Galileo radio-occultation measurements show that all four of the Galilean satellites possess ionospheres. Peak ionospheric densities for the icy satellites are several thousand electrons per cubic centimeter, and the distributions are not spherically symmetric. Io’s ionosphere is much denser and remarkably similar to that measured by Voyager.

We are conducting a wide-angle Hα survey of the southern sky at CTIO using a robotic CCD camera. The survey consists of 283 fields covering the sky from δ = −90° to δ = +10°, with the same centers as those in the IRAS Sky Survey Atlas. As of July 1, 1998, it was about 45% complete. When all the images are obtained and fully processed, the survey will be made available to the scientific community on the web and on CD-ROM.

Non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) line formation for neutral and singly-ionized iron is considered through a range of stellar parameters characteristic of cool stars. A comprehensive model atom for Fe I and Fe II is presented. Our NLTE calculations support the earlier conclusions that the statistical equilibrium (SE) of Fe I shows an underpopulation of Fe I terms. However, the inclusion of the predicted high-excitation levels of Fe I in our model atom leads to a substantial decrease in the departures from LTE. As a test and first application of the Fe I/II model atom, iron abundances are determined for the Sun and four selected stars with well determined stellar parameters and high-quality observed spectra. Within the error bars, lines of Fe I and Fe II give consistent abundances for the Sun and two metal-poor stars when inelastic collisions with hydrogen atoms are taken into account in the SE calculations. For the close-to-solar metallicity stars Procyon and β Vir, the difference (Fe II - Fe I) is about 0.1 dex independent of the line formation model, either NLTE or LTE. We evaluate the influence of departures from LTE on Fe abundance and surface gravity determination for cool stars.

The Starlight Initiative brings a new view of the night sky and of its value enhancement, claiming the access to starlight as a scientific, environmental, and cultural right of humankind. Night sky quality has been seriously damaged in the last years because of light and atmospheric pollution, and an international action in favour of intelligent outdoor lighting is urgently needed. After the promulgation of the Starlight Declaration, we are jointly working with UNESCO, the World Heritage Centre, the MaB Programme, and other international institutions in the development of Starlight Reserves as exemplary areas that would act as models for the recovery of the heritage associated to star observation. The possibility arises to design and launch new tourist products and destinations based on astronomy and starry sceneries.

White dwarfs with helium-rich atmospheres constitute about one fifth of the white dwarfs hotter than 12,000 K. They appear to have a mass distribution similar to the hydrogen atmosphere (DA) stars, and are similar in other properties. However, the temperature distribution exhibits a deficiency of DB/DO stars in the interval 25,000-45,000 K, which implies evolution in the dominant surface composition as the stars cool. The hottest group of transition DO white dwarfs are the pulsating objects of the PG1159 class. The central star of Kl-16 is a related object, as may be the newly discovered very hot star H1504+65, which shows no detected surface features of either hydrogen or helium.

Several uncertain helioseismic findings of potential interest to Jüri about the solar convection zone are briefly discussed, along with some personal optimistic hopes for the future.

After the failure of the 1761 transit to provide a reliable value for the astronomical unit, the focus shifted to the 1769 event, and Britain mounted an ambitious program, with overseas observing parties dispatched to North Cape (Norway), Hudson Bay (Canada) and newly-discovered Tahiti in the Pacific. Lieutenant James Cook was in charge of the Tahitian expedition, ably assisted by fellow-astronomer, Charles Green, and they were supplied by the Royal Society and the Royal Observatory at Greenwich with telescopes and other scientific instruments. The main observing site was set up at Fort Venus, and supplementary transit stations were established on Irioa Island (Moorea) and Taaupiri Island (off the east coast of Tahiti). June 3 was warm and clear, and all observers successfully recorded the transit, but on the journey home ‘the curse of the transit’ prevailed and more than half of them fell ill and died. Back in England, Cook wrote up the transit observations for the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, but for some inexplicable reason only used data obtained at Fort Venus. It was left to Oxford astronomer, Professor Thomas Hornsby, to derive a meaningful figure for the solar parallax, and he utilized the Tahitian data and observations made at four other sites to arrive at a figure of 8$\rlap . ^{\prime\prime}$78. But discordant results obtained by other researchers fuelled controversy over the effectiveness of transits of Venus as a valid means of determining the astronomical unit. In fact, the solar parallax obtained by Hornsby was remarkably similar to the currently-accepted value of 8$\rlap . ^{\prime\prime}$794148, thereby discrediting Beaglehole's oft-quoted claim that the Tahitian observations were a failure. Although more than a dozen men were involved in the Tahitian transit program, most of their records have been lost, and remarkably few of the instruments they employed can now be identified. Yet for those of us with Pacific affiliations, Cook's first voyage to the South Seas occupies a special place in transit of Venus history.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

