*                    
      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                         * *  *  *                
                                                     /  *   *\                
                                                    /*  *  *  \               
      ***  N    E    W    S  ***                   *_____*_____*              
                                                        |_|                   

HALCA UPDATE

HALCA continues to operate normally, with pointing tests using Tau A (better known outside the radio-astronomical community as the Crab nebula) planned for the next few days. After the commanding/telemetry-checking tracking pass on December 29th, operations will take a well-earned rest, resuming again on January 4th.

AO2 LETTERS

The Principal Investigator, or nominated contact person, for each AO2 proposal was sent an e-mail last week with results from the Scientific Review Committee's ranking of proposals. Any PI who has not received their letter should contact the VSOG at their soonest convenience.

URSI GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The URSI General Assembly will be held next year in Toronto, Canada from August 13th to 21st. Session J2 at the Assembly is entitled "Very High Resolution Imaging in VLBI", and will concentrate on recent results in both Space VLBI and mm-VLBI (43GHz and higher). Proposals for oral and poster presentations at this session are due by January 15th. Instructions for submitting proposals can be found at http://www.nrc.ca/confserv/ursi99/call_e.htm. Copies of submitted J2 abstracts should be sent to John Conway and "Hirax" Hirabayashi also. Details of the other Commission J (Radio Astronomy) sessions and the General Assembly are available from http://www.nrc.ca/confserv/ursi99.

T_B or 0.67*T_B...

... that is the question! The "Corrections and Clarifications" section of the 11 December issue of Science (vol.282, p.1995) contains a note correcting an error in "VSOP first results" paper. The numerical factors given to convert a brightness temperature derived assuming a gaussian component to that for an optically thin or thick sphere were a factor of 1.56 smaller than they should have been. The correct factors are 0.67 and 0.57 respectively.

NOZOMI

The ISAS mission to Mars, Nozomi (formerly Planet-B) made its final swing-by of the moon and Earth last weekend and is now on its way to Mars. Nozomi, which was launched on July 3rd, is scheduled to arrive at Mars in October next year.

 
                Editors: Phil Edwards and Hirax Hirabayashi