come, and to bring waiting for you on Saturday, August The àction begins at 22:00, on the friends, relatives, and random folks you may have met on the tram. 20, has been reported by our roving Scheveningenboardwalk gourmet to be as follows:

•Salad with meat pieces and veggies •Cold cuts Late Posters •Bread JD3.12 S. Talon and J.P. Zahn, "The Second Order Effect of Rotation on Stellar Pulsation Stability" •Choice of drinks (at extra cost) JD3.13 A. Baglin et al., "The Space Mission COROT" JD3.14 T. Bedding et al., "Stellar Parameters of Eta Boo" Once again, this lucious lunch is avai- JD3.15 B. Gelly, "Frequencies and Linewidths from the IRIS Network." lable to al! for a modest 15 guilders. S165.CV.209 E.N. Ecran et al. "Rosat Observations of TT Ari" S165 .SN.210 O.R. Pols, K. Nomota, E.P.J. van den Heuvel, "A C+O Star Mode! for the Type Oc Supernova 1994I" Y ou must buy lunch tickets at !east a S165.HX.211 J.Greenhil et al., "H-alpha Photometry of an X-ray Binary" day in advance. They are available at S165.NH.213 S. Grebenev, M. Pavlinsky, R. Sunyaev, "Population of X-Ray Sources near the Center of our Galaxy accor- the Social Events desk in the ding to the ART-P/GRANAT" Congresgebouw main hall. S165.BH.214 S. Grebenev, R. Sunyaev, M. Pavlinsky, "Spectral States of Galactic Black Hole Candidates. Observations with the ART-P/GRANAT" Commission 31, S165.BH.215 J.M. Bonnet-Bidaud, M. Mouchet, "The Optical Spectrum of GRO J0422+32 in Quiescence" Joint Discussion 8 S165.NT.216 C.K Chou et al. , "The Modified Kompaneets Equation with Astrophysical Applications." For organiztional reasons, the first two S165.CV.217 M. Siarkowski P. Pres, "Structure of the AR Lac Corona from ROSAT PSPC All-Sky Survey Observations" sessions of JD8 are inverted: S165.LX.218 L. Angelini et al., "The LMXRB pulsar 4U 1626-67" 14:30- 16:00 New possibilities intime- S163.219 A.Hukeirat "HDRHD- A Multidimensional Radiative Hydrodynamical Solver for Accetion Flows Around frequency standards. Compact Objects" 16:30- 18:00 Nes on atomic and dyna- S165.220 J.F. Dolan et al. "The UV Polarization of 4U1700-37, Vela XR-1 and Cyg XR-1" mical time scales. S165.222 M.L Wanas, M. Melek, M.E. Kahil "Is it true that SN1987A Observations Confirm WEP?" The meetings are held in the s165.223 S. Brandt, N. Lund "Monitoring the Activity Variations in Galactic X-ray Sources with WATCH on EURECA" Rembrandt Hall. Commission 44: This commission will meet in Mesdag 1 on Friday afternoon, 14:30- 16:00. Active Centers Topic of Joint Discussion 5

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the The first of what we would now cali finement of gas velocities as large as extreme ultraviolet (Konigl) AGNS. visit to the Leiden Astronomy active galaxies were pointed out by those implied by Seyfert galaxy line The "are they important" issue will be Department bas been cancelled. Seyfert (who otherwise worked mostly widths requires a central mass near addressed by talks on the core of the Instead, participants in Tour 10, on star clusters) just over 50 years ago. 10 8 M . The phrase quasi-stellar Milky Way (Genzel), fossils of past Recognition that M82 (the prototypi- 0 activity (Bender), black hales in quies- Technical Visit to Leiden and ESTEC radio source first appeared in 1963 cal - meaning not at ali average - cent galaxies (Kormendy), and on Saturday, August 20, will be (for 3C 273 and 3C 48, of course). star burst galaxy) is also pretty weird galaxies at high redshift (Miley). offered a guided tour of the National And it is a little disconcerting to reali- dates to about the same time. Museum for the History of Science, ze that we are now more than 50% The issue of interactions will be also in Leiden. To the 1950's belong the optical further away from the Schmidt, probed by talks on theory and obser- identification by F.G. Smith, B.Y. Hazard, et al. discovery of QSOs than vations of the dynamics of gas and The ESTEC visit will take place as Mills, W. Baade, and R. Minkowski of 1963 was from Seyfert's seminal stars in interacting galaxies (Fridman, planned. Arrivai and departure times the first radio galaxy (Cygnus A) and paper. Combes, Barnes), Markarian galaxies are unchanged. the recognition by L. Woltjer that con- with binary nuclei (Khachikian), and Current interesting questions in the barred and ring galaxies (Athanas- field include (a) which active galaxies soula). Starbursts as an alternative to contain central monsters, which are monsters will be considered by fueled by starbursts, and which (see- Terlevich, Sanders, and Mirabel. mingly a considerable number) have both? (b) To what extent do close Pastoriza will address the interpre- encounters or interactions between tation of emission !ines as a probe of galaxies trigger star bursts and fuel the paradigm structure. Finally, monsters? (c) Does the current para- Barthel and Rees will ask (though digm of central black hole, accretion possibly not answer) questions about disk, and collimated jets provide a standard and unified models and their good match to the active galaxies we implications for the evolution of the see, and can the various subtypes be AGN population over the history of fitted into a single unified scheme? the universe. And (d) are, quasars (etc.) important In addition, somewhere between 36 in the grand picture - that is, do they and 60 posters (depending upon dra- significantly affect the chemical and conian decisions by the LOC) and a dynamical evolution of their parent few short oral contributions will com- galaxies; do most galaxies have dead plement the invited review talks. AGNs in their centers, etc? The last few years have seen rele- VIRGINIA TRIMBLE vant data accumulate rapidly in a Univ. of California, Irvine, and number of wavebands. JD 5 will indu- Univ. of Maryland de observational talks on gamma ray (Zdziarski), X-ray (Kunieda), and The

XXIInd General Assembly -The Hague 1994

Editor: SETH SHOSTAK Associate Editor: RENÉ GENEE No. 5: Saturday, 20 August

Concert Worthy of Note Gamma-Ray Sources Flash! Not Nearby New Pulsar

Merging Neutron Stars and Black Holes? Planetary

About once per day from a random location on the sky a tremendous BATSE 1000 Gamma-Ray Bursts System burst of gamma radiation appears. During its brief appearance, lasting from a fraction of a second to severa! hundred seconds, it outshines the The first planetary system outside combined brightness of ali other sour- our own has been detected in 1992 ces of gamma rays in the sky. around an old neutron star, PSR B1257+ 12, a 6.2-millisecond pulsar, 1 The origin of these gamma-ray bursts kpc away from the Sun. has become one of the greatest mysteries of modern astrophysics. April 21, 1991-May 27, 1994 The evidence is based on microse- cond precision timing measurements A review of gamma-ray burst observa- bursts were due to isolated neutron of the pulse arrivai times. It reveals tions and sorne new results from the stars scattered throughout the Galaxy. the existence of three planets with the NASA Compton Observatory mission Detailed models of sudden accretion, corresponding masses of 0.015 , 3.4 and were presented on Thursday, 18 thermonuclear explosions or neutron 2.8 Earth masses, orbital periods of August, at Symposium No. 165, star-quakes were developed to explain around Sun-like stars is only a matter 25.3, 66.5 and 98.2 days, orbiting the Compact Stars in Binaries. A leading the bursts. However, the distribution of time, and means necessary to per- pulsar at the distances of 0.19, 0.36 theory of gamma-ray bursts speculates of bursts on the sky, coupled with fect the detection techniques. and 0.47 that they result from the merger of their intensity distribution observed A.U. Moreover, the superb precision of the two neutron stars or a neutron star by BATSE, now make the Galactic pulsar timing technique (a microse- The planets have been confirmed and a black hole. The details of such a neutron star models very unlikely. cond timing precision corresponds to in 1994 through the detection of the merger were described by Tsvi Piran, a millimeter-per-second accuracy of predicted effect of gravitational per- from Israel. Most researchers now believe that the radial velocity measurements) makes bursts are coming from cosmological turbations between the two more mas- it a powerful tool with which to study sive planets. A near 3:2 resonance The energetics and the frequency of distances, and that the observed defi- the dynamics of pulsar systems. condition of these two objects per- such mergers are of the same order ciency of weak bursts is due to their turbs the orbits to a sufficient extent as that observed in gamma-ray bursts, extreme distance and redshift. If that Such studies may become essential for for the effect to be clearly detectable if it is assumed that they occur at a is the case, then a time dilation should further improvement of the under- in the pulse arrivai time data collected redshift of about 1 to 2. be seen in the time profile of bursts. standing of planet formation processes Such a dilation has been reported, but over 3.5 years. and of a possible link between pulsar Gamma-ray bursts were discovered by the results are somewhat controver- planets and the planetary systems The discovery of pulsar planets accident over 20 years ago by US sial. Perhaps the best way to solve the around more familiar kinds of stars. demonstrates that Earth-mass bodies nuclear bomb detection satellites. gamma-ray burst problem is to ob- in bound orbits do exist outside the Since that time, they have been obser- serve a counterpart in another wave- ALEX WOLSZCZAN Solar System and it appears to support ved by many experiments on a wide length region or to observe a gravita- Penn State University the idea that discovering planets variety of earth-orbiting and interpla- tionally -lensed gamma-ray burst. netary spacecraft. Currently, the Burst and Transient Source Experi- Other recent burst results from the ment (BATSE) on the Compton Compton Observatory mentioned at Observatory is providing the most sen- Symposium 165 were the recording of sitive observations of gamma-ray a much higher energy photon .002 bursts. (~ 20 Ge V) and a longer dura ti on (1.5 h) from a gamma-ray burst than 0 A sky map plotted in Galactic coordi- have been recorded previously. These -.002 nates, showing a thousand gamma ray new observations serve to deepen the bursts observed by BATSE is shown gamma-ray burst mystery. here. GERALD J. FISHMAN In the 1980's, virtually ali workers in NASA/MSFC, USA the field believed that gamma-ray Post-fit residuals of pulse arrivai times for folded modulo the orbital periods of 25.34 days for planet A. Arrivai time variations for other planets are removed. FUTURE LARGE SCALE Quasars and FACILITIES IN ASTRONOMY CONTROL OF LIGHT Meeting Room: Mesdag 1 the Seas .g POLLUTION Saturday afternoon, 20 August 1994 c 1. POLICY ISSUES (14:00- 15:10) Astronomers recovering from the -. A joint conference between IAU meetings at the Dutch coast and con- Commission 50 (Identification and m: Harvey Butcher, NFRA, Introduction templating the change between high [ of the yeor] Protection of Observatories) and 5 min. and low tide may be aware of the Technical Commission 4.21 of classical connection of this spectacle Commission Internationale de Francaise Praderie, OECD/OP to our discipline. l'Eclairage (the international profes- Large Facilities: Present Policy Issues They may be less aware of the dia- sional body of lighting engineers) will 20 min. lectic relation between the geometrie be held Saturday 20 Aug at 14:00- description of the most distant abjects 17:30 in Mesdag 2. Richard Schilizzi, JIVE Struggles with and the nearest, our Earth. Global Collaboration, 15 min. The program is: The positions of quasars are cur- Astronomical Requirements rently determined using VLBI with to Morris Aizenman, US NSF K. Tritton accuracy below the milliarcsecond Perspectives on collaboration, 10 min. Units in astronomy and lighting leve!. The measurement principle D. Crawford implies the transport of the interfero- Lodewijk Woltjer, OHP/IAU Light pollution levels metrie baseline through space by the Strategies for the Future, 20 min. A. Upgren rotating Earth, thereby intimately Propagation of light pollution connecting the quantities of Earth's II. SPECIFIC PROJECTS (15:10 - J. Mason rotation and quasar positions. 15:30, 16:00 - 17:10) Road lighting Expressing the accuracy above in R. Holmes earthly terms, we recognize that our Roy Booth, Onsala, Next generation Outdoor lighting planet is slow or fast by a tenth of a mm arrays, 15 min. N. Pollard millisecond of time (or by centimeters Light pollution control in the spatial position of an equatorial Tetsuo Hasegawa, Tokyo, Large mm P. Murdin point). & Sub-mm Array, 15 min. The interest in such variations is a Recent work bas investigated the supposition that quasars are truly at Ali are welcome. Robert Braun, NFRA, Square twofold one: everybody measuring the distances indicated by their reds- Kilometer Array, 10 min. positions even in deepest space bas to THE WORLDWIDE DEVELOP- know the orientation of his observa- hifts. The idea is to look carefully at the region of sky surrounding QSO's MENT OF ASTRONOMY Oddbjîrn Engvold, Oslo, Large Earth- tional platform (the solid Earth), based Solar Telescope, 10 min. while scientists investigating the Earth to see if a surfeit of galaxies is to be found there. so, then one can make The IAU has long be concerned itself are interested in the reasons for If about astronomers whose geographie Michael Burton, NSW, Antarctic its variations. conclude that the QSO's are located in these distant galaxy groupings. or economie situations have hindered observatories, 10 min. Besides free motion (which any their full participation in the interna- Images were obtained with the spinning top is allowed to have), the tional community. Holland Ford, JHU, Polar main cause for variations in the short CFHT of two groups of mostly radio- quiet QSO's: 14 at z ~1.1 and 7 at z Commissions 5, 38 and 46 ali have Stratospheric Telescope, 10 min. run consists in the exchange of angu- done and are doing much to help. In lar momentum between the solid, ~2.3. In the z = 1.1 sample, these were broad-band R and I, and narrow-band 1987, the Executive Committee cre- Serge Volonte, ESA, Post-Horizon fluid and gaseous constituents of the ated a Working Group for the 2000 missions, 20 min. Earth. Due toits much greater mobi- at the wavelength of [0 II] in the QSO rest frame. In the z = 2.3 sample Worldwide Development of lity, the atmosphere dominates the Astronomy to consider specifically the III. GENERAL DISCUSSION variations. only R band data were used. In the broad-band images all faint sources problems faced by many of our col- (17:10- ... ) But because of the steadily incre- were counted, and the region surroun- leagues. asing precision of VLBI and other ding the QSO compared with the rest At this Assembly we are concentra- observational methods, the oceans of the image. ting on the problems of astronomy in must not been neglected any longer. In both datasets, the QSO surroun- Africa, and hope to have representati- We have shown that the short- dings have an overall excess of ves from every country on that conti- period tides (such as the best known galaxies at a >5 sigma leve!. There is nent with IAU members. The UN semidiurnallunar tide) le ad to millise- an excess of emission-tine candidates and ESA have recently held two cond variations in Universal Time - at the same significance leve!, and a workshops on space science in Africa, and we were able to find them in slight excess of blue abjects, in the z = and there is to be an international VLBI data. We refers to oceanogra- school for young astronomers soon in ! 1.1 QSO data. The excess is in faint, Warningarnmg. hers from Hamburg, and astronomers small, and irregular galaxies. Egypt. and geodesists from Bonn. These events, combined with the The results suggest that the QSO's Please DO NOT write on the wooden Now we are concerned with the recent sweeping political changes in live in compact 'clusters' of galaxies, poster boards; either with pencils, felt seasonal changes caused by the ther- South Africa make the time ripe to or have such clusters preferentially in pens, or engraving tools. This is cau- mohaline circulation within the oce- consider cooperation on the continent the line of sight. sing great consternation for the orga- ans, influenced by wind stresses and and how outsiders can help. nizers. Don't use push-pins on the the interplay of precipitation and eva- The lack of absorption !ines in the QSO spectra, the ubiquity of the phe- We hope many of you will come on black boards, either. Be good! poration. Most advanced models of Saturday morning (09:00-12:30 in such a circulation can predict the nomenon, and the moderate QSO luminosity argue against the fore- Mondriaan) to learn about sorne of angular momentum content of the the problems faced by our colleagues oceans and thereby their influence on ground cluster explanation. The colors and the implied luminosity sug- on the world's poorest continent, and the length of day (the rotation rate of to see if you or your institute can offer the solid Earth). gest that the associated galaxies are dominated by very hot stars, and are help. The figure shows these changes in the process of an initial starburst. within an average year. The observa- The clusters are dense and small, and A.H.BATTEN tional confirmation of the theoretical presumably evolve passively or via Chairman, WGWWDA results is a very difficult task, not only mergers to the small groups seen near because of random errors but even QSO's at low redshift. The activity of more since there is a whole zoo of the QSO thus seems to be associated General Assembly Dinner competing effects. with galaxy interactions and hot star OK, this is the social event you've come thousands of miles to attend. Y ou will formation at ali observed redshifts. have the opportunity to meet world famous astronomers informally, enjoy a PETER BROSCHE buffet dinner and dance (but not simultaneously.) German y JOHN HUTCHINGS The cost is 65 guilders per head. The rest of your body is free. The location is in Dominion Astrophysical Observatory the Jan Steen Room. Tickets are available at the Social Events Desk. Oh yes: Victoria, Canada the date and time are 20:00, Wednesday evening, August 24. cD galaxy. The galaxy population in A2390 changes from a very red central Joint Discussion 8: population in the inner 100 arcsecs to a population as blue as the surrounding field. The small spread in color of Time Scales: State of the Art the central galaxies limits their inter- val of formation to 3 Gyr or Jess, equivalent to redshift 1.7. The red popula- One of the problems of general time comparison between remote tion is virialised while the blue interest in astronomy and astrophysics With regard to the problems perti- docks on the Earth over interconti- galaxies ap-pear to be an infalling today is to define and maintain speci- nent to the establishment and maintai- nental distances or in its close vicinity. population. There is also at !east one fie space-time reference systems. nance of atomic time scales, new These methods have the potential for subcluster with an evolved population. The accuracy of the observed phe- progress in cesium frequency stan- reaching an accuracy approaching 1 There is a population of strong nomena in dynamical and physical dards have been achieved : the instabi- nanosecond in time comparisons. Balmer absorbers in bath field anclus- astronomy is now such that the relati- lity for averaging times of the arder of Very successful time transfer with a ter, characteristic of truncated ( disk or vistic effects in definition, keeping, 100 days at the Physikalisch- precision of 100 picoseconds has been starburst) star-formation, but no and transfer of the time-unit and time- Technische Bundeshanstad and at the achieved between Western Europe obvious population of strong star- scale can no longer be disregarded. United States Naval Observatory is and North America using the LASSO bursts in the cluster. The galaxy morp- In contrast to the inertial coordina- today about 6 parts in 10 15, and new (Laser Synchronisation from Satellite hologies show a sharp rise in the early tes of Newtonian astronomy, there primary frequency standards are deve- Orbits) experiment on geostationary type population at a radius of ~500 exist no global coordinates in relativis- loping in different laboratories. satellites, and solutions have been pro- arcsec: many of the strong Balmer absorbers lie outside this radius and tic astronomy which may be treated as On the other hand, it is very signifi- posed that may lead to dock synchronisation by laser techniques using non- appear to be interacting. It appears physically meaningful measurable cant and encouraging to note the that the cluster accretion involves quantities. For this purpose new rela- results achieved in the use of frequen- geostationary satellites. merging and truncation of star-forma- tivistic ( dynamical) time scales: cy standards derived from the fre- EDOARDO PROVERBIO tion in the outer parts of the cluster. "Geocentric Coordinate Time" (TCG) quencies emitted from radio sources Osservatorio Astronomico and "Baricentric Coordinate Time" such as the pulsars. The stability of Gagliari, ltaly The cluster buildup must have (TCB), and new relations with the ob- sorne millisecond pulsars (PSR occurred without much radial mixing served Terrestrial Time (TT) and 1937+21 and PSR 1855+09) is now in arder to preserve this structure. International Atomic Time (TAI) comparable (arder of 10 14) to the sta- The blueness of the elus ter envelope, were introduced at the 21st IAU bility of atomic frequency standards GALAXY POPU- cluster galaxies, suggests that either General Assembly in Buenos Aires for averaging times longer than one the cluster environment has no effect LATIONS IN THE on galaxies at large radii, or that the (1991). year. rate of cluster infall from the field Progress in the establishment of The problem of the dissemination Z=.23 Cluster A2390 atomic and dynamical time scales has remains high (as is appropriate for a and transfer of frequency standards high omega uni verse) at z~0.23. been made in the last years, and seems and atomic time scales is very impor- How does the population of possible in the near future to remove tant in many scientific and Technical galaxies change as you move from the further ambiguities intime scales activities. The use of the Global center of a cluster? JOHN HUTCHINGS introducing a modified atomic time Dominion Astrophysical Observatory Positioning System (GPS) and the We have studied the galaxy popula- scale (TAIM) as the physical realisa- Victoria, Canada Russian Global Navigational Satellite tion in the z=0.23 cluster A2390 as tion of the Geocentric Coordinate System (GLONASS) are among the Time (TCG). part of a photometrie and spect1 most precise and accurate methods for pic survey of 341 galaxies in a 46 x 7 arcmin strip, centred on the cluster's

.75

Colors as a function of log distance from the cluster center, for Abell 2390. Imagery obtained with the Hubble The vertical scale is g-r, and the hori- Space Telescope of law redshift zontal scale runs from 10 ta 100,000 Lithium a Puzzle in Black Holes QSO's (z < 0.32) has indicated pre- arcsecs, thus including field galaxies on viously unseen structure in these the right-hand side of the graph. Note abjects suggestive of considerable dis- the very narrow scatter of red galaxies turbance. near the cluster center. Lithium more of a puzzle in black um absorption line with a strength Two of the observed quasars are hales than black hales 10,000 times more than the field star. radio-laud, and two are radio-quiet. standard type galaxy. X-ray binary stars are sorne kind of How has this extra lithium been One of the radio-quiet QSO's is a compact X-ray star circling a compa- made? strong IR source. Of the radio-laud However, the radio-loud QSO's nion. There are two black hale bi- The likely explanation, according to QSO's, one has compact radio structu- appear to be in galaxies that generally naries amongst the soft X-ray novae, Rashid Sunyaev, is spallation with two re and one is a large triple source. have elliptical properties, while one of according to Phil Charles in Friday's the radio-quiet QSO's has definite spi- alpha-nuclei combining to make lithi- Thus, the four objects span a range session of Symposium 165: V404 um-7 and a proton, with a 478 keY ral morphology. Further image resto- Cygni and A0620-00. of parameters. In ail except the large ration and photometrie measurements gamma ray. Sunyaev linked this expia- radio source there is evidence of When the accretion dise excited by nation to a spectralline seen by the will provide more detailed evidence of recent or ongoing tidal interaction in the tidal events that appear to trigger X-rays in the X-ray novae has faded, Granat experiment in X-ray transient the host galaxy structure. there remains a K-type star's spectrum Nova Muscae. the nuclear activity, and may yield The new data reveal the following elues as to the essential difference in bath these systems. Measurements If this is the right explanation, new morphological features: compact between radio-loud and radio-quiet of the K-star lead to masses for the X- Sunyaev pointed out that we should knots of blue luminosity in tidal debris nuclei. ray emitter of 10 and 12 solar masses also see a (proton, neutron) reaction in A0620-00 and V404 Cyg respective- that have the colour, size and lumino- yielding deuterium and a 2.2 Me V sity of as few as ~100 O stars, details ly - tao high to be neutron stars, and gamma ray. This spectralline ought JOHN HUTCHINGS the best candidates to be black hales. of tidal tails that indicate different ori- to be one of the major discoveries in gins such as disk arms or star-forma- STEVEN MORRIS It's very neat- but there is one X-ray binaries made by the gamma tion in stripped gas, and a jet-like Dominion Astrophysical Observatory If puzzling detail in each system. you ray satellite Integral when it is laun- nuclear feature. Victoria, Canada subtract the spectrum of an ordinary ched early next century. K-type star from the binary star spec- Full analysis of the images is still trum, as expected, you see residu al H- underway. While the sample is small alpha emission from near the X-ray PAUL MURDIN and somewhat biased towards unusual emitter. However, you also see a lithi- Particle Physics and Astronomy abjects, sorne conclusions are sugge- Research Council, U.K. sted. No host galaxy is an undisturbed Announcem·ents Popular Symposium

n remembrance of Jan Oort's 70 years of research on the Milky Way, the and Tidbits Netherlands Association for Weather and Astronomy- a national group I that promotes astronomy throughout the country- has engaged four enga- ging (not to mention eminent) researchers to present an afternoon of talks on the theme "New Light on the Milky Way." The program, which will be introdu- Food for Thought ced by Hugo van Woerden, consists of the following: Light curves of UM 425, UM 673, H Our official informant relays the fol- 1413+117, F. Courbin (Liege, Paris) 13:30 Welcome and Introduction, Hugo van Woerden, Kapteyn lnstitute, lowing list of items that will be waiting Groningen, The Netherlands to accost your taste buds during the B. Other (very) short communications 13:40 Oort and the Milky Way, Leo Blitz, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, Congresgebouw lunch on Monday, and/or general discussion, (To be Maryland August 22: determined) 14:30 Structure, Composition and Dynamics of the Milky Way, and the Role of Dark Matter, Ken Freeman, Mt. Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories, • Lamb (=young sheep) Contact: J.-P. Swings Canberra, Australia •Rice 15:50 What's Going On At the Galactic Center? Reinhard Genzel, MPI, •Mexican vegetables Talk Has Title Garching, Germany •Choice of drinks (at your cost) 16:40 Formation and Evolution of the Milky Way Galaxy, Francesca Matteucci, Despite appearances to the contrary, Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, ltaly As you now undoubtedl y know, these the talk by S. Chakrabarti for JD 5 17:30 Discussion culinary offerings can be yours for does have a title, and one guaranteed 17:45 lt's a wrap ... only 15 guilders. to suck in attendees, at that: "How Massive is the Black Hole in M87?" Y ou must buy lunch tickets at least a day in advance. They are available at the Social Events desk in the IUCAA COMPLETES Late Posters Congresgebouw main hall. FIVE YEARS C20 and C24 I. I. Brejdo, N. M. Bronnikova, O.M. Michailova, D. K. Michailov, Gravitational Lens "Investigations of the Russian Astronomical Unsensitized Plates, NT-lA and At the Baltimore General Assembly Orthochromatic NT-1AG" Monitoring of the IAU, Jayant Narlikar made a S165 .224 A. O. Allakhverdiev, et al., "On Pulsar-Supernova Remnant (schedule) presentation concerning a proposed Associations" national facility for Astronomy and Sl64.156 T. Lejeune, R. Buser, "Compared Synthetic Photometrie Properties of Astrophysics for the universities in Two Theoretical Stellar Spectra Libraries" S165.224 A. O. Allakhverdiev, "On Pulsar-Supernùva Remnant Associations" Joint Commission Meeting 28, 47- India. Known as the Inter-University JD5.57 G.K.T. Hau, R. C. Thomson, "Elliptical Galaxies with Peculiar Saturday, August 20, 9:00-10:30 Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) the centre was Kinematics: Decoupled Cores or Decoupled Halos?" SL 1 J. Watanabe, "Prompt Report of Japanese Observations on SL 9- Jupiter A. 12 minute contributions : founded on December 29, 1988. Phenomena" JD 12 V. L. Khokhlova, J. Zverko, J. Ziznovsky, "Spectra of a Unique Eclipsing The Princeton lens monitoring pro- After five years, the IUCAA now has Binaray AR Aur with CP Components" gram, S. Malhotra (Princeton) its own building in the pleasant surroundings of the University of Puna. JD 6 Yihua Yan, and Jingxiu Wang, "The Numerical Analysis of 3-D Magnetic Topology of AR 6659 Under Magnetohydrostatic Conditions: Solution of Variability of quasars from the HQM It has excellent facilities including a Constant-Alpha Force-Free Field" program, K.-J. Schramm (Liege, computer center, electronic mail, data JD11.22 D.A. Lubowich, B.E. Turner and L.M. Hobbs, "A search for Enhanced Ham burg) centre, an A&A library and a laboratory for astronomical instrumentation. Lithium and Boron in the Galactic Center" JD11.23 H. Reeves and N. Prantzos, "Cosmic Ray Activity in the Orion Cloud Radio monitoring of gravitationallen- (see posters on IUCAA Nos JD4:D19 and the Galactic Evolution of Light Elements" ses, B. Burke (MIT) and WG1:5 in the basement) S168.59 M.A. Pahre and S.Djorgovsky, "A Near-lnfrared Search for Protogalaxies, and Limits on the Reprocessing of Continuum Radiation from Determination of time delay for IUCAA welcomes visitors from High-Redshift QSOs" 0218+357 from radio polarization abroad for its workshops, conferences S168.60 M.B. Mosconi and D.G. Lambas, "Galaxy formation in CDM madel" measurements, P.N. Wilkinson etc. The IUCAA hosted the IAU S168.61 R. Nan and Z. Cai, "A Hint to Possible Anisotropy in the Radio (Jodrell Bank) Regional Meeting VI for the Asian Pacifie Region in August, 1993 Universe" S169.L.99 D. Schaerer and G. Meynet, "The Galactic Center Star Cluster: Results from optical imaging of B and an ISYA in January, 1994. Normal Evolution!?" 0218+357, 1208+1011 and HE 1104- S169.L.100 M. Schultheis et al., "Near Infrared Photometry of Semi-Regular 1805, F. Grundahl (Aarhus) J.V. N ARLIKAR Variables in the Galactic Bulge" S169.L.101 M. Sevenster et al., "An OH-Survey and its Applications"

Decoding 'Designations

by H. DICKEL & Comm. 5 WG

WHERE CAN I GET HELP IN CREATING A NEW DESIGNATION? Consult the Chairperson of IAU Commission 5 WG on Designations (currently P. Dubois) for the list of members and their e-mail addresses in the "clearing House," a subgroup within the WG who can answer questions and give advice.

HOW SHOULD I GO ABOUT DESIGNATING A NEWLY DISCOVERED SOURCE? Consult the IAU "Specifications" document, think up an acronym and check the "Interactive Dictionary of Acronyms" to be sure it is unique, and consult the "Clearing House" of IAU Commission 5 WG on Atronomical Designation (current chair, P. Dubois). The

IAU XXIInd General Assembly -The Hague 1994 Editor: SETH SHOSTAK Associate Editor: RENÉ GENEE No. 6: Monday, 22 August

Brobdignagian Beast in NGC 4258

NGC 4258 (M106) is an active km/s require a binding mass of 107 galaxy with analomous radio arms, solar masses, with a mass density of at high velocity jets, and a curious nucle- !east 2 x 10 10M pc-3. The expected ar water megamaser. 0 So, what's going on in the center of centripetal acceleration of the maser this galaxy? features is 7 km/s/yr as they drift in front of the central source, and bas Study of the megamaser with VLBI been confirmed by observations at bas revealed a nuclear molecular ring Haystack and Effelsberg. only 0.1 pc in radius. Lincoln Greenhill reported today on behalf of The proper motions of the systemic his collaborators (Jiang, Moran, Reid, maser features with respect to the high Claussen. Lo. Henkel, Becker, velocity maser features should be about 24 microarcseconds per year. Wouterloot, and Wilson) in JD 5 the results of their study. Inspired by the for a distance of 7 Mpc. This can be Ida and its newly-discovered moon, Dactyl, as imaged by the Galileo spacecraft. recent discovery of maser emission readily mcasured in observations This is the first conclusive evidence that natural satellites of asteroids exist. extending in velocity over almost spanning a few years with VLBI, and Although appearing to be next to Ida, the satellite is actually somewhat in the could provide an accurate measure of 2,000 km/s, they looked at the galaxy foreground. The physical distance between Ida and its diminutive palis about the the distance to the galaxy. with an intercontinental array of radio distance from The Hague to the Belgian border. telescopes. Is this another massive black hale? The jury is still out, but the smart They found an elongated structure money says yes. with a well-defined velocity gradient of 8,000 km/s/pc in the maser features near the velocity of the galaxy, clearly JIM MORAN and suggesting a Keplerian disk structure, LINCOLN GREENHILL as depicted in the figure. The disk Secrets of Ida CfA, Cambridge, Massachusetts radius and rotation velocity of 800

Despite the problems with its high mere 11 inches per second, though gain antenna, the Galileo probe we cannat be sure whether it is mono- is sending back invaluable data, and at lithic. a Joint meeting of Commission 15, 20, and 22 on Thursday morning Dr. The other main difference from Radio Continuum Source David Morrison gave the latest results Gaspra is that, Ida bas a satellite, of the fly-by of the asteroid Ida. Dactyl. It measures 1.6 x 1.4 x 11 km, and is remarkably spherical; it seems pc Previously Galileo bad imaged only to have the same spectrum and albedo one asteroid, Gaspra, and it bas been as Ida, and is presumably of similar found that there are very important composition. differences between the two. The orbit is not easy to determine, but 3 Ida belongs to the Koronis family of this is of great importance, as it asteroids; it measures 56 x 24 x 21 km, will give a clue to lda's mass- we - know the volume of Ida which is 1600 with a rotation period of 4.63 hours 3 and an albedo of 0.29. The main cubic km, and the density is probably difference from Gaspra is that Ida is of the order 2.5-3.5. Certainly Galileo c c (/) (/) much more heavily cratered. is proving its worth ! 3

(/) From estimated impact rates it bad The Joint Meeting was dedicated to 3 been estimated that the age of the the memory of two great astronomers, surface of Gaspra is of the arder of J. Stahl and K. Kresak, bath of whom 200 million years, but if we assume have died recently. the same cratering rate this would make Ida's surface improbably old PATRICK MOORE so that there is a problem here. Ida, U.K. unlike Gaspra, shows "blocks" of material; the escape velocity is a yo ur comments. If done right, electro- over the last decades and so has the sorne 9% of the arrays are perfect, nic distribution has the potential to number of astronomers. New fields with 1024 good rows and columns. Don't Be Raad link our community together in ways have opened up, and fields with a long The overall useful yield is over 50% never before possible. We want to past have gained new vitality. Not good quadrants (512 x 512 pixels). Kill on the produce electronic publications which suprisingly, the result has been that Severa! of the readouts were pack- serve the community. We depend many members fee! that the Union is aged for cold testingdown to 30K. upon your comments to ensure that no longer entirely representative, and The gain uniformity is better than 1%, Information what we do is useful. in tune with the needs of the times. I and the noise at the readout leve! is would hope that new, flexible structu- comparable to the 256 x 256 InSb Superhighway PETER B. BOYCE res can be created to provide a fra- deviees. mework in which change can occur Executive Officer Detectors should be available for smoothly and organically without cre- American Astronomical Society deployment in instruments at the end Times are changing. The e-mail ter- of the development phase early in minais available for participants at this 1995. USNO will utilize the detectors meeting are but one sign of how elec- in its infrared astrometry programs tronic communication is knitting and in various photometrie programs. together our international community. IAU Enters NOAO will upgrade existing instruments as weil as deploy the arrays in In line with this trend, the Astro- New Millenium new instruments such as the Phoenix physical Journal Letters will saon be high resolution spectrometer and the available electronically. A short GRASP multi-color spectrometer. description of the American NOAO is seeking collaborations to Astronomical Society's program for The role of the IAU has been rais- pursue further production runs of publishing journals electronically will ed frequently during the last years. It these new 1024 x 1024 InSb arrays to be presented in the session on seems to me that there are three make the detectors available at other Astronomical Data/Libraries on essential aspects: The IAU sets inter- observa tories. If your institution is Tuesday, August 23. national standards, it fosters the development of astronomy in the world, interested in participating in this collaboration, please contact lan Gatley The program is based on taking small and it serves as a forum for interna- ([email protected]) at NOAO for fur- steps and getting community reaction ti onal cooperation in our science. ther discussions. and feedback. After two years, 98% The standards include not only of the AAS meeting abstracts are sub- time, coordinates, photometrie sys- mitted electronically and are available tems, etc., but also the symposia and Lo Woltjer discusses the next century. CATHERINE on line. In MOSAIC, open the url - colloquia. Many astronomy meetings PILACHOWSKI are held in the world, but the IAU ating unnecessary upheavals. http://blackhole.aas.org/ AAS - NOAO, USA symposia set a high standard. While The Executive committee has made Homepage.html - and go to the HAROLD ABELS 'meetings' page to see the abstracts. most meetings are forgotten ten years proposais to this effect. Ail of us later, the 160 symposia of the IAU are should make an effort to ensure that USNO, USA Now, as part of your subscription to still well remembered. The IA U a Iso our Union can enter the next century any AAS journal, you get every six sets standards in other areas, for ex- preserving what is positive from the months a CD-ROM version of data ample, for astronomical sites, indu- past, but addressing the demands of from articles published in the major ding space, which it attempts to pro- the future. U.S. journals, Apl, Al, Apl Suppl tect. and PASP. The young astronomer schools, LO WOLTJER visiting lecturer programs and other President Elect Book Signing Next we will bring the Astrophysical activities contribute to raising the Journal Letters on line. An electronic awareness of astronomy in many version of the special issue of the Apl countries. The General Assemblies Lett featuring papers from the repai- contribute to the cooperation in our Hot Topic: red Hubble Space Telescope will be science. We learn many new things Adriaan Blaauw wille be signing his demonstrated at the January, 1995, from the talks being given, everyone Big·Infrared new book, "History of the IAU," meeting of the AAS in Tucson. has a chance to present the latest during the afternoon coffee break. results of his or her work, and proba- You will find him, pen in hand, at the We encourage ali astronomers from bly most important we meet col- Arr ays Kluwer book display one floor up. around the world to try the AAS leagues every three years whom we electronic abstracts and journals as would not otherwise meet. The National Optical Astronomy they become available, and send us It is gratifying to the editor of this Astronomy has developed much Observatories (NOAO) and the U.S. dubious publication that you are rea- Naval Observatory (USNO) in colla- ding the text in this little, left-over boration with the Santa Barbara black of space. ln the hectic last Research Center have undertaken to minutes of laying out this issue, we develop 1024 x 1024 (27 micron) pixel just couldn't find anything to fit in InSb infrared array detectors. he re. ··Blaauw's·Blue Book Progress during the past year has been encouraging, and we expect to Newspaper layout is really a puzzle, as test th e first prototype detectors at the you can imagine. Perhaps there are telescope this fall. sorne of you who are interested in wri- A wonderfullittle gem cao be tians of letters from the IAU archive The silicon readouts have been testing articles of about 50 words in bought at this Assembly. "The (for sorne you may have to brush up ted warm to obtain yield statistics; length. Thanks. His tory of the IAU" is Adria an on your French, German or Russian). Blaauw's most recent book, and by Adriaan covers the birth of the now most of you must have heard IAU, officially recorded as July 28, Another ordeal was the withdrawal now. The first such paper, Cosmos, about. 1919, and its first 50 years of existence. of China in 1961, a situation which was trilingual and appeared at the With an almost herculan effort, The IAU's 75th birthday passed pretty was not resolved until the 1979 1958 Moscow assembly, and even Blaauw has been able to get his book much unnoticed by most of us a few Montreal General Assembly, with included cartoons! This was followed to the publisher just in time for the weeks aga. much persona! involvement by Blaauw by the IAU News Bulletin (1961 , Assembly. Now you can buy it at one The common thread throughout the himself. This persona! human touch Berkeley), the Daily News Bulletin of the bookstands. After having book is, despite how much we ail dis- that astronomers have used to deal (1964, Hamburg) and the NVNC/0 devoured this little blue-bound (how like it, global politics is intimately with the often oppressive problems of SIDER/0, or Celestial Messenger appropriate) volume in one evening, I interwoven with the IAU. In fact, the global politics is what makes this book (1967, Prague). thought I would share sorne impres- IAU was born as a direct result of such a good story. So, don't look for This is a good book. If you are an sions for th ose of you who still have WW I, and it wasn 't un til the Leiden the advancement of science in this Assembly attendee, you will certainly yet to read it. (third) General Assembly (1928) that book. agree. What makes this work particularly members from the former "Central Blaauw's book also shows a few valuable is the collection of photo- Powers" were allowed to be present, very nice examples of the precursors graphs and numerous verbatim sec- although by invitation only. to the newspaper you are reading PETER TEUBEN, College Park, USA. Page Three Monday, 22 August

Assembly is, for the first time, exclusi- constraints on the Big Bang nucleo- vely devoted to work on Extragalactic synthesis and on the baryonic density EXTRAGALACTIC PLANETARY Planetary Nebulae. On August 22, of the Universe. fo ur sessions have been scheduled: The fact that lithium may be NEBULAE 1. Observations and Kinemati cs destroyed in stars brings great difficul- 2. Chemical Abundances ty to the problem, so great that the 3. Stellar Evolution observational data have two campe- 4. Cosmic Distances ting interpretations : Clearly, the study of planetary During the last two decades, and in stellar medium, and the ionizing fl ux 1) The (high) lithium abundance nebulae is becoming very prominent found in al! the young abjects of the particular during the last few years, from the hot central white dwarf stars. indeed! there has been very rapid progress in In addition, their radial velocities can Galaxy is taken as the primordial the study of planetary nebulae in be measured and the resulting velocity abundance, preserved up to present other galaxies with the help of high distribution can be used to determine YERVANT TERZIAN times by a nearly exact compensation quality CCD images. the mass distribution in the galaxy, Cornell University, lthaca, New York of a moderate production and a permanent destruction of lithium (astra- By comparing CCD images of the including probing the outer regions tion in the stars of the Galaxy). (OIII] 5007 A line with the conti- and haloes. ln addition planetary nuum, a very large number of planeta- nebulae can be used to examine the But why is the lithium abundance ry nebulae in other galaxies has been effects of metallicity on stellar evolu- Element #3 10 times lower in the old stars? detected. In fact the number of plane- tion in different types of galaxies, and Lithium destruction in these stars, and tary nebulae catalogued in other even investigate the abundance gra- Makes It to the a mixing between deep and superficial galaxies now surpasses the known dients in galaxies. layers may account for such a large number in our own Galaxy, which is Paradoxically one of the most inte- Big Time decrease. The difficulty is that the old of the order of 1200. In the galaxy resting consequences of studying pla- metal-poor stars have the SAME NGC 5128 alone, a large elliptical netary nebulae in other galaxies has (low) Li abundance, and this abundan- galaxy known as Centaurus A, more been to determine the distances of The lithium problem: a ce is independent of the metallicity, than 400 planetary nebulae have been these galaxies, and even deduce the multifaceted subject. age, effective temperature, mass, detected. Hubble constant and the age of the Galactic orbit of the stars. Severa! rival theories have been Such studies have now been made universe. The paradox exists because Data about lithium are used for proposed for explaining this uniformi- in about two dozen galaxies as fa r as the distances to the planetary nebulae trying to solve mainly two astrophysi- ty of lithium destruction and mixing in the Virgo cluster. in our own Galaxy remains a formida- cal problems : stellar internai structure the old stars, and are under discussion In the local group of galaxies, pla- ble problem where uncertainties of and Big Bang nucleosynthesis. factors of 3 or more in the distances of and criticism. netary nebulae in the LM C, SMC, Lithium is a very peculiar element: individual planetary nebulae are not 2) The low lithium abundance M31 and M33 have been thoroughly its nucleus is very fragile and is easily uncommon. found in al! the old stars in the Galaxy studied by the above technique. destroyed by proton fusion in the hot is taken as the primordial abundance, These abjects are resolvable at The method of obtaining distances internallayers of the stars. preserved up to present times in these large distances and their detection to other galaxies uses the planetary Lithium is preserved only in the old stars, owing to their reduced opa- provides information on stellar death nebulae luminosity function as calibra- external (cooler) layers. And even city. But why is the lithium abundan- rates, the mass returned to the inter- ted for the Andromeda galaxy, M31. The bright eut-off of the planetary then, any mixin g between the deep ce so high in the young a bj ects of the nebulae luminosity function is used as and superficiallayers decreases the lit- Galaxy? hium abundance in the externallayers, a distant indicator. Distances for A copious production of lithium in where the abundance is observed and more than 25 galaxies have been the Galaxy has to take place, and measured. measured with this method, and the severa! possibilities have been propo- derived Hubble constant appears to be Lithium may therefore be used as a sed. powerful tracer of the mixing proces- intermediate between the high and The solution of the dilemma ses in the stars, thus bringi ng impor- law values reported by other methods. depends on the reality of ti ny differen- tant information about the stellar The planetary nebulae luminosity ces between models and observations, internai structure. Owing to Jack of function method is not without contro- and the necessity of this pushes the time, this point wi ll be discussed in the versy, and sorn e fee! that it is a poor present techniques to their limits. JD 11 on ly in relation to the second method as a distance indicator. Progress is necessary; in particular main aspect : the primordial lithium. JD10 during the IAU General progress in observations of interstellar Lithium is, at !east partl y, produced gas, in theory of stellar internat struc- The Helix Nebula, perhaps the m ost in the Big Bang nucleosynthesis, and ture and of stellar atmospheres. photogenie of the planetary nebulae. the comparison of the lithium abundance in young and old abjects of the If you wish to impress the less know F. SPITE ledgeable, you can also refer to it as Galaxy would provide in principle, by Observatoire de Paris N GC 7293. extrapolation, the primordial abundance, which in turn, gives essential Paris , France

One of the principal probes for quality for analyzing and modeling a present the first applications to severa! coronae to be modeled. Pulsations acquiring knowledge about the univer- wide variety of phenomena. astronomical problems. The Iron and and winds must be modeled dynami- se remains radiation emitted by stars. Fortunately, with the advent of super- Opacity Projects, the OPAL Code, cally, as weil as hydrodynamical pro- Atomic and molecular data are essen- computers and powerful workstations and the Harvard-Smithsonian cesses in stellar envelopes. tial to carry out spectral analyses of with near supercomputer power, Database as weil as new molecular Also, atomic and molecular proces- this radiation and to derive, as well as severa! sophisticated large-scale ato- databases will be discussed. In many ses affect the interstellar medium and madel, conditions within astronomical mic structure calculations have been respects, these are complementary abjects such as planetary nebulae, HII abjects. undertaken. The resulting new atomic efforts. regions, and accretion disks which As new and increasingly powerful databases are orders of magnitude Jar- Atomic data have played a major involve the interactions of gas with telescopes and their associated high ger than anything available just a raie in the calcula tians of stellar radiation. resolution spectrometers with high decade ago, and the quality of these atmospheres and interiors as weil as Progress in ali these areas goes quantum efficiency electronic detec- data- especially with respect to ato- the emergent spectra for many years . hand in hand with progress in obtai- tors have become operational (and mic oscillator strengths, and photo- The Jack of completeness of the rele- ning the needed atomic and molecular more are in the planning stage), con- ionization and excitation cross-sec- vant databases affects these models in data. cerns about the adequacy of the ato- tions - is also much improved . a variety of ways which have to be mic and molecular database have Thus the application of these new assessed for comparison with observa- become more widespread in the astro- databases to astrophysical research tions. W. L.WIESE nomical community, especially among holds great promise to pursue new National Institute of Standards With a wide variety of astrophysical Gaithersburg, Maryland spectroscopists. problems and to solve existing ones at abjects to be studied come correspon- The central question is if the availa- much greater confidence levels and in ding data needs. Besides dealing with ble atomic and molecular database is much more detail. static stellar photospheres and interi- sufficiently complete and of sufficient This Joint Discussion is intended to ors, there are chromospheres and Durchmusterung Catalog TG Data centers and Network, Chair Reprinted! M. Creze, 30 min. Announcements The three Durchmusterung Catalogs TG FITS , Chair P. Grosbol, 30 min. (Bonner, Cordoba, Cape Photographic) are still available in 14:00 reprinted form from: and Tidbits WGII Information Handling, Chair A Heck, 45 min. World Data Center A for Rockets and Satellites* Food for Thought A . Heck, Introductory remarks and NASA/ Goddard Space Flight Center A Comprehensive Database on generalities Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 , USA Congresgebouw comestibles for Atomic and Molecular Spectra, R. Tuesday, August 23 , have been said to Kurucz (USA) C. Christian, The National The ten volume set is $150. Originally, Information Infrastructure Testbed be as follows: it was distributed free to professional Tuesday, August 23, Morning astronomers but that may not be pos- D. Wells, AstroWeb and the future of •Soup (liquid, but otherwise unspeci- Stellar Atmospheres (as announced) sible now. Many corrections have astronomical resources on the web fied) been incoporated. • Ham and cheese sandwiches Tuesday, August 23, Afternoon *US requesters should replace this TG Designations, Chair P. Dubois, 45 •Salads and fruit Stellar Structure line by Coordinated Request and User min. • French Bread Support Office. •Choice of drinks (not included) Solar Structure and Helioseismology, P. Demarque (USA) 16:00 Yep, you guessed it. This rip-roaring Follow-up of the first Business session. JD 15 Schedule repast is yours for only 15 guilders. Horizontal-branch Evolution and RR Chair B. Hauck, 15 min. It's self-service, but who will serve you Lyrae Star Pulsation, A N. Cox Supporting Commissions: 25 (Stellar WG II Information Handling, Chair better? (USA) photometry & polarimetry), 27 A. Hearn, 30 min. (Variable stars) & 29 (Stellar spectra) Y ou must buy lunch tickets at !east a Cepheid evolution and Pulsation, N. day in advance. They are available at Simon (USA) WG Ill Libraries, Chair W. Warren/ SOC: S. Adelman ( co-Chairperson, B. Corbin, 45 min. the Social Events desk in the USA) and A. Schwarzenberg-Czerny Congresgebouw main hall. Cepheid Variables: Period Ratios and (co-Chairperson, Poland) Mass Determinations, i.e. Low W.Warren, Plans for the LISA Il mee- Density/High-Velocity Range, P. ting At !east 13 posters have been accep- Corrected Program for JD 16: Moskalik (Poland) ted. Astrophysical Applications of B. Corbin, Report on the Astronomy Powerful New Atomic Databases Role of Opacities in Accretion Disks, Thesaurus project Monday August 22, morning R. Wehrse (Germany) Monday, August 22, Afternoon P. Boyce, AAS electronic publishing Time-series analysis of variable stars: The New Atomic Databases Effective New Opacities on White plans and preprints meeting views of an innumerate observer, Dwarf Models, S. Kawaler (USA) J. Percy (Canada) Introduction: New Atomic Data and D. Lubowich, The future of astronomy their Impact on Astrophysical Models, Summary and Outlook, Future Needs online databases Temporal spectroscopy of variable M. Seaton (U.K.) for Atomic Data, B. Baschek degenerate stars, E. Nather (USA) (Germany). TDB, Update on the Astrophysics Role of Opacities in Constructing Data System (ADS) At last a chaotic pulsating star: Atmospheres and Stellar Interiors, D. A novel analysis of R Scuti, R. Mihalas (USA) CHANGES TO PROGRAM, B. Corbin, Report on the library Buchler (USA) COMMISSION 5 "Partner's" project Summary of the Iron and Opacity Wednesday, Aug 23. Analysis of light curves of cepheid and Project, K. Berrington (UK) RR Lyrae stars, N. Simon (USA)

The OPAL Opacity Code, F. J. 11:00 Coffee Break Rodgers (USA) WG I Astronomical Data, Chair A Heck, 30 min. Analysis of time series of events in X- Data for W eak Lines, A. Hibbert ray and gamma-ray astronomy, (UK) A Heck, Report on the past trienni- M. van der Klis (Netherlands) um and interactions with CODATA Summary of the Situation on Indexed and discrete time series: Molecular Databases, U. Jorgensen M. Creze, Quality control of astrono- period changes in variable stars, (Denmark) mical data and information Ch. Koen (South Africa)

Sampling and resampling of 1D obser- The spiritualleader of the organiza- vations, H.-M. Adorf (Germany) tion for this symposium, Drs. Theo Jurriens, has reported to this publica- Software for analysis of astronomical tion that over 6,000 push-pins have time series, J. Pelt (Estonia) been used at the Assembly. This fact may prove useful. More likely, it will Statistical properties of signais and not. Unless, of course, you're in the their models: comparison, A. push-pin business. Schwarzenberg-Czerny (Poland) Popular Lecture Series

ow that the Hubble Telescope has been to the optometrist, astronomers are privy to startling sights such as would make a French postcard vendor N jealous. Ron Allen, now at the Space Telescope Science Institute, in lovely, glamorous Baltimore, will present tonight's popular lecture: "New View of the Universe from the Hubble Space Telescope."

Those who are adept at remember litany will recall that the lectures are held at the Museon, around the corner from the Congresgebouw (direction of Bel Air Hotel), and begin at 20:00. Entry priee is a reasonable 7.50 guilders. The

IAU XXII nd General Assembly - The Hague 1994 Editor: SETH SHOSTAK Associate Editor: RENÉ GENEE No. 7: Tuesday, 23 August

Black Hole Binary -

Candidate Flares! -

E x - Entire Southern Hemisphere Observing While Assembly ...J Meets ... BATSE all-sky monitor on the n July 27, a bright X-ray nova Compton Gamma Ray Observatory. suddenly appeared in Scorpius After a coarse location was deter- 1 13 and within one day became mined, an IAU Circular was issued on O 9565 9575 9585 one of the brightest objects in the X- August 4 to alert astronomers around TJ Day ray sky. the world. An optical counterpart and The new object, X-ray Nova Seo= then a radio counterpart to the X-ray Compton/BATSE observations showing the unusual intensity variation in X-ray GRO 11655-40, is just a few degrees object were soon found. There have Nova Seo. above the galactic plane, suggesting a been a flurry of IAU circulars about MOST observations of GRO J1655-40 distance of at most a few kiloparsecs. X-ray Nova Sco for the past three The object was just seen by the weeks, as more observers study this remarkable source. William S. Paciesas (University of 8 - Alabama) reported on th e object Friday afternoon during Symposium Gargantuan 165. 6 - These X-ray novae are thought to Atoms in Space! be caused by an episode of sudden Q) . accretion onto a black hole in a binary 4 star system.

hydrogen atom in the ground As often discussed at the 2 - state is about 1 Angstrom in Symposium, previous observations of diameter. Can you imagine such sources have provided our best A candidates for galactic black holes. atoms in the ISM which are about 10 5 5 15 times larger? The BATSE data showed the source to be somewhat unusual for August date (UT) They have in fact been observed by such transients. Its fast rise to maxi- Radio continuum observations of the flux density at 843 MHz, made with the Konovalenko et al. of the Institute of mum (less than ~0.5 days), short dura- MOST (resolution 43 arcsec). Radio Astronomy in Ukraine. These tion ( ~17 da ys), relatively soft are carbon atoms, in neutra! HI power-law spectrum, and lack of short The most dramatic increases in the for the observers to provide any clouds, with their last electron excited timescale flickering may indicate a dif- radio continuum flux density occured interpretation. It suffices to say that to principal quantum number n = 814! ferent origin, but the number of after the X-ray intensity had faded; this exciting new source will receive When these atoms make transition to known X-ray novae is too small to the peak flux density measured so far intense scrutiny in the coming an adjacent quantum number the permit confident classification. ( ~7 Jy) makes it one of the brightest months and years, and it may prove resulting spectral radiation appears at Monitoring of the nova at radio fre- sources in the southern skies. to be a significant step forward in a wavelength of 25 meters. This quencies was started shortly after the The obvious an ti-correlation of the our understanding of black holes. line has been observed, in absorption, X-ray event by Duncan Campbell- radio flare with the hard X-rays is in- towards Cas A by Konovalenko et al. Wilson (University of Sydney, using their UTR-2 radio telescope and Australia), using the Molongolo WILLIAM S. PACIESAS University of Alabama, Huntsville it represents the lowest frequency Observatory Synthesis Telescope triguing, but the data are too new (12.2 MHz) recombination line yet (MOST) which operates at 843 MHz. observed. Since such atoms are likely General Assembly Dinner to be very fragile and easily influenced Escape Velocity Escapes et's face it: humans are social animals, much like ants, bees and caribou. by their surroundings, these spectral So why not express your anuhal hentage and attend the social event of the !ines are a useful diagnostic of physical Editor's Notice week? Y ou will have the opportunity to meet moderately famous astro- conditions in the cold neutra! L nomers in an informai setting, chow down on a buffet dinner, and dance (but not phase of the ISM. Unfortunately, yesterday's Sidereal simultaneously.) Times misrepresented the escape velo- K.R. ANANTHARAMAIAH city from Ida. Rather than 11 inches The cost is 65 guilders per humanoid. The location is in the Jan Steen Room. Raman Research lnstitute per second, this speed should have Tickets are available at the Social Events Desk. Oh yes: the date and time are Bangalore 560080, India been printed as 11 meters per second. 20:00, Wednesday evening, August 24. JD 19 on Nutation Letters to the Editor: Schedule: Jointhe Discussion 19 is entire- NEW DEVELOPMENTS Sirs: yT dedicated to nutation. One IN ARRAY While your publication is occasionally informative and often useful for wrapping part concerns the observations, leftovers, I cannat find the local television listings. i.e determination of precession and TECHNOLOGY AND nutations from Lunar Laser Ranging APPLICATIONS Yours faithfully, and Very Long Baseline C. Aardappel Interferometry analyses. Another part concerns the IAU nutation theory and August 23, Tuesday the perspectives of its change. This New Developments in CCD Dear Sirs: includes a study of the present status Technology Those gamma-ray sources must be exploding black hales! of the nutation theory for a rigid Earth as well as of the Morning, Chair D. Philip Respectfully, geophysical models for nutation. L. Doyle WELCOME An a priori mode! for the reduction of Immo Apenzeller, Assistant the nutation observations will also be General Secretary, IAU Dear Sirs: presented. Sorne resolutions for future Y our attempts to divert readers from your inability to lay out this publication activities in precession and nutation INTRODUCTION without useless hales by filling same with impenetrable prose is regrettable. In researches will be discussed. A. G. Davis Philip, Union College the future, why not simply save the ink, and leave these spaces blank? and ISO VERONIQUE DEHANT Unappreciatively, ARRAY DETECTORS AND Marvin Fudnik INSTRUMENTS FOR THE ESO VERY LARGE TELESCOPE Sandra D 'Odorico, ESO

DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF Data Acquisition Made Simple LARGE CCDs FOR THE KECK OBSERVATORY DEEP PROJECT SPECTROGRAPH Do you have problems getting telescope time? Do you need observations now? Richard Stover, Mingshi Wei, Kirk Have you ever considered using archived data? Gilmore and William Brown, Lick List of Observatory Why not try the La Palma Data Archive, purveyors of observations since 1986? SCIENTIFIC CCD PROSPECTS There is a Working Group meeting on archives on Wednesday morning, August Wide- FOR 1994 AND BEYOND, Chair 24, JD 20. Walker, P. R. Jorden and A. P. Oates, Royal Greenwich Observatory

Field NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN CCD TECHNOLOGY FOR THE UV- EUVSPECTRALRANGE Plate Giovanni Bonanno, Osservatorio Read me ... Astrofisico di Catania SCIENCE WITH THE WFPC-2 Archives CCDs [CANCELLED]

AFfERNOON Chair, Cullum e list of Wide-field Plate Archives (WFPA) has been CCD CONTROLLERS reated as an IAU initiative of Robert Leach, San Diego State Like the IA U Ex change of the Commission 9 Working Group on University Astronomers program, the AAS Wide-field Imaging. Chretien awards are meant to foster The first version of the list was ACTIVE CCD ACQUSITION SYS- long term collaborations between published in 1992 as a result of circu- TEMS astronomers living in different coun- lars sent to more than 200 astronomi- A. Blecha, Observatoire de tries. The awards are not given for cal institutes and observatories. The Geneve the purpose of adding to an large exis- total sum of WF Plates in the listed ting project, nor is travel to another archives is 1,764,600. 562,079 of the CCD DEVELOPMENT ACTIVI- re you missing an opportuni- country simply to observe considered plates are in computer readable form TIES AT ESO ty? Are you planning an sufficient international involvement to and 37,960 are partially readable by O. Iwert, ESO A observational research project deserve an award. computer. which involves international collabora- To be considered for funding, a An updated version of the WFP A NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN IR tion. Will you visit another country to proposai of no more than three pages list is displayed in the communication DETECTOR ARRAYS Chair, work with your colleagues? plus a curriculum vitae, a budget and room (La Bourgogne). Copies of the Blecha The Chretien A ward program of two letters of recommendation must list are available on request from M. the American Astronomical Society arrive at the AAS Executive Office by Tsretkov (#326) or WFPA@BGE- INFRARED ARRA Y DETEC- can provide funding. N amed for the April 1. More complete instructions ARN.BITNET after the Assembly of TORS: PERFORMANCE AND famous French optician and astrono- cao be found in the Membership the IAU. PROSPECTS mer, Henri Chretien, the program Directory of the American We would appreciate further contri- lan S. McLean, UCLA awards $20,000 every year to one or Astronomical Society or are available more astronomers. The winners are butions to the list on any information from the AAS FTP archive (ftp to concerning wide-fie ld plate archives THE LICK OBSERVATORY TWO selected on the basis of a number of blackhole.aas.org). MICRON IMAGING CAMERA criteria including missing in the list, corrections and The chair of the Chretien A ward remarks on the listed data, etc. This K. Gilmore, D. Rank and P. Terni, •the quality of the proposed science Committee, Kam-Ching Leung (#950), will help us to complete the informa- Lick Observatory •the degree of international involve- will be glad to answer any questions tion and make it more accurate. ment you might have about this program. POSTER P APER Discussion (Session •the originality and creativity of the A) Chair, McLean research idea MILCHO TSVETKOV •the degree to which the recipient PETER B. BOYCE (#731) Sofia, Bulgaria will benefit American Astronomical Society •the independence of the project Tuesday, 23 August

Developments in Array Technologies and Applications Ask the Boss for Arrays!

AU Symposium Number 167 is intensities, sorne five orders of magni- even very faint stars can be measured being held in recognition of the tude. Unlike the complex relation accurately. One of the main advanta- Irevolution during the last decade between intensity and density on a ges of the CCD is that the data are in in methods of detecting photons at photographie plate, the relation digital form, which means one can he Sidereal Times has uncover- telescopes. The advent of charge between intensity and the charge change their appearance under soft- ed clandestine plans by the coupled deviees ( CCDs) and other generated on a CCD surface is linear ware control. The density scale cao be Dutch astronomical powers- to 0.1% over most of its range. increased or reduced so as to bring out T array detectors has allowed astrono- that-be to construct mankind's largest mers to obtain images and spectra of details that otherwise could not be optical telescope. extremely faint abjects and of abjects Modern deviees have dimensions of seen. According to a document smuggled in regions of severe 2048 x 2048 (4,194,304 pixels) and out of the Dwingeloo Radio crowding which were unreachable by even larger chips are now being con- Developments in technology have Observatory by a disgruntled graduate older methods (such as photography structed. These larger chips have been especially dramatic in infrared student, the Dutch hope to trump the and single channel photometry). An high resolution since their pixels are astronomy. There was no way of pro- international consortia who currently added benefit is the increased small and many pixels caver the area ducing a detailed infrared picture in dominate the field by building a mam- accuracy of the new measures. to be investigated. However, to make the early days of infrared work . By moth reflector in The Netherlands. uniform CCDs that are larger than the early 1980's, there were small The document cites Dr. Ernst van der At the major observatories of the 2048 pixels on a side has proved to be arrays of 32 x 32 pixels and by 1992 Dander, who complains of "a hundred world just about all the imaging work very difficult. A different way to in- the arrays had grown to 256 x 256 years' worth of brain drain. Sure, is now do ne with this new technology. crease the area of the sky being inves- pixels. Presently manufacturers are drainage has been good for the coun- Among amateur astronomers and at tigated is to create mosaics of CCD making infrared arrays 1024 pixels on try - particularly the farmers - but small observatories all over the globe chips. Mosaics of four 2048 x 2048 a side. Now photographs are taken in the cost of continuing to supply the a similar revolution has taken place as CCD chips have been made, covering the infrared which show abjects at world's observatories with astrono- CCD technology turns smaller tele- an area of 2.5 inches square. high resolution, a great change from mers and directors has become more scopes into instruments capable of Depending on the telescope used, the early da ys of infrared astronomy than we can bear. From now on, observing abjects once visible only areas on the sky up to almost a square when the telescope had to scan an we're going to stay home." with the largest telescopes. This new degree can be measured with mosaic area on the sky to even locate where The Dutch apparently intend to cir- technology is a major aid in the deviees. an infrared source was. cumvent the difficulties of a flat, fre- teaching of astronomy; beginning stu- quently-cloudy country by construct- dents can do actual astronomical The CCD is sensitive to photons over At IAU Symposium No. 167, we will ing an artificial mountain 5 km high. a very large range of wavelengths, caver the tapies of new developments investigations themselves rather than This will be built out of pig, chicken from X-rays to near infrared. No other in CCD technology, new develop- just read about them. From amateur, and cow man ure - fertilizer, or single detecter covers such a wide ments in IR detecter arrays, direct to student, to professional astronomer, "mest" - which is overabundant in all have had their possibilities in obtai- range of the spectrum. The quantum imaging with CCDs and other arrays, ning observational data materially efficiency of the CCD is higher than spectroscopy with CCDs and other Holland. "We need 2 10 9 m3 of ferti- increassed. almost any other deviee, except at arrays, astrometry with CCDs and lizer," according to van der Dander, ultraviolet wavelengths where it is large field imaging with array mosaics. "but that should take less than 3 years One can think of the CCD as a silicon relatively insensitive. The human eye Scientific results of these investiga- to produce and pile up."" deviee that is made up of many sees about one out of every hundred tions will be given in the poster ses- The new peak will be situated on a thousands of individual photometers. photons. In a CCD, over half the sions, as weil as sorne additional geological feature known as the When light hits the surface of a silicon photons are detected. Another impor- papers on instrumentation. "hondsrug" (dog's back) near the semiconductor, the number of elec- tant characteristic of the CCD is that town of Beilen, as this will give the trons emitted is directly proportional the noise associated with each meas- A. G. DA VIS PHILIP engineers a 2 meter head start. to the intensity of the light received. ure is very small (of the arder of ten Union College and The Institute for Currently, the highest elevation in The This is true over a large range of electrons per pixel). This means that Space Observations, New York Netherlands is an overpass on the AS highway, but this is unsuitable as a site due to mercury vapor lamps. The observatory will be known as JD20: The Status of the Middle European Super Telescope Upcoming Archiving (M.E.S.T.), although other names such as Kip Peak, Mauna Koeien, and Pig Astronomies/ du Midi were considered. The tele- Eclipse scope itself will be a 20 rn affair, incor- Observations porating active optics, adaptive optics, Sol to be Shadowed and non-reflective optics. It will be capable of imaging a bicycle lamp at JD20, scheduled for Wednesday mor- the distance of Neptune (although ning, will debate the proposai which total eclipse of the Sun will country, including scientists from none are expected.) Russia, France, Ukraine, Georgia, was summarized in the final paragraph cross South America on The new mountain, which will be November 3, and for the first Brazil and elsewhere. On October 24, of the article by Griffith in A Sidereal Times No 3, Aug 17, 1994, visible on a clear day from 1995, another total solar eclipse will timea joint IAU site has been organi- Manchester, will change weather pat- cross Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, page 2. zed. terns in Germany, and is expected to India, Bangladesh, Myammar, The eclipse crosses parts of Peru, occasion complaints for severa! years Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sabah The official list of speakers is necessa- Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Argentina because of the odor. Flies will be kept of Malaysia, and outer islands of the rily limited, and the organizers and Brazil. Weather forecasts are best away from the dame slit with pneu- for the western sites. Based on an Philippines and Indonesia. are aware that sorne of the intending participants are already hoping for matie swatters. exploratory trip I took to Chile and The IAU Working Group on an opportunity to speak at the mee- The project has the full support of Bolivia on eclipse week minus one Eclipses authorized by Commission 10 ting. the Ministry of Agriculture and the year, I have made arrangements for and 12, will meet at 9 a.m. on Dutch cabinet. The latter has plans to professional astronomers to use facili- Tuesday, August 23 in the Frans Hall theose people would care to be evacuated to the site in case of a ties at a Chilean army base in Putre, Room for 90 minutes. Members from If leave a note to that effect in my mail major break in the dikes. Chili, at an altitude of 3,500 rn (12,000 countries that these eclipses will cross, box (#586), I will ensure that the ft). as well as members considering scien- What will it be like to observe atop chairman will look out for you. a 5 km high heap of cow pies? W e expect astronomers from the tific observations for these eclipses, According to van der Dander, "Good U.S. , France, Japan, Korea, India, are invited to attend. seeing is worth the stench, and of Belgium, Chili,and elsewhere. Prof. ELIZABETH GRIFFITH course inside the dame we'll have Oscar Matsoura from Brazil has made JA Y M. PASACHOFF Cambridge, U .K. breathing masks. But stepping outside other arrangements for professional Chair, IAU Working Group, Eclipses could be a real pain in the dairy air." astronomers to observe from his Tuesday, 23 August Page Four

U.S. National Committee for the lAU Holds Bash Astronomers Press the Flesh at Hotel des Indes

n Saturday evening, approximately 150 Assembly attendees and their better halves were guests of the U.S. National Committee for the IAU Oat a reception held in the chic Hotel des Indes. Donald Osterbrock, Peter Boyce and Roger Bell were the gracious hosts, and the U.S. Ambassador to The Netherlands, K. Terry Dornbush, was on hand to greet the assembled Assembly multitude.

The Sidereal Times sent out one of its crack photographie teams ( also, its only photographie team) to provide you with these up-close-and-personal images of astronomers run amuck.

Dave Morrison considers the impact of liquid refreshments, together with Mr. and Mrs. Ken Jaqueline Bergeron and Ken Kellerman waltz into view. Seidelman.

Virginia Trimble and Ron Ekers are amused.

Jerry Ostriker, looking dynamic.

Martin Rees and Mort Roberts read the fine print on the photographer's lens. Page Five Tu es da y, 23 August

David Helfand on his knees before Geoff Burbidge. The request was granted.

Charlie Tolbert demonstrates the proper technique for imbibing Jenever.

