INFORMATION BULLETIN No. 82

Division I : Fundamental Astronomy (Ken Seidelmann) Current information about the Commissions and meetings being sponsored by Commissions can be found on the Commission home pages. These can be reached directly, or through the IAU site or the Division home page (http://aries.usno.navy.mil/ad/iau.html).

Commissions 8 and 24 plan to merge into one Commission 8, Astrometry, at the IAU General Assembly in 2000. A single Vice-President has been elected for the two current commissions.

The Organizing Committee of the Division is composed of the Commission Presidents and the former President of the Division.

Discussions have begun on the possible establishment of an International VLBI Service to coordinate observations and analysis of VLBI observations. The goal of the service would be to provide improvements to the ICRF as well as Earth orientation observations.

Images at both S and X band have now been obtained for approximately 90% of the ICRF sources. They are available at http://maia.usno.navy.mil/rorf/rrfid.html.

A Division Web page has been set up at http://www.iau.org/div2/index.html.

During the restructuring of the IAU into a Divisional structure, the old Commission n. 34 which covers "Interstellar Matter" became a Division in its own right, and its membership is now some 730.

To provide fast and timely routes of communication, a strong effort is being made to move all communications and announcements onto the Internet. The home page of Division VI is to be found on: http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~mad/IAUComm34.html which also contains links to the various working groups, and to the electronic version of the list of members.

To provide a better service to the community, Division VI is also seeking information on any proposed conferences, workshops or meetings which are broadly in its area of speciality, and will provide links to the home pages of such conferences. In addition, the Division would like to provide links to bodies of data availble on the web which would be helpful to its members.

Finally, to assist in the preparation of proposals for IAU Symposia, Colloquia and Joint Discussions, to coordinate the work of the Division with other parts of the IAU, and to provide a forum for discussion, we have been extending the Working Group structure within the Division. Currently we have a Working Group on Planetary Nebulae, an Astrochemistry Working Group, and a (newly-constituted) Working Group on Star Forming Regions. In order to fully cover the work of the Division, we are also hoping to form a Working Group on the Hot and Extragalactic ISM, and those who are interested on serving on such a Working Group are asked to contact the President of the Division by e-mail at: michael.dopita@anu.edu.au.

The Division's Web page can be found at http://www.vub.ac.be/STER/IAU/IAUDivIX.html. The page provides links to the participating Commissions, Comm. 9 (Instruments), Comm. 25 (Photometry and Polarimetry) and Comm. 30 (Radial Velocities). These links, in turn, give access to useful information on Newsletters, standard stars, data catalogues, etc.

Division IX provides a forum for astronomers engaged in the innovation, development, and calibration of optical instrumentation as well as of observational procedures, including data processing. With the fast technological changes, the Division structure should also involve, and thought should be given to the possible creation of Working Groups inside this Division (and linked to other Divisions) which will, for example, deal with topics like Telescope Technology, Adaptive Optics, Interferometry, Detectors, Data redudction, Data Archiving, Calibration, even Observatory and Site Management.

We are looking into the possibilities to set up a number of such Working Groups, and we welcome any contributions and ideas from Members of Division IX (and other Divisions).

The postal and e-mail addresses of Commission members have been updated. Members are encouraged to check their addresses on the IAU website and send corrections or additions to the Commission 40 President (moran@cfa.harvard.edu). Members who are considering sponsoring colloquia or symposia should contact the President during the early stages of their planning in order to avoid conflicts with other meetings.

Most of the year's IAU Circulars were prepared by Bureau Associate Director Daniel W.E. Green. The remainder were generally by the undersigned, with a few by summer student Timothy B. Spahr. Responsibility for the administrative work of the Bureau has been shared by Donna Thompson and Muazzez Lohmiller. Gareth Williams has again very effectively maintained the Bureau's presence on the World Wide Web (at URL http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/cbat.html). He, Spahr and student Jen Owens also put some effort into computer-scanning and preparing pre-1982 Circulars for inclusion there.

Brian G. Marsden

Director of the Bureau

Annual Report for 1997 from the Minor Planet Center.

Although the number of pages of Minor Planet Circulars (MPCs) issued, 2408, was very slightly less than in 1996, the comparison is misleading, because a significant change made in October meant the transfer of essentially all of the observations to the Minor Planet Circulars Supplement (MPSs), of which 264 pages had been issued by the end of the year. The observational material in the MPCs themselves consists now of detailed summaries of the objects observed at each observatory, so it is still possible to measure the relative contributions of each observing program. In contrast, the MPSs, simply a long listing (in small print) of the observations, ordered by object and date, make for rather dull reading. A record 758 minor planets were given permanent numbers in 1997, a 23% increase over 1996.

A total of 301 Minor Planet Electronic Circulars (MPECs) were issued during the year, 29 during the first half of November alone. The raison d'etre of the MPECs has been to provide up-to-date information about unusual objects. In an effort also to provide information about main-belt objects on a timescale more rapid than the monthly cycle of the MPCs, a procedure was developed for the automatic nightly preparation of a special MPEC containing all the identifications made and orbits computed during the preceding 24 hours. Although the format of the MPECs has meant that these orbits are given to somewhat reduced precision, the precision in these "Daily Orbit Update" MPECs is quite sufficient to yield adequate ephemerides. If greater precision is required, it can be obtained from files contained in the Minor Planet Center's pages in the World Wide Web. There will be no "Daily Orbit Update" MPEC for some days around full moon each month while the MPCs themselves are being prepared and the files of orbits and observations are being updated.

Other new features in the WWW pages include OBSPLANNER, which allows a registered user to enquire about main-belt objects that could usefully be observed. These objects, randomly selected from a rather large supply, are then "reserved" for that user, who undertakes to make observations of them. If no observations are reported within a week, objects are returned to the pool for further random selection. The WWW also routinely contains orbital elements and ephemerides for observable comets and unusual minor planets. Like the IAU Circulars, the MPECs are also freely available there, although one can subscribe to have them delivered by e-mail and to use certain other features in the Computer Service.

The number of subscriptions to the printed MPCs has remained at 210-220. A new edition of the Catalogue of Cometary Orbits was issued more than 18 months after its predecessor, and it is not expected that there will be another one until 1999. Although there has been some income from these publications, the fact that the decreasing number of subcribers to the printed IAU Circulars is no longer compensated by an increasing number of subscribers to the Computer Service and e-mail delivery is resulting in a shortfall. In the mean time, as is clear from the first paragraph above, the work of the Minor Planet Center increases in terms of the volume of observations received and orbits computed. The Minor Planet Center therefore very much appreciates a grant received from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1997 to pay the salary of Associate Director Gareth V. Williams.

It is Williams who has in fact been principally responsible for the processing of observations and the computation of orbits of minor planets. He also produced most of the MPECs, maintained the WWW pages and largely prepared the MPCs. The undersigned shared in the MPC preparation and attended to cometary data. The low-level observing program with the 1.2-m reflector at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's (SAO's) station in Arizona continued, with Carl W. Hergenrother as observer. This is one of the few telescopes in the world in regular use for astrometry of minor planets and comets down to magnitude 23, and it is proving particularly useful for recoveries of near-earth objects, as well as for follow-up of Kuiper Belt candidates.

Syuichi Nakano was again "Liaison in Japan", carefully organizing the data obtained by several dozen Japanese amateur astronomers. Timothy B. Spahr and Jen Owens were summer students. Donna Thompson and Muazzez Lohmiller were responsible for the accounts, and Billy Duggan oversaw the production of the MPCs in the SAO's print shop.

Brian G. Marsden

Director, Minor Planet Center

Unfortunately, the Vice-President of Commission 47 was incorrectly identified in the list given in IB 81, p. 21. The correct name and address are given below, as well as at the Web page. We apologise to all concerned.

E-mail: mcv2@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov

WWW: http://lheawww.gsfc.nasa.gov/~mcv2

July 27 - 29, 1998, Green Bank WV, USA

Contact address: J.J. Condon, NRAO, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA

Tel: 1 804 296 0322 Fax: 1 804 296 0278

E-mail: jcondon@nrao.edu

WWW: http://www.gb.nrao.edu/~gbtworks

July 28 - 31, 1998, Boulder, CO, USA, listed in IB 81 p. 49

August 2 - 6, 1998, Garching bei München, Germany

Contact address: Tony Banday, MPI für Astrophysik, P.O. Box 1523, D 85740 Garching bei München, Germany

Tel: 49 89 3299 00 Fax: 49 89 3299 3235

E-mail: cosmo@mpa-garching.mpg.de

WWW: http://www.mpa-garching.mpg.de/~cosmo

August 5 - 7, 1998, Boulder, CO, USA

Contact address: CASA, Univ. of Colorado, Campus Box 389, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA

Tel: 1 303 492 4050 Fax: 1 303 492 7178

E-mail: uvconf@casa.colorado.edu

WWW: http://www.casa.colorado.edu/~uvconf/

August 8 - 12, 1998, New Brunswick, NJ, USA, listed in IB 81 p. 49

Astrophysics with the NOTAugust 12 - 15, 1998, Turku, FinlandContact address: V. Piirola, Tuorla Observatory, FIN-21500 Piikkiö, FinlandTel: 358 2 2744 274 Fax: 358 2 2433 767

E-mail: piirola@astro.utu.fi

WWW: http://astro.utu.fi/

August 14 - 15, 1998, Canberra, Australia, listed in IB 81 p. 49

August 16 - 22, 1998, Tatranská Lomnica, Slovak Republic, listed in IB 81 p. 50

August 17 - 21, 1998, Canberra, Australia, listed in IB 81 p. 50

Contact address: Brad K. Gibson, Mount Stromlo & Siding Spring Observatories, Private Bag, Weston Creek PO, Canberra, ACT 2611, Australia

Tel: 61 26 279 8037 Fax: 61 26 249 0233

E-mail: tss@mso.anu.edu.au

WWW: http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~tss/

August 22 - 28, 1998, Naramata BC, Canada

Tel: 1 250 493 2277 Fax: 1 250 493 7767

E-mail: Lloyd.Higgs@hia.nrc.ca

WWW: http://www.drao.nrc.ca/web/naramata.workshop.html

August 31 - September 11, 1998, Izmir, Turkey

Contact address: Cafer Ibanoglu, Ege Univ. Observatory, Bornova, P.O. Box 21, 35100 Izmir, Turkey

Tel: 90 232 388 4000 or 2321 Fax: 90 232 388 1036

E-mail: ibanoglu@astronomy.sci.ege.edu.tr

WWW: http://astronomy.sci.ege.edu.tr/~asi1351/

September 7 - 11, 1998, Tucson AZ, USA

Contact address: Heino Falcke, MPIfR Bonn, Auf dem Hügel 69, D 53121 Bonn, Germany

Tel: 49 228 525 217 Fax: 49 228 525 229

WWW: http://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/gc98

September 7 - 11, 1998, Buxton, UK

Contact address: J.W. Roberts, Dept. of Physics, Univ. of Sheffield, Sheffield S3 7RH, UK

Tel: 44 114 222 3566 Fax: 44 114 272 8079

E-mail: j.w.roberts@sheffield.ac.uk

WWW: http://www.shef.ac.uk/~phys/idm98.html

September 9 - 12, 1998, Prague, Czech Republic

Contact address: Zuzana Dienstbierov, Astron. Inst., Bocní II 1401, 141 31 Praha 4, Czech Republic

Tel: 420 2 6710 3038 Fax: 420 2 769 023

E-mail: zuzana@ig.cas.cz

WWW: http://sunkl.asu.cas.cz/jenam98/

September 11 - 17, 1998, Garching bei München, Germany, listed in IB 81 p. 50

September 14 - 16, 1998, Strasbourg, France, listed in IB 81 p. 50

September 14 - 18, 1998, Taormina, Italy, listed in IB 81 p. 50

September 15 - 18, 1998, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

Contact address: ESTEC Conference Bureau, Postbus 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands

Tel: 31 71 565 5005 Fax: 31 71 565 5658

E-mail: eslab32@estec.esa.nl

WWW: http://www.estec.esa.nl/CONFANNOUN/98a01

September 18 - 20, 1998, Houston TX, USA

Contact address: Brad Jolliff, Campus Box 1169, Washington University, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA

Tel: 1 314 935 5622 Fax: 1 314 935 7361

E-mail: blj@levee.wustl.edu

WWW: http://cass.jsc.nasa.gov/meetings/moon98/

September 20 - 26, 1998, Schloss Ringberg, Germany

Contact address: Linda Tacconi or Dieter Lutz, MPE, Postfach 1603, D 85740 Garching bei München, Germany

Tel: 49 89 3299 3873 or 3614 Fax: 49 89 3299 3569

E-mail: ulirg@hpgenzel.mpe-garching.mpg.de

WWW: http://www.mpe-garching.mpg.de/www_ir/ulirg98.html

September 21 - 24, 1998, La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

Contact Address: J.M. Rodriguez-Espinosa, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

Tel: 34 22 605241 Fax: 34 22 605210

E-mail: jre@iac.es

WWW: http://www.iac.es/proyect/sea/principal.html

September 21 - 25, 1998, Meudon, France, listed in IB 81 p. 50

September 28 - 30, 1998, Melbourne, Australia

Contact address: Rachel Webster, School of Physics, Univ. of Melbourne, Parkville VIC 3052, Australia

Tel: 61 3 9344 5454 Fax: 61 3 9347 4783

E-mail: hiconf@physics.unimelb.edu.au

WWW: 'http://astro.ph.unimelb.edu.au/hiconf/

September 22 - 25, 1998, Zermatt, Switzerland, listed in IB 81 p. 51

Contact address: ESTEC Conference Bureau, Postbus 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands

Tel: 31 71 565 5005 Fax: 31 71 565 5658

E-mail: confburo@estec.esa.nl

WWW: 'http://astro.estec.esa.nl/XMM/news/ws1_top.html

September 28 - October 2, 1998, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

October 5 - 9, 1998, Nantucket MA, USA

Contact address: Christine Halas, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS-15, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

Tel: 1 617 496 7573 Fax: 1 617 495 7049

E-mail: chalas@cfa.harvard.edu

WWW: 'http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/sw9/

October 14 - 16, 1998, Garching bei München, Germany

Contact address: Gertrud Contardo, ESO, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, D 85748 Garching bei München, Germany

Tel: 49 89 32006 225 Fax: 49 89 32006 480

E-mail: gcontard@eso.org

WWW: 'http://www.eso.org/gen-fac/meetings/

October 19 - 23, 1998, Paris, France

Contact address: Robert G. Stone, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20071, USA

Tel: 1 301 286 8631 Fax: 1 301 286 1683

E-mail: stone@urap.gsfc.nasa.gov

WWW: 'http://www.agu.org/meetings/cc98fcall.html

October 20 - 23, 1998, Paris, France

Contact address: P. Cox, IAS, Bt 121, Univ. Paris XI, F 91405 Orsay Cdx, France

Tel: 33 1 69 85 8737 Fax: 33 1 69 85 8675

E-mail: cox@iaslab.ias.fr

WWW: 'http://isowww.estec.esa.nl/meetings/Paris_98.html

October 27 - 30, 1998, Fukuoka, Japan

Contact address: Masanori Hirai, Fukuoka University of Education, Akama 729-1, Munakata, Fukuoka 811-4192, Japan

Tel: 81 940 35 1375 Fax: 81 940 33 7730

E-mail: ICOA@fukuoka-edu.ac.jp

WWW: 'http://www.fukuoka-edu.ac.jp/meeting/ICOA.html

November 1 - 4, 1998, Urbana IL, USA

Contact address: Richard Crutcher, Astronomy Dept., Univ. of Illinois, 1002 W. Green St., Urbana, IL 61801, USA

Tel: 217 333 3090 Fax: 1 217 244 7638

E-mail: crutcher@astro.uiuc.edu

WWW: 'http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/ADASS98

November 3 - 6, 1998, Rome, Italy

Contact address: M Feroci, Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale, Via Fosso del Cavaliere, I 00133 Roma, Italy

Tel: 39 6 4993 4099 Fax: 39 6 2066 0188

E-mail: feroci@saturn.ias.rm.cnr.it

WWW: http://www.tesre.bo.cnr.it/rome98/

November 9 - 12, 1998, Garching bei München, Germany

Contact address: Richard West, ESO, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, D 85748 Garching bei München, Germany

Tel: 49 89 32006 276 Fax: 49 89 320 2362

E-mail: rwest@eso.org

WWW: 'http://www.eso.org/mboss98

November 30 - December 5, 1998, Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Spain

Contact address: John Beckman, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, Via Lactea s/n, E 38200 Tenerife, Spain

Tel: 34 22 605 263 or 261 Fax: 34 22 605 210

E-mail: evogal@ll.iac.es

WWW: http://www.iac.es/MEETINGS/evogal.html

November 16 - 18, 1998, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

Contact address: ESTEC Conference Bureau, Postbus 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands

Tel: 31 71 565 5005 Fax: 31 71 565 5658

E-mail: confburo@estec.esa.nl

WWW: http://www.estec.esa.nl/CONFANNOUN/98a02

December 1 - 3, 1998, Monterey, California, USA, listed in IB 81 p. 51

December 4 - 6, 1998, Nara, Japan

Contact address: Hiroshi Tsunemi, Dept. of Earth and Space Science, Graduate School of Science, Osaka Univ. 1-1, Machikaneyama-cho, Toyonaka, Osaka 560 0043, Japan

Tel: 81 6 850 5477 Fax: 81 6 850 5539

E-mail: ssd_sympo@ess.sci.osaka-u.ac.jp

WWW: http://wwwxray.ess.sci.osaka-u.ac.jp/ssd_sympo/

December 14 - 18, 1998, Paris, France, listed in IB 81 p. 51

April 12 - 15, 1999, Charleston SC, USA

Contact address: John Vallerga, Suite 100, 2452 Delmer St., Oakland, CA 94602, USA

Tel: 1 510 530 1688 Fax: 1 510 530 2416

E-mail: eureka@netcom.com

WWW: http://oj287.astro.utu.fi/sgg

June 29 - July 2, 1999, Marseille, France

Contact address: A. Mazure or O. Le Fèvre, LAS, Traverse du Siphon, BP 8, F 13376 Marseille, France

Tel: 33 491 055 902 Fax: 33 491 661 855

E-mail: mazure@astrsp-mrs.fr

WWW: http://www.astrsp-mrs.fr/www/igrap99.html

July 4 - 7, 1999, Toronto, Canada

Contact address: J.R. Percy, Erindale Campus, Univ. of Toronto, Mississauga ON, L5L 1C6, Canada

Tel: 1 905 828 5351 Fax: 1 905 828 5425

E-mail: jpercy@erin.utoronto.ca

July 26 - 30, 1999, Cornell University, Ithaca NY, USA

Contact Address: Beth E. Clark, ACM Conference, Space Sciences Bldg, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY 14853-6801, USA

Tel: 1 607 254 8895 Fax: 1 607 255 9002

E-mail: acm@scorpio.tn.cornell.edu

WWW: http://scorpio.tn.cornell.edu/ACM

August 14 - 16, 1999, Cambridge, UK

Contact address: Daniel W.G. Green, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

Tel: 1 617 495 7440 Fax: 1 716 495 7001

E-mail: icq@cfa.harvard.edu

WWW: http://www.cam.wits.ac.za/origins99/