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 ban- quet, 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 . ,-- _ ., _, 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 per- formance 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.