Peter Boyce and Terry Dornbush consider shifts in policy. IAU Style Manual and the Universal:Decimal Classification for Astronomy

G. A. Wilkins, of Exeter University, would be glad to receive suggestions for improvements to the IAU Style Manual that was published in the Transactions of the 1988 General Assembly.

uring the past seven years, a Office is developing a software packa- The Bureau des Longitudes, Paris, has Please contact George A. Wilkins or number of software packages ge based on the data and algorithms established an ephemerides service on send him your suggestions. He would D have become available for published in "Compact Data for the French "Mintel Service" carried also be pleased to receive offers of astronomers who need various kinds Navigation and Astronomy". The by the public telephone network. In help for the revision of the Universal of astrometrie information, including package, called NAVP AC, will fit on a the UK, ephemeris data are available Classification for Astronomy (UDC ephemerides of solar system objects. single floppy disk. The program is to astronomers using the ST ARLINK 52/524). The schedule was last Printed almanacs are no longer the interactive and the data used by the network. published in 1977 and its revision is only source for accurate and authora- program may be easily updated. The long overdue. He would be particular- tive data of this type. program has also been carefully error- This list is not exhaustive. Clearly ly glad to have assistance from trapped. It is intended to market this there is a great demand for these astronomers who would be prepared The U.S. Naval Observatory has pro- program with the next edition of packages. They remove the pain and to review and update the parts of the duced MICA, the Multiyear "Compact Data" to be published in guesswork from planning observa- schedule in which they have expert Interactive Computer Almanac, a 1995. tions. Undoubtedly they will grow in knowledge. If you are interested in high-precision almanac for PCs and flexibility and sophistication in the helping, please contact him (pigeon Macintosh systems. This menu-driven In St. Petersburg the first version of coming years. hole #1334 or internet G.A.WILK- program provides positions of the the Astronomical Yearbook, Part [email protected]). Earth, Sun, Moon, planets and catalog I, has been prepared by the Institute GEORGE KAPLAN objects (the user can define his or her of Theoretical Astronomy on a floppy BERNHARD Y ALLOP own catalog) for any place and time disk. Come to Paraguay for between 1990 and 1999, with respect to any of nine coordinate systems. The Ephemeris Service of the Institute Next S()lar Eclipse of Applied Astronomy, Russia, has Sessionon Pollution and Planetary physical ephemerides, si- produced a programming system cal- Although weather prospects may seem Junk Out The-- re dereal time, rise and set times and led ERA, which is designed to solve a better to the north, in Bolivia, condi- other kinds of data can also be produ- wide range of problems involving tions should still be good in Paraguay. ced. A "batch" mode allows MICA to ephemerides and dynamical astrono- Astronomers are especially urged to We would also like to point out the be integrated into other systems. my. attend this afternoon's session for excellent roads and abundance of MICA is distributed for USNO by the non-specialists on light pollution, habitation along the path of totality in U.S. National Technical Information The system effectively creates a PC- radio interference, and space debris Paraguay. Service. (For more information, drop based work station for both theoreti- entitled "Environmental Impacts on We encourage you to write to the a note in box 573 or e-mail cal and observational astronomers. It Astronomy" in Mesdag 2, at 14:30. Direccion General de Turismo in [email protected] after the may also be used as a teaching aid. This session is sponsored by an inter- Ascuncion, Palma 468, Asuncion, Assembly.) The system is extremely versatile and union commisssion, and chaired by the FAX: (595-21) 49-1230 to arrange for lAA is seeking independent testing IAU's own Derek McNally. yourself and your equipment. At the Royal Greenwich Observatory, and suggested improvements. A.E. Troche Boggino Her Majesty 's Nautical Almanac Give a hoot. Don't let them pollute. Universidad Nacional de Ascuncion Tuesday, 23 August Page Six

Pulkovo Observatory: An Historical Perspective

he founding of the Pulkovo designation of the "astronomical capi- Observatory is closely related tal of the words." Regretfully, after T to the Russion Emperor, the prosperous and flourishing state of Nicholas the First. the Observatory in the 19th century, three severe blows struck the Czar Nicholas invited academician Observatory in this century; Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve, the confiscation of funds after the bolshe- Director of the Dorpat Observatory, vik turnover in October, 1917, to work on the project and define the purges by Stalin among the Pulkova scientific program of the future astronomers in the 1930s, and the total observatory, and generously provided destruction of the observatory due to him with all necessary financial the WWII military actions in me ans. September, 1941.

In 1834 the construction of the obser- Imediately after the end of WWII, the vatory was begun on the Pulcovo Hills restoration of the Pulkovo near Saint-Petersburg, with designs Observatory was undertaken, and in from architect Alexander Bruellow. May, 1954 the second in auguration of The astronomical instruments were the Observatory took place. ordered by Wilhelm Struve from the best German telescope makers. Among the major achievements of the Pulkovo Observatory, alias Primaria Pulkova Observatory in the post Specola Astronomica Russiae, was WWII period were the design and inaugurated on August 19, 1839. It manufacture of the 6 meter reflector, began its scientific !ife along the !ines the 600 meter radio telescope laid out by Wilhelm Struve, and in RA TAN, the stratosphere solar tele- particular the determination of precise scope, etc. should be mentioned. Now star positions and proper motions, of despite the very grave political and positions of the major planets and economical situation in Russia, the their satellites, in compilation of astronomical investigations at absolute star catalogues, in geodetic the Pulkova Observatory are going on. surveys of vast terri tories of the And thanks to sincere and generous Russian empire etc. support by, and wide-scale cooperation with, our dear collegues from Later, when Otto Struve succeeded his many countries over the world, we father, the scope of the scientific pro- have never !ost hope for a better fu- blems had been increased to include ture, and continue to work on ambi- astrophysics of the stars and the Sun. tious projects in Space Astro-metry The fruitfull activities of Pulkovo and Astrophysics as well as on classi- astronomers brought to the cal astronomical observations. Observatory much glory, including a VICTOR K. ABALKIN Binaries Make Unabashed Contact

THE STAR*S FAMILY: lthough W UMa contact bina- Lobe and coming into contact with a AN EXAMPLEO F INTEGRATED ries are somewhat abundant mass ratio nearest unity. A among field stars and cluster The period should continue to YELLOW-PAGESERVICES variables, no one has ever observed decrease via angualar momentum loss the formation of one. It appears that due to solar winds and ultimatly the The Star*s Family is a growing collection of directories, dictionaries, this rare, transient event has now been system should colesce into a fast rota- databases and, more generally, on-line yellow-page services. observed. ting FK Comae subgiant. The interracting, nondegenerate The products are structured essentially around three sets of master files: binary, V361 Lyra is apparently in the throes of such a transition from a RONALDSEMAC •The directory StarGuides of astronomy, space sciences, and related semi-detached configuration to that of organizations of the world, with its associated database StarWorlds contact. CCD images of the system (more than 5,000 entries from about 100 countries) were taken on five nights in June, •The dictionary StarBriefs of abbreviations, acronyms, contractions, and 1993 at Kitt Peak National symbols in astronomy, spece sciences, and related fields, with its associated Observatory. The observations reveal database StarBits (more thann 75,000 abbreviations) a strange assymentric light curve. It is •The database StarHeads of individual web pages essentially of astronomers and found that the main distortions in this related space scientists light curve can be reproduced by a near contact configutation with the A demonstration of the facilities can be seen at the CDS terminais located primary component filling its Roche in the mailbox area. Direct access is also available via Internet lobe, and the secondary filling 95% of and tools such as Mosaic through the following URLs: its respective critical surface. -for StarWorlds, http://cdsweb.u-strasbg/-heck/sfworlds.htm The periodicity study reveals that -for StarBits, http://cdsweb.u-strasbg/-heck/sfbits.htm the secondary star is accreting mass at -for StarHeads, http://cdsweb.u-strasbg/-heck/sfheads.htm a prodigeous rate of about about 10 -6 solar masses/year. This creates a Leaflets are also available at the CDS-Simbad booth. superluminous region which rivais the entire binary system in brightness! For more information, contact: Otherwise, the system consists of two ANDREHECK fairly normallate G to early K spec- Observatoire Astronomique, 11 rue de l'Universite tral type dwarf components with a F-67000 Strasbourg,France Four representations of V361 L yr photometrically determined mass ratio Phone: +33-88 35 82 22 shawn at orbital phases of 0. 25, 0.35, of greater than 0.9. The secondary Fax: +33-88 49 12 55 e-mail: [email protected] 0.63 and O.75. The transient hot spot component is rapidly filling its Roche URL: http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/-heck rivais the entire binary in brightness. Page Seven Tuesday,Tuesday, 2323 AuAugust

IMPORTANT Saving the Bits at Kitt Peak ANNOUNCEMENT!

neous tape copies. The texts of the proposed resolutions During its last session here in The lizabeth Griffith bas eloquently and the proposai for the restructuring Hague, the IAU Executive Committee described the reasons for archi- Image headers are also stored in a of the Union for approval by the finalized the scientific meeting proving observatory data in a E Sidereal Times. separate catalog. An index file cross- General Assembly on Wednesday gram for 1995. recent issue of the The first step toward a true astronomi- references the catalog with the tape, afternoon will be printed in tomor- Below is a list of all Regional cal file, and image location of the actual row's edition of the Sidereal Times. Meetings, Symposia and Colloquia data archive is capturing the data. data. Given a list of index entries, the sponsored by the IAU which will take archive staff can recover the requested place in 1995: The "Save the Bits" archive of the images using a simple program which National Optical Astronomy unpacks the large FITS extension Our Last Day! files into individual FITS images. The Regional Meetings: Observatories bas been in operation at Cambridge University Press would desired images are written to a direc- VIII Latin American Regional Kitt Peak for over a year. This low like to thank all our customers at the tory from which they can be retrieved Meeting, November 20-25 , 1995, cast program relies on existing net- conference, and to remind those who over the network or written to a distri- Montevideo, Uruguay work infrastructure to collect and still have books to collect to please bution tape. store images on Exabyte tape. come along today and do so. We Observers at KPNO telescopes ac- hope to see you ali at the next mee- IAU Symposia: KPNO is happy to make the archi- quire over 250,000 CCD and IR array ting. ve software available to other observa- Symposium 170: "CO: Twenty-five images (including spectra), totaling ADAM BLACK tories interested in archiving data. the Years of Millimeter-wave Spectro- about 0.5 terabytes, each year. JOANN MOTHERWELL scopy" May 29-June 2, 1995, Tuscon, hardware requirements are minimal- USA. The operation of the system is quite a networked workstation with one or Symposium 171: "New Light on simple. The data acquisition software more tape drives. To find out more Personals Galaxy Evolution" June 19-23, 1995, notifies a local daemon whenever an about the KPNO data archive, visit Heidelberg, Germany. image is obtained. The local daemon the NOAO Web page: The Baltimore General Assembly produces a FITS copy of the image http://www.noao.edu, or contact Rob Symposium 172: "Dynamics, began on my 76th birthday. The and queues it for transfer to a central Seaman ([email protected]). A pos- Ephemerides and Astrometry in the Buenos Aires G.A. ended on my 79th archive computer. The central archive ter describing the KPNO archive in Solar System, July 2-8, 1995, Paris, birthday. This G.A. began two weeks computer receives images from eight more detail is also available in con- France. after my 82nd birthday. This suggest a telescopes on Kitt Peak and translates jonction with JD20. new "Law of Nature". The IAU Symposium 173: "Gravitational the images to FITS image extensions. General Assemblies should begin on Lensing" July 9-14, 1995, Melbourne, Every 50 Mb is written to Exabyte CATHERINE PILACHOWSKI, my birthday, plus or minus two weeks, Australia tape as a single FITS extension file for #1170 I regret that there are no penalties for Symposium 174: "Dynamical efficiency. The archive can be confi- National Optical Astronomy violation of this law. Evolution of Star Clusters gured to write any number of simulta- Observa tories FRANK K. EDMUNDSON, #178 Confrontation of Theory and Observations" August 22-25, 1995, Tokyo, Japan. Symposium 175: "Extragalactic Radiosources" August/September, 1995, Balogna, Italy. Symposium 176: "Stellar Surface e Earth orbits the Sun within a death from impacts is comparable to P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter, the Structure" October 9-13, 1995, warm of asteroids and cornets, that from other more familiar natural U.S. Congress bas recently instructed Vienna, Austria. many of which will eventually disasters, such as volcanic eruptions or NASA to present an international impact our planet. Although such earthquakes. In fact, most people plan to discover aU of the larger near- would consider the impact problem to Earth asteroids within the next de- IAU Colloquia: impacts are tiny on an astronomical or geophysical scale, they have led to be much more important, since it is cade. If such a program is carried out, Colloquium 154: "Solar and environmental disasters that strongly the only type of natural disaster that astronomers will be able to make a lnterplanetary Transients" January 23- influenced the course of biological threatens civilization itself. practical contribution to the future of 27, 1995, Pune, India. evolution. human civilization that is more Colloquium 155: "Astrophysical Even larger impacts are possible. concrete and perhaps more understan- Applications of Stellar Pulsation" During the past decade astronomers Brain Marsden pointed out that dable to the public than many of our February 6-10, 1995, Cape Town, have become aware of the potential Cornet P/Swift-Tuttle (the parent discoveries in fondamental science. South Africa. risk of future impacts, and particularly cornet of the Perseid meteor shower) Colloquium 152: "Astrophysics in of the interest of the public and of is now thought to have a diameter of the Extreme Ultraviolet" March 27- various governments in averting such about 20 km. It is on an Earth- 30, 1995, Berkeley, USA. disasters. Three years aga, the IAU crossing orbit, and the possibility of an .onge Book on formed a Working Group on Near impact sometime in the next few cen- Colloquium 153: "Magnetohydro- Mountain Climbing Earth Objects (NEOs), chaired by turies is not zero. If we were hit .. dynamic Phenomena in the Solar . .. Atmosphere" May 22-26, 1995, near Andrea Carusi, to look into these risks by an object this large, the result Tokyo, Japan and recommend possible courses for would be a mass extinction, and One of the founders of the sport of international cooperation to provide a humanity itself might conceivably mountain climbing, Tyndall, was a Colloquium 156: "The Impact of warning of such future catastrophes. come to an abrupt end. 19th century physicist, and sorne of Cornet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on the more adventurous and athletic Jupiter" May, 1995, Baltimore, USA On Saturday, the WG on NEOs pre- Amidst ali this doom and gloom, the among astronomers still seek respite Colloquium 157: "Barred sented a half day report on its work of WG on NEOs bas sorne positive news from their work among Alpine peaks. Galaxies" May 30-June 3, 1995, the past triennium. Evaluation of the as weil. It is a relatively straightfor- One such was the famous French Tuscaloosa, USA contemporary impact hazard shows ward problem to discover and catalo- astronomer Daniel Chalonge who Colloquium 158: "Cataclysmic that most of the risk is associated with gue all of the near-Earth asteroids !ar- worked hard on behalf of the IAU in Variables and Related Objects" June impacts by cornets and asteroids with ger than 2 km in diameter, using the post-World War II period as a 26-30, 1995, Keele, UK diameters on the order of 2 km. modern astronomical techniques. A Vice President. Now his daughter, Colloquium 150: "Physics, These are the smallest impacts that NASA working group has proposed Karin Chalonge, has produced a beau- Chemistry, Dynamics of are thought to be able to induce a glo- su ch a program ( called the Spaceguard tiful book of Daniel's reminiscences of Interplanetary Dust" August 14-18, bal catastrophe that might lead to Survey), based on six dedicated teles- the mountains full of poignant and 1995, Gainesville, USA widespread death and a possible bre- copes of 2-3 rn aperture, and recent ammusing experiences and entitled akdown of civilization. The frequency studies reported by E. Bowell suggest "Les Hautes Routes d'Antan" with which the Earth collides with 2- that even telescopes as small as 1 rn In addition the IAU will support a Copies, priced at Dfl 70, are availa- km NEOs is such that the chances of could carry out such a survey. Several ble at "The Shop at the End of the special meeting on "Library and such an occurrence taking place within existing asteroid observing programs Information Services in Astronomy" Universe" near to "The Orangerie" on any given human lifetime is about are currently being upgraded to dra- the main Congress floor, or by arder (LISA II) which will take place May 1/5000. Thus, while such impacts are matically increase the discovery rate. 10-12, 1995, at ESO, Garching bei (FF 185) from Mlle. Karen Chalonge indeed extremely rare, the risk of at 7 rue de le Dantec, Paris 75013. Muenchen, Germany. In the wake of the collision of Cornet Tu esd ay, .23 August Page Eight

·Announcements Public Lecture

ew of th ose in attendance at this Assembly will remember the Big Bang and Tidbits personally, but George Smoot, from Berkeley, knows it intimately. F Tonight, at 20:00 in the Museon (within shouting distance of the Congresgebouw), Smoot will hold forth on his exciting investigations into the dramatic birth of the universe. The title of this two-hour, popular presentation Latest Lunch Listing A picture, not only appropriate for the is: "Quest to the Big Bang," and you can bring both yourself and as many other Sidereal Times front page but also for humanoids as you wish, for the very reasonable priee of 7.50 guilders each. For those of you who are curious as to the scientific historians of the next the Congresgebouw comestibles for millenium, will be taken. Despite the fact that Berkeley is often regarded by Californians as a separate, Wednesday, August 24th, we are sovereign entity, Professor Smoot has assured the organizers that he will make pleased to report the following infor- Jean-Claude Pecker 1964-1967 his presentation in a widely understood language, namely English. mation: Cornelis de Jager 1970-1976 Edith Muller 1976-1979 • Minced pork Patrick Waykan 1979-1982 •Pasta Richard West 1982-1985 •Salad Jean-Pierre Swings 1985-1988 •Choice of imbibations (at extra cost) Derrek Mcnally 1988-1991 Exposition in the Museon Jeaqueline Bergeron 1991-1994 And, by golly, it's a mere 15 guilders. lmmo Appenzeller 1994-1997 We are obliged to remind you that Johannes Andersen 1997-2000 hose of you who are itchy to get out of the building, but would feel moral- ly awkward about losing touch with astronomy, should perhaps paya lunch tickets must be purchased a day short visit to the Museon. in advance, at the Social Events desk T in the Congresgebouw main hall. Commission 31 The hall of the Museon has a lovely photo exposition illustrating ali sorts of The business sessions of Commission astronomical abjects collected from roughly 40 countries. These photos are 31 will not be held Wednesday, also printed on a large calendar, which can be purchased at our little Shop at the August 24, but Tuesday, August 23 at End of the Universe (main hall) for only 10 guilders. This promises to be a 9:00 - 10:30, Mesdag 2. fantastic collectors item, and it's always possible that if you sell it in 50 years or so, you'll have guaranteed the retirement of your grandchildren. E. PROVERBIO So procrastinate no longer, rush out and get one for your own use, as weil as one to cornfort colleagues who were not fortunate enough to get travel money. Admittance to the exibition is free (opening hours from 10:00 - 17:00, in the weekend from 12:00 - 17:00). The voucher in your congress bag also gives you Better free admittance to the Museon itself. The Museon can be reached with a three minute walk. Tum right when exiting the Congresgebouw, IMPORTANT NOTICE Resolutions and pass the Bel Air Hotel. The Museon is at the next corner. FOR HONCHOS ... he chairman of the Resolution Committee wishes to inform ali General Secretaries T the members of the IAU that Late Posters the resolutions submitted to the IAU Past Present and Future General Assembly are ali posted on a JD 20.19 A. A. Nemiro, V. A. Fomin, "The Pulkovo Scheme of Astrometrie Present at the 22nd IAU: special board in the Paulus Potter Reflector" room on a black pillar behind the JD 19.21 V. A. Fomin, "On the Determination of the Equinox and Equator The distinguished IAU members on tables. As sorne of them will need a Corrections of Fondamental C atalogues from Meridian Observations of the the list that follows have been, are, or vote by the national delegations, it is Moon" probably will be, general secretaries of suggested that ali members to read the IAU. We have been informed them. that ali these people are present at the General Assembly and we would The Committee apologies for the poor JD 5 Program Changes: Correction like to invite them to come to Com- presentation of sorne of these resolu- mission chamber 2 on Wednesday, tions. Time is short and it has not A misprint in yesterday's Sidereal Times gave a confusing date for Program August 24, at 14h00. been possible to retype them. Changes for Commission 5.

J.-C. PECKER The date should read Tuesday, August 23.

Decoding Designations

by H. DICKEL & Comm. 5 WG

HEN COORDINATE BASED DESIGNATI ONS ARE DONE RIGHT the coordinates are proceeded by the code letter J for Julian W 2000 equatori al coordinates or by B for Besselian 1950 coordinates. If no B or J is specified, Bis assumed. Thus a QSO in Ap JS 77 203 1991 with coordinates 1950 R A = 00h48m48.97s DEC = -42d42 '52.1" and with coordinates 2000 RA= 00h51 m02 .5s DEC = -42d26'03" is named QSO 0048-427 = QSO B0048-427 = QSO J0051 -4226 The

IAU XXIInd General Assembly -The Hague 1994 Editor: SETH SHOSTAK Associate Editor: RENÉ GENEE No. 8: Wednesday, 24 August

Galileo Sees Jupiter Dinner, Dance and Take Hit from Comet! Discussion

hat are you going to do tonight? Sure, you could take the tram to The only direct pictures of the impact taken with Scheveningen for the 11 th time, and walk alon.g the boardwalk. Yes, Galileo's CCD camera, on July 22 W you could stroll onto the beach and kick sand mto the face of random tourists. And it's true you might essay yet another herring dinner with sate sauce on the side. But why not joint the beautiful people for tonight's official social event?

The cost is 65 guilders per human attendee, with special discounts for sentient non-primates. The location is in the Jan Steen Room. Tickets are available at the Social Events Desk. Y ou will find the names of min or planets on the tables: make of this what you will. The band is the Harlem Quintet, well known in this country, and frequently lauded for its ability to produce music not only eminent- ly suitable for dancing, but also for calming barnyard animais. Oh yes: the date and time are 20:00, Wednesday evening, August 24.

Researchers Face Up to Venus'

he spacecraft was 238 million kilometers (1.5 AU) from Jupiter at the time Complexion Problems these pictures were made, and 621 million kilometers from Earth. As seen T from the spacecraft, Jupiter was at phase angle of about 50 degrees (com- t a meeting of JD 18, Gordon Important differences between the pared to 10 degrees for Earth observers), permitting this direct view. The images Pettengill gave an account of impact craters of Venus and those of were taken at intervals of seconds using the green filter (visible light). 2-1/3 A the radar mapping of Venus the Moon were stressed, due to - carried out largely by the Magellan Venus' thick atmosphere which in- The first image, taken at an equivalent time to 8:06:10 UTC, shows no impact. In probe which was launched from the coming meteroids have to penetrate. the next three images, a point of light appears, brightens so much asto saturate shuttle Atlantis in May, 1989, reached This affects the pattern of ejecta, one of the pixels, and then fades again, seven seconds after the first picture. The the neighborhood of Venus in August, which shows sharp boundaries; there location is approximately 44 degrees south as predicted; dark spots to the right 1990, and continued radar mapping are also, in sorne cases, dark haloes are from previous impacts. Jupiter is approximately 60 pixels in diameter. for two years increasing our know- due to particles which were sent up to ledge of the surface beyond ali com- considerable altitude and took hours Galileo tape-recorded most of its observations of the Shoemaker-Levy events parison. to settle. Other features not found on during the second week of July, 1994 and has since been playing the tape back the Moon or Mercury are the selectively. Many more pictures and data from other instruments remain to be There are various types of features; "coronae", due to rising material of returned from the spacecraft's tape recorder. Playbacks will continue through impact craters, tectonic features, higher temperature and lower density, January, 1995. magma flows, volcanic structures and, and the strange volcanic features corn- of course, wind effects even though monty called "pancakes" due tomate- On the basis of time-scale arguments, it is most likely that this is the meteor bo- the wind velocities at the surface are rial of viscosity such that the forma- lide (the cornet fragment entering Jupiter's atmosphere) rather than the subse- low. This, together with the lack of tion was a graduai process taking per- quent explosion and fireball. Once all the Galileo, Hubble Space Telescope and water, accounts for the relatively haps a thousand years. ground-based data are integrated, an excellent start-to-finish characterization of modest degree of erosion. The aver- these remarkable phenomena will be available. age age of the features is of the order Magellan has provided detailed radar of 500 million years, naturally much maps of much of Venus' surface, Our madel has allowed us to plan observational strategy for bath Galileo and younger than for the surfaces of but one thing it bas not shown is any ground-based observations of the cornet events. It has also been used in inter- worlds such as Mercury and the change over the two-year period pretation of the detected events, for example to distinguish "real" events from Moon. during which mapping was being car- cosmic rays, to determinte the width of the events, and to estima te total flux in ried out. No doubt changes do occur saturated pixels. The model was of great benefit in analyzing previous calibra- over relatively limited periods, but tion data from Galileo, allowing us to properly characterize the instrument per- future missions will be required to formance. detect them.

STEVE B. HOWELL PATRICK MOORE Planetary Science Institute Sussex, U.K. Tucson, Arizona Cepheids in the Virgo Cluster An Important Contribution to the Cosmic Distance Scale

lively controversy still sur- From ali four Cepheid suspects, one rounds the cosmic distance obtains = 30.75, which (neg- A scale. lecting reddening) corresponds to a In an effort to resolve this problem, distance of 14.1 +/- 0.4 (internai error) an American and four Canadian astro- Mpc. This value supports the short nomers have used the Canada-France- distance scale to the Virgo cluster. Hawaii telescope to search for The suggestion that NGC 4571 might Cepheid variables in the Virgo cluster be a foreground object can probably galaxy NGC 4571. This object has a be rejected because of its (Sc II) lumi- low radial velocity which makes it pro- nosity classification, its hydrogen defi- bable that it is situated in, or close to, ciency (probably due to sweeping by Attendees have probably noted the informai attire that's accepted at most Dutch the cluster core. Furthermore this Sc intra-cluster gas), and because NGC restaurants. This fish emporium, located on a nearby beach, is typical. While II galaxy was selected for study be- 4571 is located only 2.4 degrees from the view offered other patrons is not always attractive, the server may have a more severe esthetic problem. p•67.3 23.2 This restaurant is not listed in the Michelin Guide. It does, however, accept 23.6 Il! l checks, should you have a place to carry them. .. 6 23.6

23.8 Lost Population of Quasars?

Recent IR observations of radio selec- Burke and Isabella Gioia (*). ted optically faint quasars indicate that a large part of the quasar popula- AU are welcome and additional contri- ! ! tion has been missed. The implica- butions are welcome. ! ! tions for cosmological studies will be Friday's Sidereal Times will have a discussed in an extra panel discussion contribution concerning this meeting. on Thursday, 25 August from 13:00 to 14:00 in the Mondriaan Room. (* to be confirmed)

The proposed panel consists of: Jerry ULF BORGEEST (#830) Lightcurves of suspected Cepheid variables in the Virgo galaxy NGC 4571. Ostriker (Chairperson), Jill Hamburg Sternwarte Bechtold (*) , Peter Shaver, Ulf Borgeest, Rachel Webster, Bernie cause its outer regions exhibit a low M87, which is situated at the bottom rate of star formation that results in of the Yirgo cluster potential weil. Jess severe crowding of stellar images A Virgo cluster velocity V(cosmic) than is observed in most !ate-type = 1311 +/- 132 km/sec has been de- Virgo spirals. rived by the author from the mean Using the HRCam tip-tilt seeing Coma cluster velocity and the corrector, a team consisting of Coma/Virgo distance ratio. With D = Michael Pierce, Douglas Welch, 14.1 +/- 0.4 Mpc and V(cosmic) = 1311 Robert McClure, Sidney van den +/- 132 km/sec, one obtains a Hubble parameter H = 93 +/-10 km/sec/Mpc. olivetti Bergh, and Rene Racine obtained 0 frames of NGC 4571 at 13 epochs in This value assumes that the Cepheid 1992 and 1993. Photometry and blink- suspects in NGC 4571 are all unred- ing revealed four variables that are dened. If one were to adopt an avera- suspected of being Cepheids. Light ge red absorption of 0.2 magni- Personal Computers curves for these abjects are shown in tudes,then the value of H 0 would the figure. Printers increase by 10% . A bias in the oppo- Periods of the candidate Cepheids, site direction would result if the pre- Servers which have mean red magnitudes sent observations preferentially dis- between 23.4 and 24.1, lie in the range covered Cepheids that, at a given 50- 90 days. Apparent red distance period, have above-average luminosi- Photo #51 moduli were calculated from the ties. period-luminosity relation found by SIDNEY V AN DEN BERGH Madore and Freedman. Dominion Astrophysical Observatory The Competition

ustrated by the ruthless editing public compose its readership. Ali are equired to reduce your mag- eager to learn your research motiva- Fnum opus to the 250 word limit tions as weil as your results. imposed at the Sidereal Times editorial desk? Mercury magazine from the If you are tru! y concemed about infor- Astronomical Society of the Pacific is ming your funding agency, employer, for you. dean, congressional representative, Olivetti Nederland B.V. Verbeekstraat 11-21 spouse, and friends about 2332 CA Leiden Mercury is the popular-level, bimonth- your research passion, Mercury may Telefoon: 071 - 319 931 ly magazine designed to communicate be the right vehicle for you. the excitement of modem astronomy olivetti to the widest possible audience in a ROBERT HA VLEN non-threatening way. Professionals, Astronom. Soc. of the Pacific amateurs, educators and the general (note: shortened by Editor) Page Wednesday, 24 August ; Three

History and Artifaets

D. McNally, former General Secretary mation extracted from old archives, (1988-1991) of the IAU, has brought notebooks, and letters are found the attention of Commission 41 throughout the world from south to (History of Astronomy) to the fact north. This is also true for instru- that 1994 is the 75th anniversary of ments, whose preservation allows us this institution. Accordingly, to use them for comparison with past Commission 41 held special sessions in observations and data. The Hague; JD 7 was devoted, for the most part, to the subject. But in sorne cases it is known that archives or instruments have been A number of talks have been given by forever lost. Sorne astronomers' various authors from different coun- widows have destroyed archives or tries on subjects related to the IAU, sold instruments even if they were not its beginning, parts of its history, private property. It has also occurred Y our future observing site? Crater Saha is center right in this map. recollections, and reminiscences. that sorne directors of observatories, heads of departments, and even astro- t can be predicted that within two transportation and infrastructure, An introductory talk was given by A. nomers themselves, have thrown away or three decades it will be impossi- international and interdisciplinary Blaauw who has, after his successful papers, notebooks, instruments, pho- I ble to conduct SETI (Search for cooperation, and mutual efforts for writings regarding the history of the tographs, and paintings to make room ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) observa- environmental protection. In addition ESO, has undertaken to do the same for their modern research. Papers and tions from locations in line-of-sight of to the scientific, technical, legal and with the IAU. During the meeting, instruments have been abandoned in the Earth. This will be due to: even philosophical aspects of this pro- Edith Muller, one of the past. buildings no longer in use, or kept by • The increase in man-made radio posai, I think it is also not too early to General Secretaries, informed us that heirs even when official property. interference. consider the political aspects as well. the very first IAU archives, which Instruments and buildings have been • The improvement in receiver sensi- were at the Royal Observatory in dismantled without careful examina- tivity. In the 34 years since the first J. HEIDMANN Belgium, were sent to the Permanent tian of the best approach to either SETI search, the efficiency of the Paris Observatory Secretary of the IAU in Paris. They saving them or documenting their con- search systems has doubled every are now believed to be located at the struction. eight months. Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris. Colloquium on Sorne of the later archives used by Astronomy willlose not only elements It can also be predicted that within the Blaauw are now at the Kapteyn for the writing of its history but also next 20 to 30 years, humankind, which Stellar Pulsations Laboratory in Groningen. elements to be used in research itself currently runs 8 SETI programs, will Approved without knowing what could be the be deeply involved with this endeavor, The value of these archives once again use of the "present archives" within attempting to collect information con- should focus the attention of astrono- two or three centuries. Therefore tained in signais emitted from quite a e are pleased to announce mers on the great damage caused by Commission 41 has issued a cali for number of extraterrestrial civiliza- that the IAU executive improperly preserved archives, not reconnaissance and inventory of all tions. Historically, as saon as a new committee has approved phenomenon is discovered ( e.g., qua- W only in the present case, but from a astronomical archives. support for this colloquium which is to more general point of view. Many sars, pulsars, gravitational lenses, etc.), be held in Cape Town, South astronomers have employed archives SUZANNE DEBARBAT scores of additional examples are Africa from 6-10 February, 1995. for modern research. Data and infor- uncovered within just a few years. For SETI, as saon as even one artificial Stellar pulsation is of fundamental Mexico - Armenian signal is found (next month, next cen- importance to our understanding of tury .. .) this will constitute immediate the evolution of stars, and forms one Cooperation proof that extraterrestrial civilizations of the cornerstones of the distance impact on astronomy. To this end, we are plentiful in the cosmos, and the scale of the universe. Several recent shall organise a meeting on the scienti- drive to investiage them, in an of their developments in the field promise fic objectives of large telescope obser- variety, will become quite strong. to make this meeting a particulaly vations as opposed to the technology interesting one. Among the tapies which makes them possible. We will Therefore, it is a philosophical and discussed are the following: also strongly encourage the participa- political obligation for humankind to tion and input of young astronomers provide a safe and suitable location - Population I stellar structure and and graduate students who represent for the pursuit of SETI during the evolution the eventual users of these facilities. next two to three decades. A solution -New developments in pulsation theo- The program will feature sorne 10 that is often mentioned is to use the ry helioseismology invited reviews and about 20 contribu- far side of the Moon. However, this - Pulsation and evolution in degen- ted papers together with ample time suggestion frequently creates misun- erate stars for discussion around the general the- derstanding and opposition from those - Theory of Miras and OH-IR stars mes of: involved in future enterprises to - Cool stars and galactic structure • Resolved Galaxies explore and exploit the Moon because - Cepheids, related stars and galactic •Cosmological Tests they take it to mean that SETI needs structure •Star Formation all of the far side. - Pulsating stars in the Magellanic •The Solar System Clouds •Faint Galaxies For this reason, I have recently poin- -The Sydney University stellar inter- •Dark Matter Canditates ted out that, based on simple and sen- ferometer. sible criteria, SETI would require only - The MACHO project and pulsating Preliminary Announcement •Stars and Star Clusters a single, specifie crater: Saba. This stars. Astronomy • Active Galaxies • Intergalactic Medium 100 km diameter feature, a ringed with Large Telescopes • Interstellar Medium structure in the equatorial eastern This is the first meeting of its kind to 31 May - 3 June 1995 region, is a little farther than Mare be held in Africa and will be hosted by Smythi, and 500 km from crater The University of British A formai First Announcement is the South African Astronomical Shubert C, which was selected by Columbia forthcoming. If you would like further Observatory and the University NASA as a possible candidate for a of Cape Town. Vancouver, Canada information, or wish to be added to manned, permanent lunar base. the mailing list for future mailings, please respond to: [email protected] For further details, please send e-mail This proposai for a dedicated, far side to: [email protected] With the building and completion At the General Assembly, you may lunar crater for SETI, and more gene- of several 8 to 10 rn class telescopes in contact Jaymie Matthews (box 682) or rally for sensitive radio astronomical JOHN PERCY the next few years, this is a good time Harvey Richer (box 427) for more research, requires investigation of cur- to consider and prepare for their information. rent plans for the upcoming decennia, Restructuring of the IAU

Below follows the text of the propo- I. All of the Commissions as pre- tive communication to be established, cate in the same way as in the past, sai that has been made by the sently constituted stay in place and while a meeting of the 12 member EC and so there would be no problems of Executive Committee to the continue their work in the usual way. with sorne 12 representative division mass mailings. Also the many Presidents and Vice-Presidents II. A divisional structure is introdu- Presidents would be more practical. Commission members who fee! more of the Commissions. The only chan- ced to which the Commissions may comfortable in smaller, more cohes- ges which have been made to the text affiliate. These divisions are run by a The Commissions that are at present . ive units would continue to have concern the framework of the divi- board composed of: Commissions of the EC should proba- these. Nevertheless, more cohesion sional structure that has been revised a) the Commission Presidents for bly remain so and not become part of would be achieved between the rela- following the meeting of the Executive divisions with more than 3 a division. This includes Commission ted Commissions, as weil as indirectly Committee (EC) with the Commissions; 5, 6, 38, 46 and 50 which have very between the Commissions and the EC. Commission Presidents and Vice- b) the Presidents and vice- specifie functions and which directly Presidents. Presidents of Commissions for divi- relate to the General Secretary. The triennial "Reports on sions with 2-3 Commissions; Astronomy" would continue to be Introduction c) the President and vice-President The proposed framework for the divi- prepared by the commissions as usual plus 3 other Members for divisions sional structure follows: with possibly sorne synchronization It is not a simple matter to analyze which are composed of 1 Commission. by the divisional boards to avoid the responses to the proposais for Scientific Divisions both duplication and lacunae. restructuring made by the General Thus, each divisional board is compo- Commissions* Members Secretary (Sept 13, 1993). Sorne sed of 5 + 1 persans. These boards Sorne direct communication between Presidents favor overall restructuring elect their own President. the divisions and their members might provided their own Commission is left 1. Fundamental Astronomy also be useful. The simplest way of out. Others make a joint proposai, The tasks of the divisions or rather of 4, 8, 19, 24,31 454 acheiving this could be through the just in case restructuring will occur, the divisional boards would include: 2. Sun, Heliosphere IAU Bulletins, if each divisional but at the same time their individual 1. The endorsement of Symposia and 10,12,49 763 board would have, say, two pages responses indicate serious reserva- Colloquia. 3. Solar System reserved for it in each bulletin; per- tions. Overall, the EC conclude that 2. The organization of Joint 15, 16,20, 21,22 667 haps this might also make the 2/3 - 3/4 of the Commission Presidents Discussions. 4. Stars Bulletin more readable. who have expressed an opinion do 3. To propose candidates for the 26,29,35,36,45 964 not favor the proposais for "Super Special Nominating Committee 5. Variable Stars Commissions"; however, when (requires a change in the By-Laws). 27, 42 619 weighting the opinions by the 4. To coordinate the activities of the 6. Interstellar Matter Commission membership the opinions Commissions in the division, including 34 657 Lists of the resolutions covered more nearly balance. the making of proposais for new 7. Galactic System by the report of the Resolution Commissions, proposais for dissol- 33,37 512 Committee lt has been frequently mentioned that ving or combining existing 8. Galaxies and the Universe the younger members seem disaffec- Commissions and proposais for 28,47 915 ted with the IAU. While a certain Working Groups. 9. Optical Techniques Resolutions having financial implica- Jack of interest in Commission matters 5. To regularly report and to advise 9,25,30 531 tions on their part may be rather natural, the EC, in particular by having the 10. Radio Astronomy nevertheless the general perception of division Presidents attend the mee- 40 752 •Bl On supporting the Lund Meteor the IAU as being an organization tings of the EC at the time of the 11. Space and High Energy Data Centre mainly preoccupied with "old fash- General Assembly. Astrophysics 44/48 645 •B2 On funding the archivai organi- ioned" scientific topics, in which the sation of the IAU practitioners of the newer subjects With regard to (1), this does not Commission 14 would become a com- • B3 On publication of the Debrecen have only limited influence, is worri- change the role of the Commission mission of the EC. For the moment Photoheliographic Results some. And such opinions prevail not Presidents, except that consultation Commissions 7, 41 and 51 would only among the young. In addition, across Commission boundaries will remain unattached to a division. Resolutions concerning IAU and rightly or wrongly, many of the take place, which would seem to be other bodies, which have to be read Commissions are perceived to be little very positive. Item (2) also does not and voted upon, individually closed "clubs" that have not much much change the present situation, Conclusion interest in letting new winds blow except, again, that consultation with • B4 On the measurement and im- through. Finally, the discussions of all adjacent Commissions will take The present proposai would create a provement of environmental impact the last three years have raised expec- place. Of course, this does not in any high visibility divisional structure with on astronomy tations among those favoring change, way exclude meetings sponsored by sorne well defined functions. •B5 On the prohibition of Satellite and doing nothing willlead to a strong more than one division. Moreover, it is a flexible structure: Systems having a potentially adverse sense of deception. If the proponents of the "Super environmental impact Item (3): Since the divisions would Commissions" are right, gradually the •B6 On the WG on Reference At the same time it is clear that the have globally equal numbers, it would divisions may take over from the Frames EC cannot and should not try to force seem to enhance the fairness in the Commissions. If they are wrong, the • B7 On the second generation high- extreme changes on the Commissions elections process for the Special Commissions will continue to flourish angular resolution plate scanning against their will. A solution has to be Nominating Committee. Still, as at in a framework which fosters commu- • B8 On the need to develop fo und which preserves the positive present, the Nominating Committee nication but leaves each Commission Submillirneter Arcsecond Optical of the present situation, while satis- would have its role (as specified in By- master in its own house. There is no Astrometry fying those who want renewal. Law 12a) to ensure that a reasonable need to forsee the outcome now, and •B9 On a joint WG of IUGG & IAU balance of nationalities be achieved. one can let the situation evolve natu- on theoretical geophysical-based nuta- rally over the coming decade. Perhaps tion Proposal Concerning (4), the division structure equally important, one would obviate •B10 On the policy w.r. to the hazar- provides a flexible framework for the need to raise this rather divisive dous Near-Earth Objects (NEO's) In view of the various aspects ment- adapting the Commissions to evolving and distracting issue again and again. •Bll On the preservation of astrono- ioned by the Commission Presidents circumstances, without creating the mical relies and others, and in order to create a feeling that such adaptation is "impo- The presently proposed di visions •B12 On the continuation and exten- flexible mechanism for change which sed" from the outside. Finally, with would face none of the problems sion of the activities of the WG on fosters increased interaction, the EC regard to (5), the present meetings of which the "Super Commissions" astronomical standards would propose the following: the EC with sorne forty Commission would meet. Commission members •B13 On an interunion WG concer- Presidents hardly seem to allow effec- and their Presidents would communi- ning the millimeter and submillimeter astronomy Prestigious Prize •B14 On an interunion WG concer- Next General oing a large radio telescope •B15 Considering the sharing of hy- Goes Down Under droxyl band with land mobile satellite In an editorial board meeting of the Assembly in services international review journal, Vistas in •B16 Concerning the band utilisation Astronomy, the New Zealand-based Kyoto, 1997 of radio communication in the lunar astronomer William Tobin was decla- On behalf of the National committee environment red the winner of the 1994 Arthur of Astronomy and the Astronomical • B17 About the International Decade Beer Prize of 1,000 pounds. This Society of J apan, I am very pleased to of Solar Cycle Studies (IDSCS) award is made every three years for an original review of high quality publis- tell you that the Union has chosen us to host the 23rd General Assembly Resolutions by Commissions, endor- hea in the journal. at Kyoto International Conference sed by the global.·esolution B18 Dr. Tobin, a British-born scientist who Hall during 17-30 August, 1997. •C1 On the observations of the offset has worked for the last ten years in Astronomical research in Japan of celestial pole and the theory of Paris and New Zealand, won the Prize around 1997 will be as follows: nutation for his in-depth review of one of the ASCA and YOHKOH satellites will •C2 On the use of the J.2000.0 equi- key milestones of 19th century physics have obtained a wealth of observa- nox co-ordinator and astronomy. His essay "Toothed tional data. The SpaceVLBI satellite, •C3 On protection of Julian Day Wheels and Rotating Mirrors," focus- VSOP, will have been launched. Daiichiro Sugimoto Numbers ses on Foucault's pioneering work in Super KAMIOKANDE will have •C4 On research and inventory of the accurate determination of the brought new data on solar neutrinos, existing archives velocity of light. and a tera-flops dedicated computer •C5 Concerning cornet designations shrines are in lovely harmony with GRAPE will be making large-scale and names Also highly commended by the Prize today's modern industrialized life. simulations. A 300 rn GW laser inter- •C6 On the use of 1976 system of judges was B. C. Schaefer of NASA- ferometer and an 8 rn SUBARU tele- astronomical contacts Goddard Space Flight Center, whose Please bring your family with you. A scope will be in the final phases •C7 On the definition of J.2000.0 and article examined "Astronomy and the new airport will soon open in Osaka, toward completion, though the latter time scales Limits of Vision." from which Kyoto can be reached wi- takes place in Hawaii •C8 Concerning the Space VLBI thin 90 minutes by train. Looking fo r- PETER BEER ward to seeing ali of you and astrono- Kyoto was the capital of Japan for Essex, U.K. mers from around the world in Kyoto 1,100 years. The Rezei family has in 1997. Once again, we have this left-over space. The Sidereal Times will take the oppor- archived the famous supernova in Taurus in its Meigetsu-ki (diary, beau- tunity to give you a factoid about Dutch society: They are considered cheap by DAIICHIRO SUGIMOTO (#199) the Belgians. For their part, the Dutch consider the Belgians to be simple. tiful moon) in 1054. Old temples and

"·:. _::::- _ _ _ . .-.- At the last General Assembly, the Report of the IAU Finance Committee. Committee recommended that the financial reserves be kept at a value equal to one year's operations. In light of the growing fiscal uncertainty The Finance Committee appointed a ter when they were actually paid. to receive full travel support from the faced by many institutions around the subcommittee to make an examination While more complicated to use, this Union. world, the Finance Committee recom- of the accounts and the proposed bud- method allows program costs to be mends that a one year's reserve be get of the Union and to prepare the compared effectively with budget The Finance Committee wishes to considered a minimum and appropria- report for presentation to the General amounts, which was not possible commend the General Secretary for te value. Assembly. The subcommittee was under the old cash system. achieving a high return on the IAU composed of : investments and for securing a particu- The operations of the Union do not The Committee is also pleased that larly large quantity of special contribu- seem to be taking as much advantage Peter B. Boyce, Chair the fiscal reports have been reorgani- tions of the Union. Both these of electronic communication as might James Hesser zed such that the reports and the bud- sources of income have been impor- be desired. The Committee envisions Birgitta Nordstrom gets are made for the same period. It tant to the operation of the Union that, in the long run, substantial Vytautas Straizys is now much easier to make the com- during the last three years. In particu- savings in printing and postage will Patrick Wayman parison between budget and actual lar, the generosity of the contributing result, and the immediate value of expenditures which is vit al for respon- organizations has made it possible to having up to date information readily The Subcommittee report was adop- sible fiscal management. However, expand the amount of support for available, e.g. lists of commission offi- ted by the Finance Committee as fol- since the budget for the first year of scientific activities by 25 percent, and cers , membership, national lows: the new triennium was prepared three the amount for grants to travel to the representatives, etc., is obvious. years ago, conditions have changed General Assembly by a factor of 2.5 This is a time of rapid change in the and the budget does not represent above the previous triennium. This The Committee notes the inflation status of many countries and institu- actual conditions. The Committee represents a real change in the balance rate of three percent per year projec- tions. So, too, the financial operations recommends that in the future the between science and administration ted for the next triennium (1994-96 of the IAU have undergone significant General Secretary prepare, as part of and we encourage the next General and provisionally for 1997) is reasona- changes in the last three years. A list the budget process, a revised budget Secretary to pursue with vigor addi- ble, and recommends adoption of the of significant recômmendations were for the first year of the new triennium tional special contributions which can following rates for the unit of contri- made by the Finance Committee in which reflects up-to-date information. provide for an even stronger program bution: 1991, and the present Committee of scientific activities during the next notes with great approval that virtual- On a matter which concerned the triennium. 1995: 2580, 1996: 2660, ly every item on that list has been Committee in 1991 , the Committee 1997: 2740 addressed actively and successfully. notes with pleasure the sharply redu- The Committee notes that the Union W e commend the General Secretary ced costs of operating the Executive has established the position of Finally, the Committee has inspected and the office staff for their effective- Committee during the last triennium. Treasurer who is acting in the role of the proposed budget for the remain- ness in the financial area. In fact, the growth in the total admini- advisor to the General Secretary who der of the triennium, 1994- 96 and the strative costs of the Union have been prepares the budgets. In time the role provisional budget for the year 1997. The Finance Committee is very minimal. The Committee encourages of the Treasurer should be more clear- We find this budget to be reasonable pleased that the change to accrual the next General Secretary to con- ly defined. In addition, the andrecommend its adoption. accounting as recommended tinue efforts to control the growth of Committee notes that the Chair of the at the previous General Assembly has administrative costs. In particular we Finance Committee has informally Respectfully submitted, been instituted. In this method of encourage the Presidents of provided advice regarding financial PETER B. BOYCE reporting, which is now being required Commissions and others who travel on matters to the General Secretary The Hague, August 22, 1994 for most organizations, the expenses behalf of the Union to seek funding during the last triennium. The incurred within a given year are coun- from their own countries and organi- Committee recommends that this ted in that year's expenditure, no mat- zations and not automatically expect practice continue. Astronomers Should Be Glad About Recent Explosion

I would like to point out to attendees of the Assembly an abject that, in my opinion, deserves more attention than Ben Oppenheimer, who keeps himself constant/y busy with variables. it has been given so far: Geminga. As AAVSO data archives and for his we now know, it is a nearby and relati- Paper Presented by analysis employed Date Compensated vely young pulsar. Youngest Fourier Techniques, developed for The supernova which gave birth to P.C. computers at AAVSO for aspe- this abject exploded sorne 300,000 Astronomer cial high school project. (See poster paper JD4.A.2.) 1 years ago, and created a huge hubble 1 1 \ enjamin D. Oppenheimer- a that swept away most of the interstel- 16 year old high school student lar matter from the supernova's vicini- The paper was presented at Sympos- - is the youngest author pre- ty. We are now inside the hubble, and B ium 165, by Janet A. Mattei, Director senting a paper at the Assembly. His this is why the interstellar absorption of the AA VSO, who guided Ben work is titled "An Analysis of is so low close to the Sun. during his research. Mattei met him Longterm AA VSO Observations of during a talk she gave at his high the Recurrent Nova RS Ophiuchi." school as part of her NASA Imagine that there was no supernova, Astrophysics Grant Supplement for and that we happened to be inside of Mr. Oppenheimer, who has been a education. an opaque, dusty patch of interstellar summer research assistant at the matter! What would the sky look American Association of Variable He continues to work at AAVSO this like? What would astronomy be like? Star Observers (AASVO) in summer, analyzing th e behavior of Think of this the next time when you Cambridge, Massachusetts, studied the more stars and providing AA VSO hold a glass and your band and view behaviour of RS Ophiuchi during its data to astronomers involved with the twinkling stars through it. Perhaps five outbursts since 1988, and its signi- satellites such as Hipparcos and HST. you should raise a toast to Geminga! ficant light variability during intervals Ben has been interested in astronomy between outbursts. He used 26.966 KAZIMIERZ STEPIEN since age 4, and has plans to be ... a observations over 104 years from professional astronomer! Warsaw Univ. Obs., Poland

Schedule Symp. 167 for Wednesday Developments in Array Jupiter Sessions A Hit! Technology and Applications ne of the best attended mee- within an hour after the impact. We The next SL-9/Jupiter meeting will Mo ming tings of the 22nd IA U are still observing the long-term evolu- take place at the AAS-DPS (October Chair, Mclean General Assembly was tion of this cloud material at this 31 ) at Washington, D.C. , and many O moment. There were effects in the meetings are bound to follow thereaf- undoubtedly the very successful pre- INFRARED ARRA YS , G. Finger, sentation of the newest results about Jovian magnetosphere which led to ter. P. Biereichel, M. Meyer, and A. F. M. the recent cornet collision, reported changes in the radio emission. Moorwood, ESO during two sessions on August 18 and There were changes in the northern RICHARD WEST 20, most ably organized at very short hemisphere as weiL European Southern Observatory THE IMPACT OF INFRARED notice by Catherine de Bergh, David ARRAY TECHNOLOGY ON The creation of new molecules was Morrison, Mike A'Hearn and Alan reported, including sorne which sug- ASTRONOMY, Giovanni G. Fazio, Harris. Center fo r Astrophysics gest that the impacting bodies were This was the first opportunity to very carbon-rich and that they did not assess the full range of data available. penetrate deep enough to excavate a MONOLITHIC Si BOLOMETER It was also the first occasion for the ARRA YS: DETECTORS FOR FAR large amount of water from Jupiter's observers to meet and compare their troposphere. INFRARED AND SUBMILLIME- data and for the theoreticians to make TER DETECTION, Harvey the first comparisons between their However, sorne of the fragments Moseley, Goddard Space Flight models and the data. must have gone below the upper Center ammonia cloud and the hypothetical The audience was treated ta a true ammonium hydrosulphide clouds, feast of new and unique data, but it OBSERVATIONAL CONCERNS since the fireballs were apparently was also clear that for lack of time, AND TECHNIQUES FOR HIGH very rich in sulphuric compounds, not very little of it has so far been proper- BACKGROUND MID-INFRARED expected in cornets. ly reduced and interpreted. There (5- 20 MICRON) ARRA Y IMA- were many examples of the unprece- Many other exciting conclusions are GING, Chair, Fazio, Daniel Y. dented degree of international colla- expected from the rich data. Gezari, Goddard Space Flight Center boration involved. Cornet Shoemaker-Levy 9 is no We saw the first direct measure- more. But there is no doubt that this AN INFRARED CAMERA BASED name and the dramatic event it so ON A LARGE PtSi ARRA Y, I. S. ments of transient emissions of vapo- kindly created have already become Jupiter takes iton the chin. The conse- Glass and K. Sekiguchi, SAAO rized neutra! metals that have until now only been seen in cornets that synonymous with exciting and success- quences of eight impacts are visible on ful science. Solar-system astronomy this NASA Hubble Space Telescope PtSi INFRARED ARRA Y IN pass very close to the Sun. We saw will never be quite the same after this photo. The smallest features on this MOSAIC CONFIGURATION, the first true IR lightcurves of the gigantic fireballs and how these were powerful demonstration of natural image are less than 200 km across. Munetaka Ueno, University of Tokyo forces ! transformed into large, flat structures New Photo Plates for Astronomy Radio Astronomers n an epoch of mass attacks on traditional astrometrical methods by I CCDs, the problem of astronomi- Battle Interference cal plates may seems to be not very essential. However we must take into consideration that a lot of observatories are still using photography in their ust as optical astronomers are cies. Severa) nations are now discus- research. hampered by ever growing light sing (or have already begun) the idea Photographie plates are simple and J pollution, radio astronomers are of no longer gran ting these allocations reliable information media. always fighting for clear radio skies. free of charge, but to the highest bid- Unfortunately, there is a tendency to At this General Asembly, IUCAF der! This new economies may or may reduce the production of astronomi- (Inter Union Committee for not worsen the situations for radio cal plates. Recently the firm ISC Allocation of Frequencies, chaired by astronomers (presumably we will "Slavich-Dar" in Pereslavi-Zalessky Brian Robinson of Australia) has held NOT have to pay mega-dollars each of the Yaroslav Region of the Russian severa) sessions on the current issues. year for, e.g., our allocation of the Federation began to produce experi- These include: 21-cm hydrogen line!), but we wish to mental plates for astronomical purpo- closely monitor the situation. ses. These plates have been carefully 1) THE GLONASS navigational satel- investigated at Pulkovo and other lite system of Russia: In summary, there are many concerns observatories. It appears that these for today's radio astronomers, but Russian astronomical plates are of the Dimitry Polojentsev. Note that this For the past decade astronomers stu- through coordinated efforts positive same quality as the famous plates image was made using traditional, dying the 1612 MHz OH transition results have been, and can be, achie- made by KODAK and ORWO, and in si/ver ha/ide technology. from HII regions and late-type stars ved. Also note that a display concer- sorne ways even better. have encountered strong interference ning sorne aspects of these issues (as Detailed results have being presen- whenever one of the 24 GLONASS weil as light pollution) is in the ted at WGMA. Y ou can request satellites passes anywhere above the Exhibition Area. This has been information from the authors, as given DIMITRY POLOJENTSEV (#187) horizon. But constant pressure from assembled by the ICSU Working below. OLEG P. BYKOV (#1837) radio astronomers has now produced Group on Adverse Environmental agreements that will eventually greatly Impacts of Astronomy (chaired by reduce this interference. The number Derek MeN ally of the U.K.) of satellites will be reduced to 12, the frequency channels will be shifted WOODRUFF T. SULLIVAN New Scope to Decorate Kitt Peak away from 1612 MHz, and (possibly) University of Washington the bandwidth emitted by each satellite will be reduced. Construction of the new 3.5m designed to minimize dome seeing. A WIYN Telescope on Kitt Peak was wide slit and vents around the perime- 2) Mobile Satellite Communications recently completed, and the commis- ter provide rapid flushing by outside sioning of the telescope is underway. air. Air is also drawn through the Motorola is planning a 66-satellite sys- The WIYN Telescope is a collabo- telescope mount to maintain it at tem called Iridium which would allow ration of the University of Wisconsin, ambient temperature. The reflective you to call your spouse to make excu- Indiana University, Yale University, surface of the exterior of the enclosure ses no matter how remote your loca- and the National Optical Astronomy also reduces radiative cooling of the tion. This system (whose first Observatories in the U.S. The univer- structure at night. Infrared scans of satellite has to be launched next year) sities have provided most of the funds the enclosure demonstrate that it is and other similar proposed systems Concert by Consort for the construction of the telescope. nearly isothermal. are potentially harmful to observa- and NOAO will provide most of the- Observa tions obtained during the tions in the range of 1600 - 2000 MHz, On Monday evening the ensemble telescope operations. early commissioning phase in July sug- but discussions between radio astrono- "Combattimento Consort" gave us a The WIYN Telescope was designed gest that the median seeing will be mers and the commercial engineers taste of baroque music during a con- from the outset to take advantage of well below one arcsecond. The best are proceeding in a (usually) coopera- cert at the "Anton Philips Zaal". the good seeing available at Kitt Peak. images so far obtained have a FWHM tive manner. It is hoped that a scheme About 800 people attended the con- The primary mirror is supported by 66 of 0.45". can be developed that will either pro- cert in the main concert hall, which is actuators which are adjusted to achie- Science operations are expected to tect the specifie locations of radio equipped with an adaptive acoustics ve the best optical figure. In the start in March, 1995. The instruments observations or allow sorne sort of system. absence of seeing, the telescope can available will include a CCD imaging time-sharing. The Combattimento Consort, foun- deliver 0.04" images. The temperatu- camera and the Hydra multi-fiber ded in 1982 by Jan Willem de Vriend, re of the primary mirror is actively positioner and spectrograph which is 3) Far side of the Moon has built up an impressive reputation controlled and is routinely held at being moved from the KPNO 4m in Europe playing 17th and 18th cen- 0.2C below ambient throughout the Mayall Telescope to the new WIYN Commissions 40 (Radio Astronomy) tury court music and has issued over night. The primary mirror supports Telescope. and 50 (concerned with light pollution ten CD's. At last Monday's concert, and thermal control systems were pro- and radio interference) have proposed the Consort began with a very cheer- vided by NOAO. that the IAU adopta resolution in ful sonata by Marini. This set the stage CATHERINE A. PILACHOWSKI support of a recent proposai by the The innovative enclosure is for music by Vivaldi, Mozart and the #1170 various space agencies of this planet. Dutch composer Count Unico van The proposai would create a radio- Wassenaer, with an ever increasing quiet Lunar Shielded Zone for the number of musicians playing. entire far side of the Moon; transmis- Van Wassenaer is a relatively un- sions would be confined to only 2000 - known composer from the early 18th 3000 MHz. Thus whenever a radio century. For years people thought his observatory is eventually established work was composed by Pergolesi and on the far side of the Moon, it should others. It was not until1979 that Van be protected not only from the Earth's Wassenaer finally got the recognition interference, but also from experi- he deserved. The concert ended at ments and communications in or about 22:30 with music by Giovanni around the Moon. Batista Viotti. The enthusiastic response of the audience triggered an Auctioning off the radio spectrum encore, which was a little piece from Jean-Philippe Rameau's 'La Boriade'. Radio frequency bands have tradition- ally been allocated to specifie users in each country by their national agen- RENSWATERS WIYN telescope to left. Mountain to bottom. Amsterdam Announcements Public Lecture lack holes, unlike most astronomical objects, were found first on black- boards, not through a telescope. Despite their ephemeral nature, black and Tidbits holes continue to suck in the public, not to mention the occasional hunk of hot gas.

Latest Lunch Listing Don't Shrug Off Atlas For those of you anxious to brush up on your black hale banter, consider attending tonight's public lecture at the Museon. The latter is only a matter of minu- Haute cuisine from the Pays-Bas can Several copies of An Atlas of tes from where you sit reading this rag. Tonight's speaker is Michiel van der be yours for the piddling priee of 15 Objective-Prism Spectra (1974) and A Klis, and the talk is imaginatively entitled "Black Holes." The festivities begin at guilders - if you buy your lunch tic- Second Atlas of Objective-Prism 20:00 (local proper time) as always, and costs a miniscule 7.50 guilders. The pre- ket a day in advance at the Social Spectra (1984) by Houk et al. are avai- sentation will be in Dutch. Events desk in the Congresgebouw. lable free to anyone from countries having currency problems that make Y ou may have noted that ali lunch paying in U.S. dollars very difficult. offerings now consist of an elegant Late Posters buffet, featuring a wide range of orga- Leave a note in pigeon hole #596. nic molecules. Soup, luncheon meats, S169.L.99-101 R. Buser and J. Rong, "Homogenized Basel RGU-photographic salads, fruit, and bread of ali geome- N. HOUK high-latitude survey of the Galaxy." trie shapes are available for your I. "Determination of optimized structural parameters from systematic gustatory enjoyment. population models" Il. "Existence and structure of the thick-disk population component" As usual, drinks are extra. III "The metallicity structure of the Galactic thick disk and halo" S169.L.102 D.Schaerer and G.Meynet, "The Galactic Center Star Cluster: Normal Evolution?!" Tip the waiter, and you may geta S169.L.103 M. Sevenster et al. "An OH Survey and its Applications" S169.L.104 B. Weiner and J.A. Sellwood, "Properties of the Galactic Bar as deduced from hydrodynamical models" S169.L.105 A. Withworth, "The structure of the interstellar medium" S169.L.106 D.A. Levine and M. Morris, "Report on a survey of H20 masers toward the Galactic Center" S169.L.107 K. Uchida et al. , "The Possible Energy Source of the Galactic Center Nonthermal Filament" S169.L.108 F. Yuset-Zadeh et al.,"Polarization and molecular-line studies of a system of nonthermal filaments (G359.54+0.18) S169.L.109 W. Dehney, "A f(E,Lz)-model for the Galactic Bulge" S169.L.110 W.J. Schuster and C. Allen, "Effects of chaos in the Galactic Halo"

Glow Must Go Decoding 1Jesignations Will the owner of the small plutonium sample please address him- or herself to the offices of the Sidereal Times? by H. DICKEL & Comm. 5 WG The death of our plants is not really a problem, but the glow is disturbing.

ISFUNCTIONAL DESIGNATIONS CONVEY MISLEADING INFORMATION. For example there is a source called MG 0419+1316 (Ap JS 61 105 1986). However, there is no source corresponding to these 1950 coordinates in the list. But there is a source listed with J2000 equatorial coordinates = 04h19m24.4s +13d16'22" and B1950 = 04h16m36.5s +13d09'11". The proper designation is thus MG J0419+1316.

READFUL DESIGNATIONS FOR NEWLY-DISCOVERED OR SURVEYED OBJECTS, GIVE AN ACRONYM YOURSELF- otherwise you can expect surprises such as the dreadful designation SMC 1 which refers to a Planetary Nebula in the LMC! It was given no name in the original publication (Savage, Murdin & Clark 1982). The preferred designation is SMP1 104A from Sanduleak, McConnel & Philips in IAU Symp 108 2311984.

ERIVATIVE DESIGNATIONS ARE A BAD IDEA. Do not alter or abbreviate an existing name. Refer to the elliptical galaxy NGC 63 not N63 (which may be confused with Henize nebula 63 in the LMC or in the SMC). Refer to SN 1987 A not just 1987 A. The

IAU XXIInd General Assembly -The Hague 1994

Editor: SETH SHOSTAK Associate Editor: RENÉ GENEE No. 10: Friday, 26 August

Leiden-Dwingeloo HI Survey Milky Way Final/y Well-Mapped

oo oo

l oo

or five years the Dwingeloo 25 Hartmann of Leiden Observatory. Plainly visible are great swaths of fila- Hartmann reports that 300,000 pro- rn radio telescope (built circa Hartmann's Ph. D. thesis reporting mentary structure extending to the files were recorded in the survey. F 1956, beamwidth 36') bas been the results is now being printed under galactic pales. The bright region in Each profile was a 3 minute integra- used to make an all-sky survey of ga- his personal supervision. The above the galactic plane between longitudes tion made with 1 km/s bandwidth. lactic neutral hydrogen - but with a figure is but one of hundreds, mapping 100 and 140 degrees shows gas in the The survey provides full velocity difference. The data have been cor- the neutral hydrogen brightness at Perseus spiral arm, but otherwise most coverage from -500 to 500 km/s, and rected for stray radiation arising in specifie velocities; in this case aver- of the non-planar gas at these veloci- 1,000 maps like the above (but in near and far sidelobes. aged between -40 and -37.5 km/sec ties is believed to be local. Why it color) will be published by Cambridge with respect to the local standard of looks the way it does, or why it maves University Press in 1995. A CD ROM Such an ambitious program bas never rest, and displayed in galactic coordi- at these velocities (the so-called inter- will be included. before been attempted, reports Dap nates for the whole sky accessible mediate velocity gas at high latitudes) from Dwingeloo. is far from understood. continued, page 2

.-_ '\. :- .. : . n a drama so weil timed it appears Tuesday's edition of the Sidereal would be another example of sudden in Tasmania and South Africa, and the to have been organized by the Times. The radio event has been accretion onto a black hale in a binary new VLBA antenna in Mauna Kau. I IAU, the Scorpius X-ray nova has strong enough (peaking at 7 Jy on system. Detailed images won't be available continued to command the frantic Aug 18) to obtain milliarcsec VLBI The radio outburst has been of until after the Mkll VLBI tapes have attention of researchers during the resolution observations during the short duration, and has been exponen- been correlated this week at the 22nd General Assembly. outburst. Interest was further height- tially decaying since August 18, with a Caltech/JPL correlator. However a Radio astronomers working south ened by the announcement from Felix half-life of about 3 days. During the real-time link is in place between of the equator have interrupted ali Mirabel of superluminal motions in outburst, VLBI observations have Tidbinbilla and Parkes, and the ongoing programs to observe the dra- another galactic X-ray variable been obtained using radio telescopes Australian team has been able to matie radio outburst which followed (Sidereal Times, 19 Aug) and the pre- of the ATNF in Parkes, Narrabri and watch the source expanding on this the X-ray flare from GRO 11655-40 diction by sorne participants at Mopra, the NASA DSN antennas at one baseline. reported at IAU165 and covered in IAU165 that the new Scorpius source Tidbinbilla and Goldstone, antennas continued, page 2 Frida y, 26 August Page Two

Milky Way mapping, continued

The sidelobe corrections have greatly ning importance. Last week it was the enhanced the sharpness seen in Hl discovery of a nearby spiral galaxy in area maps such as this. "At high gal- the zone of avoidance in a program actic latitudes," notes Hartmann, that grew out of the completion of the Sober "more than 50% of the total area in all-sky survey. the HI profiles is contributed by stray radiation in far sidelobes." The correc- It seems almost unbelievable that it ted data are a wonderful resource that has taken over 40 years since the dis- will allow students of diffuse HI to covery of the 21-cm hydrogen line for Editorial more accurately determine the nature this study to have been carried out. of this material. Hartmann confesses Project leader W. B. Burton and that upon review of the data "it is dif- Hartmann are to be congratulated on t has been the penchant of this edi- ficult to find much evidence for the completing this Herculean task. tor to write in a facile, occasionally existence of 'clouds.' The filamentary humorous style, and to avoid the nature of the gas is most striking." I GERRIT VERSCHUUR first person voice. 1 would like to deviate from these precepts to say Once again we learn that the world's Rhodes College something serious and heartfelt. oldest radio telescope bas been used Tennessee In particular, I would like to thank to carry out a piece of work of stun- those people who have made it possi- Butler Burton, one of the 8-cylinder ble to produce this paper every day, X-ray Nova Scorpius, continued monitor a further 6 frequencies powerhouses behind the Dwingeloo despite withering deadlines and between 1.4 and 9.2 GHz. The out- Leiden Hl survey. modest technical facilities. Y ou already know from the mast- An instant analysis of these data by burst has been optically thin since head that Rene Genee is the Dave Jauncey indicates a pair of very than, with a spectral index of about Associate Editor for the Sidereal elongated (20:1) jets already 500- 600 0.7. Times. In addition to dealing with the milliarcseconds long, and expanding at This IAU General assembly special imperatives of the media, Rene has 10-15% per day! event was exquisitely timed to ensure that most of the astronomers were on The ASP wonderfully organized all aspects of During the intense outburst, Mike this paper. Kesteven has used the Australia the wrong side of the Earth. Now, in Not Very Pacifie Olaf "Whirlpool" Kolkman, a gra- Telescope compact array to measure the dying da ys of the General duate student of astronomy in accurate HI absorption profiles. Assembly, Nova Scorpius is also Groningen, originally came to the These include absorption features fading away, and has already become paper as a cartoonist. But he has going out to the Norma/Scutum arm too weak to continue high resolution ost professional astronomers done yeoman's work of every sort, implying a distance of about 3.5 kpc, VLBI imaging. However, as compen- are familiar with the and 1 note the simple fact that without so the jets were already about 3 10 16 sation it is now large enough to be Publications of the resolved with the VLA, which will be M his tireless efforts, you would not be cm long and are expanding relati- Astronomical Society of the Pacifie reading these soporific lines. vistically. able to follow it a little further. (P ASP). but not many IAU members Additional details are being reported Griet Van de Steene, also a gradu- The Molongolo observations of the know about the ASP- its history, in the IAU circulars. ate student from Groningen, has regu- total intensity (Sidereal Times, 23 membership, and the full scope of its lary helped the Sidereal Times produc- Aug) are continuing at 0.843 GHz and programs and activities. tion team, and has done this without Derek McKay has been using the AT RON D. EKERS With nearly 6,500 members in over complaint and with tremendous enthu- compact array since August 15 to Australia Telescope National Facility 60 countries, the ASP is not confined to the Pacifie region. Promotion of siasm and care. astronomy at all levels is of primary Finally, I would like to thank our importance at the ASP, as members "cub reporters," the eyes and ears of are drawn from the ranks of profes- this newspaper. These are fellow sionals, amateurs, educators and the astronomers who have taken the time public. Examples of the ASP at work to write articles so that you might can be found at our display in the know of the goings-on at this olivetti exhibit area. Assembly. In particular, excellent Of special interest is a demonstra- contributions were repeatedly recei- tion of the newly Digitized Sky Survey ved from Paul Murdin, Dave - produced by the Space Telescope Morrison, Peter Teuben, Rens Waters, Science Institute and distributed by Gerrit Verschuur, and Patrick Moore. Personal Computers the ASP - and compiled from the To ali of these people, working un- ESO/SERC IllaJ southern plates and seen in the small room that houses the Printers the northern POSS E plates. Sidereal Times, I offer my thanks, and The entire 101 CD-ROM set will yours. Servers prove to be an essential research tool. Also available for a special 25% tion include our Mercury magazine, Software discount are over 60 volumes from the the Annual ASP Meeting, information ASP Conference Series Proceedings. packets, and Project ASTRO, an NSF Services If you would like an upcoming meet- funded program to pair teachers with ing proceeding considered for publica- astronomers for learning experiences tion, contact that extend far beyond the classroom. PASP@XRA Y.BYU.EDU. Whatever your role in astronomy - The ASP mail-order catalog as researcher, educator, or administra- attempts to meet the great need of tor - we welcome your input, your astronomers and educators for quality support and your membership. educational materials. We welcome ail suggestions and encourage your ROBERT J. HAVLEN assistance in developing products for Astronomical Society of the Pacifie distribution. Proceeds from the catalog support Olivetti Nederland B.V. development of new materials and Space here for another Dutch tidbit: Verbeekstraat 11-21 educational programs such as our It is a well-known (or at !east, fre- 2332 CA Le iden teachers newsletter" The Universe in quently-repeated) fact that Leiden bas Telefoon: 071 - 319 931 the Classroom," which is distributed the lowest average IQ of any city in free of charge to over 12,000 educa- The Netherlands. It is not clear tors worldwide. whether the university is intended to olivetti remedy this situation, or is the cause Other activities towards populariza- ofit. Politics Triumphs The 1958 lAU General Assembly in Moscow

In 1955, from August 29 to tions. In the USSR it was the darkest September 5, the 9th IA U General period of Stalin's regime. Assembly took place in Dublin. A For Soviet scientific officiais and spirit of friendship, good will and Communist Party clerks, of course, mutual understanding reigned this was a tremendous shock. In the during that astronomical forum. Soviet Astronomical Journal it was Boris V. Kukarin of Moscow anonymously stated that Prof. University, on behalf of the Soviet Lindblad and Prof. Stromgren were Academy of Sciences, invited the under the influence of aggressive cir- next lOth IAU General Assembly cles in the USA and other capitalistic to be held in Moscow in 1958 and countries; they were scheming to prolonged applause greeted his orchestrate the coll apse in cooperation suggestion. The Soviet invitation among members of the international was strongly supported by J. J. scientific community. Nassau who was a leader of the The Kottamia 74 inch telescope is the There were different reactions to and in arder to upgrade the telescope, U.S. National Astronomical largest telescope in North and Middle the decision. Fifteen well-known an extensive program has been started Committee. Africa and the Middle East. The with more than two million dollars in astronomers from France and the telescope belongs to the National support from the Egyptian govern- Dublin's scientific idyll had Netherlands protested seriously Research Institutes of Astronomy and ment. This will include ordering a deep social roots; it was a direct against the cancellation. But the posi- Geophysics in Egypt, and began ope- new Zerodur primary mirror, a large result of unprecedented previous tion of the IAU Executive Committee rations in 1964. It is of the conven- format CCD camera, an autoguiding events which began not from was hard, in spite of the impossibility tional type, having a Newtonian system, a three channel photoelectric Khritschev's Thaw but from the to quickly change the location of the (f/4.86), Cassegrain (f/18) and Coude photometer, and a fast grating spec- dawn of the Cold War. IAU meeting. That is why the next (f/28.9) focus, and stands on a plateau trograph. In 1948, the 7th IAU General IAU General Assembly took place in 75 km to the east of Cairo. Assembly took place in Zurich. Rome not after 3 years as usual but The Astronomy Department of the At the last plenary sitting it was after 4 years in 1952. This telescope is fi tted with a National Research Institute is seeking recommended that the next 8th So Pulkovo's misfortune was re- Newtonian camera (22.53 arcsec/mm), collaboration with other observatories General Assembly be hosted in peated twice. In August, 1914 a great photoelectric photometer, Cassegrain and universities for exchange of astro- Leningrad in August, 1951. It astronomical international meeting of spectrograph (gives 100 A at 48 nomers, joint programs and training would be a commemorative event the Astronomische Geselschaft was to A/mm) and a Coude spectrograph (20 grants for young astronomers. for the re-opening of the well- be held in Saint-Petersburg but the A at 6 À/mm) The site is generally known Pulkovo Observatory, after event was interrupted by the begin- good and the number of clear nights For more information please contact reconstruction necessitated by the ning of the First World War. And averages 200 per year. Anas Osman, Astronomy Department destruction of the Second World once again the international astrono- of the National Research Institute for War. mical congress at Saint- Petersburg Due to sorne problems with the sur- Astronomie and Geodesies., Helwan- The Soviet top-ranking political was destroyed by the Cold War. face of the main mirror, which has Cairo, Egypt. FAX 002 02 782683. E- figures under Stalin wanted to see been in use for more than 30 years, mail: [email protected] a great scientific meeting in the ALEX GURSHTEIN USSR, and they reacted according- Russian Academy of Sciences ly. Ail expenditures on the territo- ry of the USSR for foreign participants would be paid by the Soviet Academy of Sciences. The Zurich decision was a Leiden Revealed recommendation, but not a final resolution because there were sorne doubts that foreign astronomers from countries without diplo- matie relations with the USSR Not only the IAU celebrates its Among his more original contribu- would get the chance to come 75th anniversary nowadays. As of last tions, the treaty concerning ali meteo- behind the iron curtain. So an year, 75 years have passed since the rie phenomena witnessed in Romania official request was sent to death of Victor Anestin - Romanian between the years 1386 to approxima- Moscow, and the IAU Executive popularizer of astronomy and sci ence tely 1910 (presented to the Romani an Committee received an official in ge neral, who contributed considera- Academy) might be mentioned, along statement that ali me mbers of the bly to the dissemination of knowledge with his extensive correspondence IAU without exception would be in this field to the general public in his with astronomers abroad. welcomed. It was during the pres- native country and beyond. This notwithstanding, after working idency of Bertil Lindblad that the Born in 1875 in Craiova, he was a for most of his 43 years as an under- Executive Committee decided to contemporary of Camille Flammarion paid journalist, and after being agree with the Soviet initiative. (1842- 1925). However, despite enar- exploited by his employers, he died so On December 14, 1950, 8 months mous efforts, he never gained the offi- poor that funds bad to be collected before the Assembly, Bengt cial recognition and well-deserved among the typesetters for his funeral, Stromgren, who was the General fame that was Flammarion's, although even after the sale of almost ali the Secretary, informed Alexander A. Anestin authored and translated about masterpieces of his 20,000-volume Mikhailov, Pulkovo Director and 25 books on astronomy, and managed library. the Soviet national astronomical to publish the first Romanian periodi- leader, that 251 astronomers inten- cal devoted entirely to astronomy ded to participate at the Leningrad ("Orion") for five years (1907 - 1912). meeting. Professor Vladimir Lipunov, from ANDREIRADUSERBAN He also made the then-Minister of But only one month later, on Sternberg Astronomical Institute in Center for Astronomical Information, Education, Spiru Haret (a mathe- January, 19, 1951, Mikailov was Moscow, made severa/ sketches of the Jerusalem matical astronomer in his own right) informed of President Lindblad's enchanting city of Leiden. One is instruct the libraries of ali high schools decision to cancel this event due to reproduced above, for your viewing in the country to subscribe to it. unsuitable international condi- enjoyment. lndustry in the.Service of Hungry for Astronomy a Milky Way Bar? uropean Industrial Engineering involvement in the astronomi- E cal field, began in 1986 almost I nside the Ga!axy there is The Bar! as a jake, as a sense of challenge, and as a wager against ourselves based on the familiar saying: "The impossible A full afternoon session of IAU we do immediately. For miracles we Symposium 169 "Unsolved Problems require fifteen minutes." of the Milky Way" was dedicated to what actually doesn't seem to be a We were offered the possibility to par- problem anymore. This Symposium, ticipate in a tender for the design, con- dedicated to the memory of Jan Oort, struction and on-site erection of a aims to solve sorne long-standing pro- rotating building for the European blems connected with Galactic Southern Observatory's 3.5 rn NTT telescope for the firm of Messi. The design office of Mecnafer SpA in Venice, a world leader in the design and construction of rail grinding trains, was fully immersed in the design of a huge prototype train, and at first the request to submit a bid as the economie impacts, etc. ring activities were completed, thus appeared of no interest. But just for allowing us to ship the first elements curiosity's sake, a quick look at the In 1990, EIE, in cooperation with an of the structures to Chile (shipment to Cali for Tender was given. ltalian group (ANSALDO, INNSE, occur during the first week of August, CRIV), started the construction of the 1994). Particular attention was paid to This look convinced us that the pro- TNG 3.5 rn National Telescope the enclosure shape and this under- ject was very interesting from an engi- ( Galileo Project) which will be went wind tunnel tests and examina- research. That our Galaxy could neering point of view, it required a lot assembled in Las Palmas, Canaries. nation. have a bar was prooosed nearly 20 of thinking, and that the design was For this project, EIE is responsible for years aga by Peters, and a few more innovative. This is just the sort of pro- the plants' design and technical coor- Again in 1993, E IE was awarded a attempts to convince the community ject we like. Without tao much thin- dination for the construction of all contract by the French CNRS (Conseil fo llowed, but apparently has had a king, it was decided to participate in machined structures. The first impor- National des Recherches hard time gaining acceptance. the bid in cooperation with two Italian tant activity on the 8 rn class telesco- Scientifiques) through the Italian companies. A few weeks later, most pes starts in 1991 when, after a very CNR (Consiglio Nazionale dell Two independant papers by Binney et unexpectedly, the contract was award- competitive competition with severa! Ricerche ), for the design and con- al. and Blitz and Spergel in 1991 sud- ed to our firm. European companies, EIE, together struction of the 9 rn dame for the denly revived the subject, and started with two Italian companies (ANSAL- Themis Solar Telescope, to be instal- a series of (re )-analyses of existing and The designers, the engineers, and ind- DO and SOIMI), was awarded the led in Tenerife, Canaries. new data which seems to have convin- eed the whole staff, were fascinated by contract for the design, construction ced the Galaxy community. this mysterious instrument; they were and assembly of the four VLT telesco- EIE experience gained in the astrono- taken by the astronomers' way of thin- pes for ESO. mical field is considered sufficient by The most extreme case was a detailed king and by their special require- Steward Observa tory of Tucson and madel of the COBE DIRBE data, ments. They studied, designed, built, Today the design activities have been Arcetri Observatory of Florence, to presented by Dwek, from which it was and erected the building in Chile. This successfully completed; the result is con tract, together with ADS ITALlA , concluded that the Bar can have an activity left a mark on the group the design of fo ur telescopes with alt- for the design of one of the most inte- axis ratio of 1:3 in the plane of the responsible of this project. Their azimuth assembly, about 25 rn height, resting telescopes, the Large Galaxy. All speakers, without excep- involvement became total; during and 22 rn di ameter and a total weight of Binocular Telescope (LBT). tion, concluded that the bar points outside working hours the subject of approximately 430 tons (including mir- towards the sun into the first galactic their discussion was always the same: ror units, instrumentation and ali sub- This telescope combines in a single quadrant, makin g an angle of about 10 the telescopes. Saturdays and Sundays assemblies). A hydrostatic bearing structure two 8.4 rn honeycomb mir- - 40 degrees with the line Sun-galactic was a good opportunity to meet and system is provided for bath axes, rors, a weight of about 440 tons, with a center. discuss what to do and how to do it. which are driven by direct drives prime frequency of 8.5 Hz. Actually Slowly the railway interest started to (brushless motors) respectively of 9 rn EIE, in addition to its commitments in A slightly different organization was fade, while the interest for the telesco- (azimuth) and 1.2 rn (altitude). For the observatory field and many other used in this Symposium: each pes grew as if the team was becoming the altitude, a frequency of 8.1 Hz was engineering sectors, such as civil - session has a different Principle 'telescopes dependent.' obtained. The main steel structures steel structural (including stress analy- Organizer, responsible for the and the main subassemblies are now sis) - hydraulic, hydrodynamics- elec- selection of speakers, and who also As a result of this new great interest, under construction, and in 1995 the trical and electromechanical - thermo- chairs the session. Tremaine in 1989 the European Industrial first telescope will be erected in Milan, dynamic, etc. continues its involve- chaired the first opening day session Engineering firm was founded with ready for preliminary tests. ment in the astrophysics sector, put- (Tuesday) on the shape of disk and the aim of initia ting a dialogue with ting itself at the service of the halo. The speakers generally agree on the astronomical community, to The encoders developed by OPTO- International Astronomical a modest flattening of the halo, understand their requirements and to DYNE represent an innovative solu- Community. Its services are based on but the ellipticity of the disk is still try giving positive answers to their tion based on a special application of industrial costs rather than research uncertain to about 10% (of inquires, and to trandform their ideas the laser Doppler effect. In 1993, costs, and this facilitates innovative being axisymmetric). Tuesday was into practical solutions and construc- thanks to the experience and the projects. devoted to the galactic center, tions. EIE's first assignment was the know-how gained during the design of which is where the most conflict lies. feasibility study of the four buildings the Very Large Telescope, EIE with a E. PANETTI "Nearly ali titles end with a for the ESO VLT ( 4 x 8.2 rn telesco- group of Italian companies, was D . PANETTI question mark," remarked one spea- pes) project. Different solutions were awarded the contract for the design G.P. MARCHIORI ker, "and bence the title of this short analyzed for the dame rotation sys- and supply of the four enclosures of piece has one as weil. tem, the effects of the different air the ESO VLT telescopes. In a very conditioning (windscreens, louvers, short time bath the design, including PETER TEUBEN shutters) and thermal systems, as weil the FEM analysis, and the manufactu- College Park, USA. SHOEMAKER-LEVY9– JUPITER IMPACT Special Publication he re have been many inquiries In principle, the length of the manu- about the possibility to publish scripts is not limited. Manuscripts T very soon, say in 60 or 90 days, should preferably be prepared with a first synopsis and report about the the Kluwer LaTeX file. Camera- (preliminary) results of the ready manuscripts should be submit- Shoemaker-Levy 9- Jupiter impacts, I ted on white paper, printed with a have discussed with Dr. Kalman from laser writer. The text area is 12.5 x Kluwer the possibility to edit and 19.5 cm. The text should be typed publish a special issue of EARTH, about 24 mm from the top of the page. MOON and PLANETS, (an interna- Information on the LaTeX style file tional Journal of Comparative can be obtained on Planetology, Kluwer Academie [email protected] (please Publisher, Dordrecht, The mention camera-ready submission Netherlands). There is a happy cir- to Moon). cumstance that the co-editors are The Green Bank Telescope (GBT), a 100 meter diameter radio telescope at the Mike A' Hearn, Therese Encrenaz Kluwer can publish a special issue NRAO in Green Bank, West Virginia, is now weil along in its construction. The and Hans Rickman, and I am the devoted to this subject almost imme- telescope will replace the 300 foot telescope which collapsed suddenly in Editor-in-Chief. Consequently, I diately, and would like to offer extra November, 1988. The photograph shows the alidade structure that rotates in azi- believe that ali may go smoothly. offprints or complimentary copies to muth and supports the reflector. The GBT will have unique offset-parabolic optics the authors (or guest editors) as an to improve its efficiency, and reduce the effects of terrestrial radio interference. If manuscripts can be submitted befo- extra incentive for them to publish in The telescope will operate at frequencies from 25 MHz to 50 GHz, and is expected re September 9, 1994, the special issue Earth, Moon & Planets (EMP). Since to be in operation in two years. could appear before December, 1994. the very next meeting of the editorial board of EMP will be held in the Visible to the right side of the photo is the NRAO 140 foot telescope. Y our paper(s) should be submitted in Hague on August 22, I should be very camera-ready form both to grateful for any response as soon as F. J. LOCKMAN a) Kluwer Academie Publishers possible. Editorial Office Earth, Moon and Planets, Spuiboulevard 50, P.O. Box V. VANYSEK 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Editor-in-Chief of EMP Netherlands, and to Astronomical Institute, Charles Uni. b) the Editor-in-Chief and the associa- Svedska 8, te editors. CZ 150 00 Praha 5

he author and V.V. Kleshchonok from Kiev next General Assembly. T University and I.V. Reut from Don't miss it! Riga have observed the light curves of Jupiter's satellites Io and Europa on All Questions Answered July 16- 22, 1994. CATHERINE CESARSKY Observations were made at the 0.5 The European Astronomical SACLAY, France rn reflector with the help of an elec- Society (EAS) will meet jointly in trophotometer with B and V filters at Catania with the Italian Astronomical Did you notice how empty the mee- the astronomical station of Kiev Society in 1995, September 25 - 29 to ting rooms were last week? And have University in the village of Lesniki discuss the theme "Progress in you noticed this week a new group of (near Kiev). European Instrumentation and its astronomers, haggard and exhausted? Near the time 19:32:09- 19:32:12 on Impact on Astrophysics." They are ali suffering from a new, widespread astronomy disease: J uly 20, we observed a possible three EAS meetings replace the ISOlag. second flash on Io (see the figure). If European regional meetings of the this is a real, then it should be the IAU. The Scientific Organizing As you undoubtedly know, the reflected light from the giant fireball Committee, chaired by Franco Pacini deadline for the ISO proposais was caused by the impact of one of the (Arcetri) and Marcello Rodono last Friday, August 19, at 22:00 (local secondary nuclei of the desintegrated (Catania), will finalize the scientific Dutch time). About 1,000 proposais cornet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 designa- program following the general guide- were received from ali over the world ted as Q1, and we have good data with lines of the EAS Council. Particular at ESTEC, the European Space which to improve the elliptical orbit of emphasis will be given to the scientific Agency in Holland. the cornet and to study its orbital evo- use of the present and planned instru- ISO, the Infrared Space lution and origin. mentation, both ground-based and Observatory, is a European infrared spaceborne, with the aim of conveying satellite which will be launched in KLIM CHURYUMOV their present status and how they pro- September of next year. Like IRAS Astronomical observatory of Kiev mise to meet the astronomers' requi- and COBE, it is a cryogenie satellite. rements - and dreams. It features a 60 cm telescope, and four Invitèd general reviews at plenary focal plane instruments: a camera, a morning sessions and parallel scientific photometer and two spectrometers . Olaf Kolkman, whose cartoons adorn sessions in the afternoon for invited It will be used for observations of the Sidereal Times under the pen and contributed papers on the various selected targets, rather than being name of Kloot, would be happy to sell aspects of astrophysics, from astropar- used for a survey mission. The wave- you an original of one of his efforts. ticles and gravitational waves, to solar length range covered is from 2.5 to system research and cosmology, are 200 micrometers. He has also arranged for a selection of foreseen. The participation of young ISO will solve ali the outstanding these cartoons to be reproduced in astronomers and PhD students will be problems alluded to in this General postcard format, and these can be strongly encouraged by a reduced Assembly: it will discover disks of dust yours for the extremely minimal priee registration fee and the cheapest pos- around ali kinds of stars, find the dust of 50 Dutch cents each. ______sible accomodation. Further informa- enshrouded distant galaxies and baby tion will be given in the EAS Ti me quasars, probe the scars on Jupiter, Olaf can be reached in the Sidereal N ewsletter. solve the last mysteries of the galactic Times offices. Y ou can also find him Three second flash on Jo? center (or of the Orion molecular via e-mail at MARCELLO RODONO cloud), and .. . you name it. The ans- [email protected] or wers to ali queries will be given at the [email protected]. Assembly Banquet Blows the Lid Off!

On Wednesday evening, Assembly participants descended to the bowels of the Congresgebouw to torture-test their stomachs, flaunt their ability to dance, and impress their hapless table-mates with witty small talk.

An ample buffet dinner sated the most ravenous appetites (the chocolate mousse was light enough to float on machine oil), and the inoffensive music seduced adventuresome participants to the dance floor so that onlookers could decide on their remaining degrees of freedom. For the benefit of ali attendees, the Jan Steenzaal was kept at a toasty 38 C.

The Sidereal Times sent its third-string photographie crew to this boffo bash, and the disappointing results are reproduced below.

Lo Woltjer entertains Jacqueline Bergeron by trying to set fire to his jacket.

These two working women were not invited to the Banquet, but no one had the heart to throw them out.

The new Dean in Groningen, Piet van der Kruit, conspiculously refuses a refill.

Prof. Bas Balada, of the University of Amsterdam, Left the party early.

John Dickey smiles as Harm Habing and Thijs van der Hulst compete in an informai prune-squeezing competition. astronomical observations for demon- strating and explaining principles of Black Holes physics. The meeting will end with a talk by Bill Sparks (Baltimore) describing "New results of the Hubble Threaten · Telescope".

Students HENNY LAMERS Utrecht One of the highlights of the General Assembly is always the 'Teacher Day' for teachers of the host country at which they can meet astro- Hubble nomers and learn about exciting new discoveries. Constant Teacher Day 1994 is organized by Commission 46 for the Teaching of Decided by Astronomy and by the Netherlands Commitee for Astronomy Education, chaired by Henny Lamers of Utrecht Vote! University. Holland is a very democratie coun- "We have chosen to concentrate try, soit seems appropriate that astro- the Teacher Day for Physics on high- nomers and cosmologists would vote school teachers" says Lamers. "There on the value for the Hubble constant, are no astronomy lectures in our high often referred to as the Holy Grail of schools anymore, but many physical cosmology. tapies can be explained and demonstrated beautifully by means of astro- In IAU symposium S168 on the Big nomical observations. For instance, Bang, chair persan Virginia Trimble, the Doppler effect, Newton's laws, at the suggestion of the undersigned, nuclear fusion and radiation." asked attendees to raise their hand in favor of any of the following three Our original plan was to organize possibilities: a Hubble constant larger th e Teacher Day in the Congress than 75 km/sec/Mpc, a value below 75 Center in The Hague. However, the km/s/Mpc, or 'don't know yet'. preregistration numbers surpassed our most optimistic estimates! We had Earlier that same morning, Sydney hoped for 50 to 100 teachers, but the va n den Bergh and Gustav Tammann number quickly rose to 185 at which respectively presented convincing evi- we had to stop the registration becau- dence fo r a high and a low value for se we were at full capacity. the Hubble constant. Van den Bergh and his colleagues showed observa- Last Sunday a teacher called Francesca Matteucci faces a difficult dining decision: shall it be the cucumber tions of Cepheid variables in a galaxy Lamers at home to say that he was too salad, or the Captain lglo fish sticks? supposed to be near the core of the late to register, but he was coming to Virgo cluster. The observations, made sit at the entrance of the building with the CFTH telescope at Mauna hoping that one participant would not Kea, seemed to favor a value of about show up. 90 km/s/Mpc. The teacher day will be held at According to Tammann however, Utrecht University. The program most attempts at determining the includes 3 lectures and 6 workshops Hubble constant have not paid enough where teachers are shawn how to use Jerry Ostriker, Virginia Trimble and Renzo Sancisi brace themselves against the attention to observational bias. breath of a table mate who fancied the raw anion salad. Tammann's observations of Type la supernovae favor a value of at most 55 km/s/Mpc. To add to the confusion, John Huchra (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) came up with sorne viewgraphs of the results of the HST observations by Wendy Freedman and her team on cepheids in M100, also in the Virgo cluster. "But," said Huchra, "we're not giving you a distance yet." So what was the result of the vote? Only a few attendees favored a high Hubble constant; sorne thirty percent thought the Holy Grail would be on the lower end, but by far the most votes went to the 'don't know yet' optîon. Probably it will take no more than a couple of years before those doubters have made up their collective mind, certainly not if the Hubble Space Telescope keeps providing us with more high quality data of cepheids in a larger sample of Virgo galaxies. I look forward to a new vote in two years time.

GOVERT SCHILLING Astronomy correspondent for de Volkskrant Announcements Public Lecture ivilization arase when people began to specialize - in growing grain, and Tidbits shepherding livestock, or mapping C02 in nearby galaxies. Now, in the Clast years of the 20th century, specialized tabor bas become so expensive, we've reverted to once more doing ital! ourselves (gratuitous examples include cutting your spouse's hair, dismantling recalcitrant plumbing, and making a Latest Lunch Listing newspaper.) At tonight's popular lecture, George Comella will tell you how you can also do "Astronomy in the Back Yard." For Jan Oort, whose back yard was Someday, probably in the coming mil- the Leiden Observatory, this was not an issue. For many of those attending the lenium, humans will be freed from the lecture, it may be. animal necessities of life - eating, breathing, reproduction. But until Learn how you can turn a site now used only for the occasional barbecue and for then, you might as well wallow in your housing 105 ants into a major observing facility. As is our wont, the presentation beastly imperatives, and enjoy lunch will begin at 20:00 in the Museon, which occupies sorne prime Haagse real estate at the Congresgebouw. a mere 500 meters from the Congresgebouw. The cast is only 7.50 per attendee; less than a plate full of poffertjes and a eup of coffee. By special request of Mr. As noted ad nauseum in these blurbs, Comella and all the inhabitants of Zwolle, this lecture will be in Dutch. aU lunch offerings consist of an ample buffet, featuring a wide range of orga- nic molecules. Soup, luncheon meats, salads, fruit, and breads in forms that Late Posters only a mother could love are available for your gustatory enjoyment. As S 169.L.lll Taylor et al., "A Pilot Project for Panoramic Multi-Frequency, usual, drinks are extra. Spectral Imaging of the Galaxy." S 169.L.112 Haywood et al. , "The Vertical Structure of the Galactic Disc." S 169.L.ll3 Haud, " Ellipticity of Outer Regions of Galactic Disks." S 169.L.114 Robin et al., " The Thick Dise Population of the Galaxy." \ \ -\ __ \ Please do not cause the organizers Y ou have undoubtedly seen this man S 169.L.115 Kan-ya et al. , " The Growth of the Velocity Dispersion in the Cold unnecessary consternation: take your many times- in the hal/ways, working Collapse of Spherical Collisionless Systems." posters down before leaving the in the poster rooms, and dancing S 169.L.116 Froelich, " How Important is Viscous Dise Spreading?" Asseinbly! aggressively with astronomers having S 169.L.l17 Jaffe et al., " Two new Yiews of the Central 300 pc of the Milky two chromosomes of the same type. Way." ALSO He is Theo Jurriens, from Groningen, S 169.L.118 Rhoads, " Near Infrared Star Counts as a Probe of Asymmetries in and he is an indispensible member of the Galaxy's Disk." Empty your pigeon hales of ail pig- the Local Organizing Committee. eons and other items before Saturday at noon. Otherwise, your items will be If you fee! that the Assembly has go ne Daphne Flapper, a young woman from recycled. weil, that the organization has been Groningen, organized the Public worth y of the ward, then you should Lecture series and exhibition being ENFORCEMENT COMMISSION thank Theo. held at the Museon.

Daphne has not worked with astronomers before, and as you can imagine Wednesday's talk on the formation of clusters and voids in the universe (IAU she was at first puzzled by their erratic symposium S168 on the Big Bang) was given by Estonian astronomer Jaan - one might say eccentric- behavior. Einasto. I've always wondered if he is the only astronomer in the world whose family name is an anagram of his home country. Does anyone know of other ln the fast few weeks, she has come to examples? Is there an Israeli astronomer called Laiser, or a German called appreciate this deviant !ife form, and Maengry? What about Pinas from Madrid, or Londahl from Amsterdam? has informed the Sidereal Times that Anagram astronomers of the universe, unite! she would like to keep an astronomer as a house pet, preferably in a GOVERT SCHILLING formaldehyde-fil/ed jar.

The Sidereal Times will be published on Saturday of this week! There's still time for your article!

Although it is the editor's opinion that most e-mail is not worth the electrons, the following message to Saskia Prins may possibly fire your imagination:

Wednesday afternoon, the astronomical community at the Observatorio de Roque de los Muchachos at La Palma was awakened by a sea of fire and smoke caused by a forest fire. Local observers report the smoke clouds obscured the Moon, causing a cessation of local lunar research. Although the observatory itself was not in danger, ail dornes remained closed to avoid settling of soot on the mirrors. As of this morning, the fires were still raging. Note that earlier this month a similar fire persisted for two weeks.

From: [email protected] Date: Thu, 25 Aug 1994 14:51:29 BST Subject: Fire !!!!

Hello SP, (I'm writing to you from the WHT dome)

1 can't see the fire but it is very smoky up here. For instance the telescopes cannot be seen from the residencia and you can see smoke across a room. Both roads are closed but those who want to stay have been allowed to. It is not threatening any villages 1 think but it may approach the observatory. As I came up it appeared to be in a very inaccessible ravine and 1 can't see that they can do much to stop it until it gets nearer to the road.

Tim Marsh The

IAU XXIInd General Assembly -The Hague 1994

Editor: SETH SHOSTAK Associate Editor: RENÉ GENEE No. 10: Friday, 26 August

Leiden-Dwingeloo HI Survey Milky Way Final/y Well-Mapped

oo oo

l oo

Milky Way mapping, continued

The Sidereal Times sent its third-string photographie crew to this boffo bash, and the disappointing results are reproduced below.

Lo Woltjer entertains Jacqueline Bergeron by trying to set fire to his jacket.

These two working women were not invited to the Banquet, but no one had the heart to throw them out.

The new Dean in Groningen, Piet van der Kruit, conspiculously refuses a refill.

Prof. Bas Balada, of the University of Amsterdam, Left the party early.

The Sidereal Times will be published on Saturday of this week! There's still time for your article!

Although it is the editor's opinion that most e-mail is not worth the electrons, the following message to Saskia Prins may possibly fire your imagination:

From: [email protected] Date: Thu, 25 Aug 1994 14:51:29 BST Subject: Fire !!!!

Hello SP, (I'm writing to you from the WHT dome)

Tim Marsh The

IAU XXIInd General Assembly - The Hague 1994 Editor: SETH SHOSTAK Associate Editor: RENÉ GENEE No. 11: Saturday, 27 August

evgeny Goldberg, v Elchanan Almoznino and Eran Ofek have sent these photos made of the Dwingeloo 1 galaxy, as obtained at the Wise Observa- tory on the night of August 16 -17.

The top photo is an 1 image, and the lower an R; both have had stars subtracted.

The astronomers in Tel A vi v are continuing to process other data taken with V and H-alpha filters. All images are photometrically calibrated.

This new galaxy, an obscured, Arcsec nearby spirallying in the Galaxy's Zone of Avoidance, was reported in Sidereal Times for Thursday, 18 August. It was discovered using the venerable 25 meter radio telescope at Dwingeloo in the 21 cm line of neutra) hydrogen. Q) Fàrewell to Scheveningen and Ali That Preliminary estimates, based on the hydrogen line width, yield a distance of 3 Mpc. The object's systemic velocity tions on the basis of extremely accu- n exciting Assembly rushes to with respect to the Milky Way rate timing measurements. a close. Three to four hun- is 256 km/sec. A dred hours of scientific discus- The enormous advances in position- sions packed into ten working days - al accuracies achieved by Hipparcos It is apparently one of the Jar- anyone who managed to absorb more and radio interferometry open new ger nearby spirals, although than a quarter of ail this must have fields of astrophysics. The vast quan- smaller than the Galaxy. wrought a miracle. tity of high-precision photometrie What struck me most at this information produced by detector Arcsec Assembly? Most of all: the enormous arrays not only serves searches for quantity and superb quality of new microlensing events in our Galaxy, but information, and the speed with which has also uncovered many thousands of strengthen the basis for galaxy forma- cessful careers. 2) The opening of it hits us. pulsating and eclipsing variables. tion scenarios and for an understand- national boundaries has made possible With the 40 year old Dwingeloo There is debate about sorne of the len- ing of the wealth of data on stellar participation of many more astrono- Telescope, Renee Kraan-Korteweg sing events claimed: are the back- populations at hand. mers from Eastern Europe than before. I hope that further improve- and collaborators discovered an ground stars truly intrinsically con- These are just a few headlines; I obscured galaxy on 4 August; two stant? But in a few years' time these apologize for the overwhelming ments in political and economie condi- weeks later optical, infrared and radio searches must constrain speculations amount of exciting news not men- tions will make the next Assemblies images were discussed here. An X-ray about the nature of dark matter. tioned here. Let me look ahead and accessible to ever more astronomers from East and West, North and South. nova in Scorpius, discovered on 27 The ripples in the microwave express a few wishes: 1) The great new July, was observed throughout the background first found by COBE two facilities available now or in the near southern hemisphere and within two years ago have now been amply con- future will obviously produce an even TOT ZIENS in Kyoto! weeks shown to expand at superlumi- firmed, and detailed information on greater flow of data. The many young nal speed. Planets with masses similar various scales and wavelengths. Also, astronomers present at this exciting, HUGO VAN WOERDEN to that of the Earth, found orbiting the background spectrum now fits a new-format Assembly are best equip- Groningen, The Netherlands around a pulsar in 1992, are now con- Planck curve to better than one part in ped to channel and digest this flow . firmed through their mutual perturba- 10 4. These Big Bang details will May the job market allow them suc- Saturday, 27 August -

Schedule

Large Field Imaging with Array Mosaics for Saturday, August 27

Dutch Factoids: Chair, Cook There are more pigs than people in everal years ago Christoffel (five in total, of which the Red The Netherlands. Y ou might find this Morning: Waelkens and his collaborators Rectangle is probably the most hard to believe when trying to find a got very excited when they disco- famous) are in binary systems with parking place in Amsterdam, but MULTI-FIBER SPECTROSCOPY S very wide, eccentric orbits, and four vered a bright star (HR4049) that bad many of the competitors for these WITH WIDE-FIELD TELE- only lin es of H , C, N and O in its opti- out of five have circumstellar or seldom-seen, car-shaped hunks of real SCOPES, F. G. Watson, Royal cal spectrum. An abundance study by circum-binary dust shells. estate are also pigs. Greenwich Observatory David Lambert then showed that Fe is The figure shows the radial velocity underabundant by as much as a factor variations of the central star of the PERFORMANCE OF A 2048 X 2048 10 4, making it the most Fe-deficient' Red Rectangle, with a period of 298 PIXEL THREE-SIDE-BUTTABLE object known. Since then, Waelkens days and eccentricity of 0.45. CCD DESIGNED FOR LARGE bas found a few more such stars, the The binary nature of these stars FOCAL PLANES IN ASTRONO- record Fe-low now held by HD 52961 offers a challenge to the suggestion MY, J. A. Cortiula, Thomson CSF at [Fe/H]=-5.0. that these objects are post-AGB stars. Semiconducteurs

CCD MOSAIC DEVELOPMENT FOR LARGE OPTICAL TELE- EUROPEAN SCOPES, G. A. Luppino, Universi ty INDUSTRIAL of Hawaii, Lawrence Livermore Nat. Labs. 35 ENGINEERING SUMMARY PAPER ({) via Torino, 65 DIE Chair, Guseva, Sandro D 'Odorico, 30172 Mestre / Venezia -Ira lia ESO E Tel. ++39.41.5317906 (r .a. ) 25 Fax ++39.41.53 17757

> ; 15 Bang-Up ldea For . . ology

1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8

red Hoyle, Geoffrey Burbige med rather than deduced in the Big o h ose and Jayant Narliker have deve- Bang cosmology.) The initial suggestion that these stars This is because there is not enough F loped a new cosmological theo- are the most metal poor and bence room in the system to accomodate ry . Called the Quasi-Steady State In QSSC, the created particles are oldest stars in our Galaxy proved to such a large star. The Fe and other Cosmology (QSSC), details of the new Planck particles having masses of a be wrong. Venn and Lambert pointed metals that are missing from the pho- model have been recently published in few tens of micrograms. These decay out that the abundance pattern in the tosphere are probably stored in the Ap. J. (June, 1993), MNRAS (April, to baryons which eventually combine photospheres of these stars is similar circumstellar dust shell, suggesting 1994), Astronomy and Astrophysics into light nuclei giving the correct to the gaseous component of the inter- that very efficient separation of gas (August, 1994) and Proc. Roy. Soc A ( observed) abundances. stellar medium, which is depleted of and dust must have occurred, and the (December, 1994). Fe, Ti, Ca and severa! other metals "clean" gas must have been re- This cosmology provides many challen- due to the formation of dust grains. accreted onto the surface of the star. This cosmology describes the creation ges for observers. For example, it pre- The elements C, N, O and S have Mixing of the Fe-poor surface layer of matter in a field theoretic frame- diets the existence of a few, faint blue roughly solar abundances. Final proof with deeper-lying regions will proba- work, and leads to a set of Einstein- shifted galaxies. It also suggests looking of the depletion theory in the atmosp- bly cause a slow increase in the sur- like equations. One important respect for very old stars as dark matter. heres of the Fe-deficient stars came face metal abundance: Waelkens is in which this cosmology differs from from an observation of zinc in HD eager to submit observing proposais to the steady state cosmology of 1948 is The cosmology naturally associated 52961 by Hans Van Winckel, which monitor the increase in Fe abundance that the creation is confined to the with this is particulary attractive. It turned out to be roughly solar. This in his stars! vicinity of highly collapsed objects, follows Ambartsumian in arguing that implies that HD 52961 and also the instead of occurring homogeneously. objects which are obviously exploding other Fe-depleted stars had metals The feedback of creation in such - radio galaxies, Seyfert nuclei, QSOs when they were born. RENS WATERS "mini-bangs" is to expand the space - are doing that because creation is Van Winckel and Waelkens have dis- Amsterdam and generate an expanding universe. taking place in their centers. This is in covered that the Fe-depleted stars Although the universe expands expo- contrast to the current standard view nentially on a long term time-scale of that everything is due to a central about 1,000 billion years, it goes monster consisting of a massive black Assembly in four days. En route he through short term cycles of expansion hole and an accretion disk. The either camped in the forest, or lodged and contraction with periods of about model will have to show how whole Pedal in farm bouses. 40 - 50 billion years. galaxies and QSOs can be ejected Jarzebowski became enamoured of from parent systems. Even our own two-wheeled transport 30 years ago in This model correctly describes the Galaxy is creating matter at a very low Power Utrecht. Since then, he bas explored a large scale cosmological details of rate in its nucleus. great deal of Europe by bike, and bas expansion, source counts, angular size he wi nner in the IAU competi- used spoke speeders to attend IAU Long ago (1929) Jeans suggested that distribution and ages of galaxies. It tion for environmentally correct meetings in Triest and Vienna. His creation in the center of galaxies was offers an alternative explanation of transport goes to Tadeusz distance record is 6,000 km - the microwave background being the taking place. This theory follows up T Wroclaw to Gibralter and back. Jarzebowski, a 67 year old astronomer thermalized starlight of burnt out stars on Jeans' view. from Wroclaw Observatory. His vehicle is a simple Soviet red from earlier generations. The correct Despite time constraints that forced bike. Jarzebowski has only good Planckian spectrum is reproduced as GEOFFREY BURBIDGE Jarzebowski to begin in Hannover, he words for this machine, claiming only La Jolla, California well as the temperature (which is assu- still managed to pedal his way to the one flat tire every 2,000 km. Interest in From the Archives of Adriaan

Adriaan Blaauw has supplied the Sidereal Times with the following historical Cold Gas photos, ali taken during IAU boat excursions. Heats Up

he cold clouds in the outer Galaxy have become the topic T of intense research interest, sparked by the detections of CO absorption !ines. Studied originally by Marsher and Bania, recent surveys using the IRAM telescopes at 3 mm wavelength were reported by Lucas and Liszt and Lequeux, Allen, and Gilloteau. Meanwhile, the OVRO telescopes have confirmed many of these absorption !ines and extended this work to many new !ines of sight, through the A joint photographie effort by Walter Baade (stellar populations) and work of Phillips, de Geus and Wilhelm Becker (star clusters), 1938. Kobulnicky, et al. Adriaan Blaauw today. The biggest surprise coming out of all these projects is that there are many CO (0-1) absorption !ines seen at velocities which do not show CO (1-0) emission. By integrating very deep with the 30 rn IRAM telescope, Allen and his collaborators have detected very weak emission lines corresponding to sorne of their absorption, and thereby derived excitation temperatures of 3.5 to 5 K. Their con- troversial interpretation is that these are examples of a new and very abundant species of interstellar clouds, very cold (just two or three degrees K Marcel Minnaert (Solar Spectrum Atlas) ta/king to above the cosmic background) and a cigar-smoking Pieter van Rijn (luminosity June- dense. tian), 1938. This picture has become much more compelling with their recent detection of absorption in the CO (1-2) line. This apparently rules out the possibility that all the CO is in the ground state, not because the gas is so Past and present General Secretaries pose in front A 1938 fisherman's talk among O.A. Melnikov, Victor cold, but because the density is very of the Congresgebouw during the present session. Ambartsumian (stellar associations), and Charles Fehrenbach (GPO low. The (2-1) line shows the same In the back row are Appenzeller, West, Wayman, radial velocities). excitation temperature as the (0-1). Andersen and McNally. Front row is Pecker, Discussion of these results and their Mueller, Bergeron and Swings. Adriaan Blaauw interpretation became lively during is the smiling man nearest to Earth. the Friday morning session of Symposium 169 on Unsolved Problems of the Milky Way. If Allen's interpretation is carried toits extreme conclusion, it is possible that this new molecular cloud population carries as much or more mass than the atomic gas, and reaches far out into the outer Galaxy. It is not enough to flatten the rotation curve ail by itself, but could be dynamically significant.

JOHNDICKEY Univ. of Minnesota

Y our Horoscope

For ali celestial coordinates:

Today, you will read a small newspaper. Y ou will se arch vainly for insights into your personality, your future, and the possibility that you will soon inherit sorne really big money. Y ou will look for this despite decades of scientific training, and knowing full weil that any such pronouncements are the purest hogwash. Satu rd ay, 27 August Page Four , ,

rendered in an impersonal, detailed Dutch Painters and almost photographie way. At first the depicted scenes seem rather nor- Very Important Notice n rooms in the It is hard to imagine that mal but a certain threat is often pre- Please do not cause the organizers Congresgebouw are named Mondriaan (1872-1944) started his sent. unnecessary consternation: take your A after Dutch painters (the career painting typical Dutch scenes Vincent van Woerdenstein (1899- posters dawn before leaving the exception being the restrooms). Some such as windmills and boats. Most 1901), surely one of the lesser-known Assembly! of them were famous during their life- people are only familiar with his abs- Dutch artists, specialized in painting time and others were not. Today tract work dominated by black hori- bouse exteriors and factory floors. He ALSO however, their names are familiar to zontal and verticallines, with a heavy expired at a very young age, suffering most people. Although you will not use of the primary colors red, blue and from lead poisoning and the violence Empty your pigeon boles of ail find any of their work in this building, yellow as weil as the non-colors, white of disappointed clients. His work is pigeons and other items before you have the opportunity to see sorne and grey. seldom displayed, and collectors have Saturday at noon. Otherwise, your of it in the various museums in The Paulus Potter (1625-1654), perhaps eschewed it entirely. items will be recycled. Hague. The Mauritshuis and the better known to Assembly attendees Information supplied via the good Haags Gemeente-museum will be as Paulus Poster, specialized in the graces of THEO JURRIENS, and ENFORCEMENT COMMISSION your best bets. painting of animais, a new genre in the further distorted by the Sidereal Times. seventeenth century. His most illus- M.C. Escher (1898-1972) is known trious work is the 'Young Bull.' In for his graphie work. He made many this painting Potter bas rendered a drawings, which also served as studies. bull in a very detailed way on a life- In his prints, of which there are more size scale. than 400, he specialized in the inter- Rembrandt (1606-1669) was proba- The IAU notes with sadness that in the three years since the last General play between two and three dimen- bly the most famous pain ter of the Assembly, the following members have passed away. sions. This makes them both bizarre seventeenth century, the so-called and fascinating. 'Golden Age'. Many rich Amsterdam ADAMSANMR L YTTKENS EINAR DR Whenever there is an auction of citizens bad their portraits done by ALANIA I FDR MACHADO JOSE M A B DR famous paintings the works of Vincent him. In addition, he rendered many ALY M KHAIRY PROF MAGALASHVILI N L DR van Gogh (1853-1890) geta lot of biblical scenes. His most famous ANDRLE PAVEL DR MANDELSTAM S L PROF attention because of the high priees work, 'The Nightwatch', which hangs ARENDSDR MA TSUSHIMA SATOSHI DR they fetch. During his lifetime, how- in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, ARGYLE P E DR MAY ALL NICHOLAS U ever, he was virtually un able to sell his shows a group of armed men. He is ARNQUIST WARREN N DR MEGRELISHVILI TG PROF paintings and was supported by his also known for his etchings and BAKOS GUSTAV A PROF MERRILL JOHN E DR brother Theo, an art dealer in Paris. drawings. BARRETI ALAN H PROF MICZAIKA G R DR Frans Hals (1580/85-1 666), a native The phrase: 'a bouse kept in the BOBROV M S DR MIGEOTIE MARCEL V PROF of Haarlem, portrayed many of the style of Jan Steen' (1626-1679) would BOLTON JOHN G MITCHELL RICHARD MR wealthy citizens of this city. His pain- ring a bell witb most Dutch people. It BONEV BONU K MR MIYAMOTO SYOTARO PROF DR tings must have been unconventional refers to a disorderly house, and most BOWEN EDWARD G DR MORGAN WILLIAM W PROF at the time because they look rather paintings by this artist seem to show BROWN HARRISON DR MORGULEFF NINA ING like snapshots. The impression of a exactly that. Steen was eager to BYSTROV N F MULDERS GERARD F W casual glimpse of is the result of a depict various humorous types of CARESTIA REINALDO A DR NARIAI HIDEKAZU PROF carefully thought-out effect. people, and to analyze their weak- CHEN ZUN-GUI NIETO JEAN-LUC nesses. In his paintings many hidden The Maris family comprised several CHUGAINOV P F OMER GUY C IR PROF meanings can be found. Dogs, for painters, most of them working in the CIMINO MASSIMO A PROF OORT JAN H PROF example, often refer to adultery. second half of the nineteenth century. COSTAIN CECIL C DR PAAL GYORGY DR They were representatives of the About 30 paintings are known from D ARIUS JON DR PAVLOVSKAYA E D DR Haagse School (The Hague School). the Delft painter Johannes Vermeer DA VIES ROBERT E PROF PESEK RUDOLPH PROF Landscapes and interiors were depict- (1632-1675). They ail are characteri- DEERENBERG A J M DR PETROV G M DR ed in a realistic way in greyish and zed by balanced composition, trans- DINULESCU NICOLAE I PROF PODOBED V V brownish tones with the occasional parent colors and a clear northern DIRIKIS M A DR POPOVIC BOZIDAR PROF DR outburst of color. light. Since the Mauritshuis will host DOMINSKI IRENEUSZ DR QIAN ZHONG-YU an exhibition on Vermeer this DOS REIS M PROF QVIST BERTIL PROF H.W. Mesdag (1831-1915) , like the autumn, sorne of his paintings, for DROFA VK REUNING ERNEST G DR Maris family, was also a representative example 'Girl with pearl,' are current- DUBOV EMILE PROF ROACH FRANKLIN E of the Hague School. He painted ly being restored while on public dis- EDMONDS FRANK N IR DR ROSSI BRUNO B PROF many seascapes but his most famous play. EL SHALABY MOHAMED ROTIENBERG J A DR work is the Panorama Mesdag, which From the 1930's onward, Carel ELVIUS TORD PROF EMERITUS RYZHKOV NIKOLAI F DR measures 1,680 square meters. It por- FURENLID INGEMAR K DR SAKHAROV trays Scheveningen at the end of the Willink (1900-1983) developed the so- GLIESE WIHELM PROF SAWYER-HOGG HELEN B DR nineteenth century . called magic-realist style . The motifs, mostly ruins and landscapes, are GNESVYSHEV MN SERAFIMOV KIRIL B ACAD GRATTON LIVIO PROF SERSIC J L DR GROTH EDWARD J III SHCHEGOLEV D E GROTH HANS G PROF DR SHIRY AEN A V GURTOVENKO ERNEST A SIROKY JAROMIR DR HALL JOHN S DR SITTERLY CHARLOTTE M DR HARRINGTON ROBERT S DR SYKES PROF HASEGAW A HIROICHI DR SMITH CLA YTON A JR DR HAYAKAWA SATIO PR SMITH HARLAN J PROF HENIZE KARL G ASTRONAUT STOHL JAN DR HEYDEN FRANCIS J SJ DR STOYKO ANNA HILTNER W ALBERT PROF SUDA JAN HOLDEN FRANK SUEMOTO ZENZABURO PROF HORAK TOMAS B DR TAUBER GERALD E PROF HORAK ZDENEK PROF DR TERRIEN JEAN HUGHES JAMES A DR VAlANA GIUSEPPE S DR IONNISIANI B K WACHMANN A A PROF DRWAL- ISHIDA GORO DR TER KURT PROF DR ISMAILOV T K WHITNEY BALFOUR S KAI KEIZO DRKOPAL ZDENEK WIETH-KNUDSEN NIELS P DR KOSTYLE V K V DR WISNIEWSKI WIESLA W Z KRESAK LUBOR DR XANTHAKIS JOHN N PROF KVIZ ZDENEK DR XIA JIONGYU LACROUTE PIERRE A PROF YEN JUI-LIN PROF LANDI-DESSY J DR ZLATEV SLAVEY LINNEK V P ZVEREV MITROFAN S PROF DR