OH and H2O masers in star forming regions are important because they are readily detectable indicators of star formation and because they provide unique information on the kinematics and physical conditions in high density regions (106 – 1010 cm−3) surrounding young stars, regions which cannot be studied by other means at present. The Jodrell Bank MERLIN interferometer has been used to map a sample of OH and H2O masers associated with bipolar molecular outflows. The maps of Cepheus A show that the masers are closely associated with the densest compact H II regions at the centre of the flow. The masers appear to be located at the inner edges of the circumstellar disk thought to play a role in collimating the outflow. It is suggested that the H2O masers trace the interaction between the stellar wind and the dense molecular gas, and the OH masers trace shocks propagating into the molecular gas. Rapid and sometimes correlated variations in the maser emission suggest that radiative pumping is likely in this source (Rowland and Cohen, Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc. in press). Study of the other sources is still in progress.

The shift of the emitted frequencies towards lower frequencies during a solar outburst is usually interpreted as due to a progressive rarefaction of the emitting gas. If one assumes that the emitted frequency is identical with the plasma frequency and furthermore that the density of the emitting plasma is similar to the density of the solar corona at the location of the radiating material, then it follows that this material is subject to an acceleration throughout the solar corona which compensates or exceeds the effect of the gravitational field of the sun.

The recent discovery of pulsating subdwarf B (sdB) stars at the South African Astronomical Observatory (Kilkenny et al. 1997; Koen et al. 1997; Stobie et al. 1997; O'Donoghue et al. 1997) has opened a brand new avenue in the field of asteroseismology. The study of these pulsators (dubbed EC14026 stars, after the prototype) offers the exciting possibility of exploiting the full power of asteroseismology to investigate the sdB phase of stellar evolution, one of the last frontiers in our general understanding of the history of stars.

A number of central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPN) show emission lines in their spectra. Among them about 50 have been classified as [Wolf-Rayet] type (Tylenda et al. 1993). In spite of the fact that these stars probably have masses below 1 M⊙ and luminosities < 104 L⊙ their spectra show emission bands very similar to those of much more massive and luminous Population I Wolf-Rayet stars. We present some preliminary results of an extensive investigation of the [WR]-type CSPN based on the spectroscopic survey described in the Strasbourg-ESO Catalogue of Galactic Planetary Nebulae (Acker et al. 1992).

There are about 70 Galactic supernova remnants (SNRs) that are now confirmed or suggested to be in physical contact with molecular clouds (MCs) with six kinds of evidence of multiwavelength observations. Recent detailed CO-line spectroscopic mappings of a series of SNRs reveal them to be in cavities of molecular gas, implying the roles the progenitors may have played. We predict a linear correlation between the wind bubble sizes of main-sequence OB stars in a molecular environment and the stellar masses and discuss its implication for supernova progenitors. The molecular environments of SNRs can serve as a good probe for the γ-rays arising from the hadronic interaction of the accelerated protons, and this paper also discusses the γ-ray emission from MCs illuminated by diffusive protons that escape from SNR shocks.

We discuss results from sensitive, wide-field imaging of the millimeter extragalactic background using the Max-Planck Millimeter Bolometer array (MAMBO) at the IRAM 30 m telescope.

The first molecules detected at infrared wavelengths in the ejecta of a Type II supernova, namely SN1987A, consisted of CO and SiO. Since then, confirmation of the formation of these two species in several other supernovae a few hundred days after explosion has been obtained. However, supernova environments appear to hamper the synthesis of large, complex species due to the lack of microscopically-mixed hydrogen deep in supernova cores. Because these environments also form carbon and silicate dust, it is of importance to understand the role played by molecules in the depletion of elements and how chemical species get incorporated into dust grains. In the present paper, we review our current knowledge of the molecular component of supernova ejecta, and present new trends and results on the synthesis of molecules in these harsh, explosive events.

The emission features of 140 Be stars described in “An Atlas of Be stars” are briefly reviewed. The time scale of the emission variations are determined for about 35 stars. For several stars we estimated, on the Hβ line, the V/R ratio of the two emission components.

Major photometric monitoring campaigns of star-forming regions in the past decade have provided rich rotation period distributions of pre-main-sequence stars. The rotation periods span more than an order of magnitude in period, with most falling between 1 and 10 days. Thus the broad rotation period distributions found in 100 Myr clusters are already established by an age of 1 Myr. The most rapidly rotating stars are within a factor of 2-3 of their critical velocities; if angular momentum is conserved as they evolve to the ZAMS, these stars may come to exceed their critical velocities. Extensive efforts have been made to find connections between stellar rotation and the presence of protostellar disks; at best only a weak correlation has been found in the largest samples. Magnetic disk-locking is a theoretically attractive mechanism for angular momentum evolution of young stars, but the links between theoretical predictions and observational evidence remain ambiguous. Detailed observational and theoretical studies of the magnetospheric environments will provide better insight into the processes of pre-main-sequence stellar angular momentum evolution.

We investigate a sequence of 1.5 M⊙ models for g-mode instabilities. For the computation of the nonradial, non-adiabatic oscillations we make use of the Riccati method introduced by Glatzel & Gautschy (1992) to integrate the pulsation equations as given by Unno et al. (1989).

A brief account is presented of the chemical characteristics of regions controlled by the absorption of X-rays. Recent studies of the infrared emission from molecular hydrogen and time-dependent effects in evolving photon-dominated regions are summarized.

We have obtained high-resolution spectra and carried out a detailed elemental abundance analysis for a new sample of 899 F and G dwarf stars in the Solar neighbourhood. The results allow us to, in a multi-dimensional space consisting of stellar ages, detailed elemental abundances, and full kinematic information for the stars, study and trace their respective origins. Here we briefly address selection criteria and discuss how to define a thick disc star. The results are discussed in the context of galaxy formation.

Since the discovery of the first globular cluster pulsar in M28 (Lyne et al. 1987) a total of 33 pulsars have been found to reside within 13 seperate clusters. Many (but not all) of the cluster pulsars have properties similar to the millisecond pulsars in the disk: short period, binarity and low magnetic field strength. The common understanding is that these pulsars are primordial neutron stars (i.e. the remnants of massive stars in clusters) which have been spun up by accretion of matter from a companion. Therefore, in this framework, the cluster pulsars are descendents of Low Mass X-ray Binaries (LMXBs) (Alpar et al. 1982). This hypothesis is by no means accepted by all workers (e.g. Michel 1987, Ray & Kluzniak 1990, Romani 1990, Bailyn & Grindlay 1993). These workers have argued that at least some (if not all) cluster pulsars could be formed by accretion induced collapse of massive white dwarfs. In either case, it is clear from the sensitivity limits of current cluster searches, and the luminosity of field pulsars, that there are currently O(103) extant radio pulsars in the Galactic globular cluster system.

In this review, specifically targeted for astronomers working in the field of globular clusters, not pulsar astronomers, we argue that cluster pulsars have provided us with a new window into the population of long-dead massive stars and the physics of tidal capture. The precision with which pulsars can be timed has created new diagnostics: measurement of the mass distribution in the dense cores, measurement of orbital evolution on short timescales and precise determination of orbital characteristics. It is fair to say that all these diagnostics are unique, and not obtainable by other observations. Despite this, it is our assessment that the typical astronomer who works in the field of globular clusters is apparently unaware of these relevant contributions. Hopefully this review will bridge this gap. A complete copy of the review article may be found at http://astro.caltech.edu/~srk.