_                   
                                                         |_|                  
      V   V   SSSS   OOO   PPPP                 \__      |_|      __/         
      V   V  S      O   O  P   P                   --____/ \____--            
      V   V   SSS   O   O  PPPP                    _ _ _ --- _ _ _            
       V V       S  O   O  P                      |_|_|_|  @|_|_|_|           
        V    SSSS    OOO   P                             o-o                  
                                                          /                   
      ***  N    E    W    S  ***                        <)                    

HALCA STATUS

HALCA has restarted observing, with four test observations scheduled for this month. Currently, HALCA pointing is limited to the anti-sun direction. Planning is underway for maneuvering the satellite so that it is pointing in or near the plane 90 degrees from the sun, which opens up much more of the sky. This maneuver -- quite straightforward with four reaction wheels operating -- is more complicated with only three reaction wheels and will require the use of a small amount of thruster fuel to be carried out. Studies are continuing into angular momentum accumulation due to solar pressure and momentum dumping in the sun-angle-90-degrees regions in order to ensure the reaction wheels are kept in their nominal operating ranges. With these considerations, it is now thought that HALCA will be kept pointing in anti-sun region for another two to three months. During this time HALCA will be limited to one or two maneuvers per week and thus, if most sources are observed at 1.6 and 5.0 GHz, of the order of four observations per week -- roughly half the normal full operating efficiency.

SRC3 RESULTS

Results from the Science Review Committee ranking of AO3 proposals have been e-mailed to Principal Investigators, or their designated contacts. Any PI/contact who has not received these results should contact the VSOG.

VSOP SYMPOSIUM

The draft program for the VSOP symposium next January is now available from the Symposium web page -- /astro/halca/vsop/symposium.html.en .

Y2K

Due to potential problems with Y2K compliance, it is planned to switch off the workstation "orihime" at the end of this year. Orihime currently hosts the VSOP web site and ftp site, however it is planned to seamlessly transfer these to another workstation before the end of the year with URLs etc being unaffected. E-mail addresses explicitly including "orihime" will no longer work -- @vsop.isas.ac.jp should be used instead. The computers on-board HALCA do not use the Gregorian date in any of their operations and so are completely safe from Y2K bugs.

SEASONS GREETINGS

This is the last VSOP news for this year (and, depending on how you define them, this century and millennium!). We wish all VSOP news readers a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.

                Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi