_                   
                                                         |_|                  
      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  ***                        <)                    

AO2 SCIENTIFIC REVIEW

The VSOP Scientific Review Committee (SRC) met from the 21st to 23rd of July at ISAS to rate proposals submitted in response to the second Announcement of Opportunity. The SRC modified some proposals by reducing their scope in order to maximize the scientific output of the mission as a whole in the limited observing time available. In instances where two groups proposed observations of the same source at the same frequency, and the SRC deemed the proposals of equal ranking, the data will be shared between the two groups. Preliminary scheduling of the AO2 period is being conducted, and PIs (or their designated contact person) will be contacted in mid-September with details of the likelihood of the experiments in their proposal being scheduled. The SRC also recommended the inclusion of experiments from some highly ranked proposals into a number of Key Science Programs (KSPs) . The VSOP International Science Council (VISC) will consider these recommendations over the next few weeks, and the PIs of those experiments selected for inclusion in the KSPs will also be notified in mid-September.

ECLIPSES

The long series of relatively short (typically 20 to 30 minutes) eclipses that HALCA has been experiencing once per orbit ended on July 24th. Although the actual eclipses were not that long, a further 20 to 30 minutes observing time had to be sacrificed after each eclipse while HALCA's batteries were recharged. The no-eclipse period continues until October 8th, when the short period of long eclipses (up to 90 minutes) starts. There are in fact two eclipses during this "no eclipse period" -- the sun, as seen from HALCA, is eclipsed by the moon on August 22nd and September 20th!

ARISE WORKSHOP

A workshop on the science to be done with ARISE, a proposed future space VLBI mission, was held this week in Green Bank, USA, to discuss the science that could be done with a sensitive space VLBI mission able to observe at frequencies up to 86 GHz. VSOP Project Scientist, Prof. `Hirax' Hirabayashi represented the VSOP team at the meeting and presented a talk on results (to date) of VSOP and planning within Japan for a follow-up mission, dubbed "VSOP-2".

ASCA

PIs interested in applying for time on ISAS's X-ray satellite ASCA to support their HALCA observations have until September 1st to submit proposals for the AO7 round. Further information is available in English from
https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/asca/nra_info.html
and in Japanese from
http://www.astro.isas.ac.jp/xray/mission/asca/ao7.txt.

 
                Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi