_                    
                                                         |_|                   
      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  ***                        <)                     
 

FINAL INTEGRATION

Final integration of the Muses-B satellite is continuing at ISAS. Uploading and checking of on-board software has commenced, and final hardware checks are ongoing. No major problems have been encountered to date, and all is on schedule for the integration tests to be completed before Christmas.

LETTER TO CONTACT PERSONS

An e-mail was recently sent to the contact persons of all VSOP proposals describing the contact between the mission and proposers over the coming months. Interested co-investigators can contact the contact persons on their proposal for details, or refer to the experiment status page on the VSOP world wide web site. Thanks to those contact people who, in response to the e-mail, have responded with their updated contact details.

OLIVE ALIVE!

The Optically Linked VLBI Experiment, described in VSOP news no. 48, has been successfully trialled. During 22 GHz pointing checks with the Usuda 64 m telescope, data were transferred over 400 km of optical fibre to the Near Real-time Fringe Detector at Mitaka, and auto-correlation carried out. Band-passes for W49N and Cepheus A showed the expected shape, with the maser lines clearly visible. Further tests, including real-time cross-correlation between Usuda and Nobeyama, are scheduled for later this month.

APT/APSG MEETING

A technical workshop for the Asia-Pacific Telescope and Asia-Pacific Space Geodynamics groups will be held at the Communications Research Laboratory at Kashima from the 10th to the 13th of December. Several talks on progress with the VSOP project and VSOP correlator will be presented during the meeting.

SURPRISE ABOUT SUPPLIES!

One of the unusual things about Japan is its mains power supply, which is uniformly 100 V, but 50 Hz in eastern Japan and 60 Hz in western Japan! This situation presumably arose as generators from different countries were imported to different parts of Japan, and the two frequencies became firmly established in their respective halves of the country. Mass produced electrical goods for which the frequency is important will often have a switch to select the correct frequency. Usuda and Nobeyama are in the eastern zone, though both lie very close to the boundary between the two frequencies. This undoubtedly explains the placement of an order for a magnetic tape eraser for Usuda to operate at 60 Hz ... the wrong frequency! The oversight was quickly and painlessly fixed, so the need to exclaim `that hertz!' fortunately never arose...

 
 
       Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi