_          
                                             |_|         
 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  ***               <)             

KYOTO

Two thousand astronomers converged on Kyoto in August for the XXIIIrd General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union. ISAS, Japan's National Astronomical Observatory and the U.S. NRAO had booths at the meeting which featured their involvement in the VSOP mission. Prof. Hirabayashi spoke on the VSOP project in a well attended public lecture held to coincide with the IAU, and a write-up about VSOP was included in the `Sidereal Times', the conference's daily newspaper.

Several meetings were held during the IAU to take advantage of the fact that many of the attendees were in Japan. The VSOP International Science Council (VISC) had a full-day meeting on Monday 25th, and the Global VLBI Working Group (GVWG) met in the afternoon of Tuesday 26th.

VISC MEETING

The full range of IOC activities was reviewed at the VISC meeting. The VISC endorsed the move to start including, on a provisional basis, General Observing Time (GOT) observations in the long-term schedule, with the understanding that full GOT observing cannot take place until all five tracking stations are functioning reliably. No 22 GHz observations will be scheduled in 1997, although some pointing and gain calibration checks etc may be carried out. All 22 GHz observations in the foreseeable future will fall in the category of IOC observations.

Considering the limited lifetime of the mission, the VISC encouraged the commencement of 1.6 and 5 GHz GOT observations as soon as possible. Although not all tracking stations are operational and spacecraft calibration information is not yet routinely available, it was felt that some sources could be scheduled within the existing constraints to meet the scientific goals of the proposers. PIs with observations scheduled in the coming months will hear from the VSOG in the near future.

The VISC confirmed that the nominal end of the first Announcement of Opportunity (AO) period would be the end of December 1998, although observations from the 2nd AO will be mixed in starting September 1998 and some first AO observations will be done in early 1999. It is planned to release the 2nd AO on 12 February 1998 -- the first anniversary of HALCA's launch! The deadline for proposals will be 1 May 1998. The second AO period would run for one year, i.e. until the end of December 1999.

OMEDETOU!

Congratulations to the millimeter array group at Nobeyama, who have just celebrated 15 years since first fringes (at 22 GHz) with the array.

 
       Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi