_                   
                                                         |_|                  
      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 finished its short season of long eclipses earlier this month. Every 1.5 years HALCA undergoes a roughly month-long series of eclipses near apogee. The satellite is moving at its slowest near apogee and so the eclipses are quite long, up to 90 minutes in length. As an additional amount of time roughly 1.5 times the eclipse duration is required to fully recharge HALCA's batteries, very little time is available for observing, and so observing has not been carried out during any of the long-eclipse series. The first post-eclipse observation took place last weekend. HALCA is continuing to point in the anti-solar region, with planning for a move to the 90 degrees sun-angle region continuing. Complicating this planning is the fact that an attitude anomaly occurred in early April. HALCA's pointing was affected, but quickly recovered the same day. It is thought that the increased solar activity is resulting in increased atmospheric drag during HALCA's perigee passes, with implications for the momentum accumulation required from the satellite's reaction wheels each orbit.

VSOP 4th ANNOUNCEMENT OF OPPORTUNITY

As the timing of HALCA's move to a sun-angle of 90 degrees is not yet known, it has been decided not to release AO4 with a 1 June, 2000 deadline. Without knowing where HALCA can point it is impossible to submit a realistic observing proposal! With the loss of several months' observations late last year, there is a sufficient pool of highly ranked proposals to keep HALCA busy until the next AO period.

SAGAMIHARA

Sagamihara city, in Kanagawa prefecture, is home to the main campus of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). The astronomical links with the city were commemorated recently with minor planet (7435) being named "Sagamihara". The minor planet was discovered by K. Endate and K. Watanabe in 1994. The official citation for the naming of the minor planet notes ISAS's presence in the city and specifically mentions HALCA as being an ISAS satellite.

Of course, Sagamihara is by no means the first place with astronomical connections to be so honoured, other examples being (2322) Kitt Peak, (2729) Urumqi, (2830) Greenwich, (2906) Caltech, (4337) Arecibo and (8100) Nobeyama. Minor planet (1932) is named Jansky, and although (6390) bears the name Hirabayashi, there is no connection to the VSOP Project Scientist!

                Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi