Bigger Telescopes and Better Instrumentation:

Report on the 1992 ESO Conference

M.-H. ULRICH, ESO

The Conference "Progress in TeIe- equal to 6.5 m are under construction or This shows the Intense activity taking
scope and Instrumentation Technolo- are planned with various degrees of place now in all major observatories not
gies" took place in Garching on April funding (see Table 1). The total collect- only to build these telescopes but also
27-30, 1992. This meeting is one in a ing area of these telescopes is 675 m2or to equip them. Among these groups
series of Conferences organized every 70 times that of a 3.5 rn telescope. building large telescopes, the most suc-
other year alternately by Kitt Peak Na-
tional Observatory and by ESO. The
next one should take place in two years
In Arizona.
Riccardo Giacconi -
The Conferences organized by ESO ESOys Next Director General
have a twofold purpose. First, as a In Its 67th meeting in Garching on June 4 and 5. 1992 the CounciI of ESO appointed
meeting at the worldwide level to pre- Prof. Rlccardo Giaceoni as Director General for the period 1993 - 1987. He succeeds
sent and discuss recent advances in Prof, Hany van der Laan whose five-year t m ends this year,
telescopes and instrumentation. Sec- Prof. G i a m n i was h m In Genova (Italy) In 1931 and got hls ducatlon In Physics at
ond, for the general ESO community to the University of Milano, before ernlgratlng to the United States. In his activity he has
inform themselves of technological pro- been associated with several leadlng institutions Including Princeton Ufllverslty, Amerl-
gress both at ESO and other obser- can Science and Engineering. Harvard University and has received many honours for
vatories. This Conference was attended his achievements in science.
Prof. Giacconi is famous for his pioneeringwork In the development and appllcatlon
by 270 external participants and 69 ESO of X-ray technologies in astronomy. leading to the discovw of the first extra-solar X-
participants. There were 110 posters ray source. The X-ray satellites UHURU (launched In 1970) and the Einstein Observa-
and 61 talks. tory (launched in 1978) are assoelated with hls name.
The first two days were devoted to Since the establishment of the Space Telescope Science lnstltute In Baltimore In
large telescopes, mirror fabrication, and 1981, Prof. Glacconi has been Its Director, whlle holding a pmfessorshlp at the John
enclosures (51 posters, 32 talks). Adap- Hopklns University and, more recently on a part-time basis, also at the University of
tive optics was the subject of the third Milano. The ST Scl has been central to the Hubble Space Telescope's success In spite
day. The fourth day saw a review of a of b optical flaw and selves a world-wlde community of HST users. At ESO his
association with the HST will continue, because ESO Headquarters Is the host of the
number of optical and infrared instru-
European Coordlnatlng Facltlty for the HST. The ECF Is a joint venture of ESO and the
ments for the VLT and other telescopes. European Space Agency (ESN.
A brief outline of these topics follows. The prlme assignment of the new Director General wlll be the completion of the Very
Large Telescope (VLT) Observatory which ESO is constructing with European Industry
1. Telescopes and Mirrors In Chlle's Atacama desert, while at the same time operatlng the world's largest infrared1
optical observatory, the La Sllla Observatory for the astronomy community in ESO's
At the present time thirteen individual member states.
telescopes with diameter larger than or
 with dlamelerkwgllar tnan or equal to 6 5 rn under mr38tnrctfan w pl~nned.
Table 1: fal~s~opes has been annealed and is now in the
process of cerambtion, a process to
achieve the zero expandon coefficient
of Zmdur and which will take 8 months.
(Gemmiration is roughly speaking a way
of partially crysZalliting the glass mass
by slow and controlledhe&ing.The crys-
tal has a negative coefficient of expan-
sion which can compensate the posl-
tive expansion cDeficient of a pwdy
glassy material.) The m i m will then be
shipped to the RfXiSC factory necmr
Paris where it wlll be ground, figured
and polished to its 82-m diameter size,
then shipped to the VLT she. A second
b&m blank has also pasad the anncwl-
ing process m d a third one Is in the
annealng oven.
The fabrication of boroslate honey-
comb rnirrws Is also progressing. Two
mirrors, one of 1.8 rn iurd one of 3.5 m
have been completely finished. The final
figure is 80% of the tight within 0.3
arcsec, well within the specification. The
first 6.5 m has recently been cast.
oessful ones will be those which not the figuring of each segment with an ion The Japanese Large National Tele-
only attract excellence and originality of beam and the other is to align the 36 mope wilE have a thin meniscus which is
the observing programmes but which individual mlmrs. The ion beam finish- being fabricated by Coming. The site of
will also make the nweswy effort to ing cansists In erosion of the surface the JLNT on Mauw Kea is In a conve-
achieve the highest qualm and efficien- with a computer operated k n beam of a nient location to do interferometry with
cy in the Instrumentdon and data anal- few crn in diameter. This is best used to thSs telescope and the two 10-rn diame
ysis. the Iwt surface defects 1 to 2 p ter Keck tdmpes. (TheJapanese pro-
Among the most advanced projects, in height. Can this process of automated jet3 is called Subaru which means
the installation of the last segmented measurement and oomputer controlled Plebdes, a poetic name which is ghren
mirror of the Kmk I telescope was fine figuring replacer the magical final to quite a few projects In Japan, e s p e
announced. The telmmpa in its p m t touch of the experienced optician? cially in the artistic world; for exampb kt
state has a FWHM of 2 arcs=. Work is Regarding the VLT, it was already is the name of a pc&y lournal.) The
now in progress to achieve the specifi- announced (The Messenger No. 67, large figure in dollars given for the pro-
cation of a final FWHM of 0.4 arc-. 1992) that the fabrication of the first ject is the figure p r o p o d by the as-
The efforts are twofold: one is to finish mimr is well atham&: the 8.6-rn blank trommm to the funding agenciw it is

Figure 1: The ESO Director Gemtat, Pmt Havan dw Laan, opens the Canfmnm.

2
 astde for adtptiio optics This reflects
firstly the Increased realmtion of th@
potential importance of adaptive optics
as one of Ule astmmmerfs too18 fn
gmund-based observatories. Secondly
a wealth of information tKw h o m e
ayallabb from three well-funded US
laboratories whose part of their research
in adapfive optics has rwntly been d e
classifkk Lblwmce L U m m National
Laboratory In Caltfomia, Phlllipa
Labommy at Mrtland Air Fom Barn in
Nht~Mexico and Uncoln tabomtory at
Mt"T(Massachusetts).One of the several
reasons for this declasifi~h'onwas the
rapid pr~greg~ In the s u m 1 us0 of
adapthre optics made In the astronomi-
cal context, especially the COME-ON
-
experiment the Meudm-ESO WW
ment In wtlab~~ratton with three French
IWatories.
Figwe 2: F m t i poster gfw. Adaptive optics prwents substantid
gd~antagesfor high-resdublon dim4
imaging, s ~ ~sterllarycoronog-
,
mphy and lang basefine opitiWAR Inter-
a "p&sirnistic maximum". In contrast, in msform it into an adve suppart based tarometry. For rfirect Imaging, adaptive
the West8971 world the tradftlon is to on air bags and hwxpensh sff-the- optics IEE more powetful than speckle
stevt negotiating from a srstalt figure, an shelf cwrtrollers. Inlefferomehy for mapping relatively
"optimistic minimum". a n t extended objects (e.9. distant
Sw~alr n e h d s of produchq large galwles). Regarding high rMoMon
(mnwex) ssoondary mirrors were pre-
sented: active lapsdmbmr replication
2 AdAsptlve OptOcs: brnlses and
Diatcultles
8p&!33M314r (my R 1- adaptive
optics will allow one to uas a narrow
and adscr use of a prsfilormter to Tha third day 3arM with a summary entrance sl& Since for a given high
mechanically megaurn h &ape of the of the Second ESO Conference on Wfgh spemta1 mlutlon, #e llnear dimenston
surfam and compere it to its ideal Resolution imaging by Interferornft8y of the grating is pr~porti~nal t~ the en-
shape. This lmw method he8 ken swc- (ma Messenger No. 68, p. 5). The trance slit width, a decrease of the @it
cewfully (spwification 100% d light In of the day was devoted to AdapGve w1& fmm 1 to 0.25 mecond will cor-
O I f 5) used to figure the b k Te!escope Optics and a poster swsiun. This one is veepend to a s ~ ~ withpgratingsh
secondary whfoh Es 1.5 m in djamettw the first of the large Ewmpaarc Con- and other optid elements fwr time6
and for whbh me maximum ggphwl~ ferences an ground-b&sed tslescopm smallerr. Phis results in a speatrograph
amprick is 130 p. The semndraty of and instrumentation in which a $ignM- which Is less e x p ~ hcask , ahd fas-
the M T is presently planned to be in cant fraction of the programme was a& ter to build, and with less them&and
Sic, a compound which has a density
-
alightly larger than Zemdur but whose
Ywng modulus is 400 glgapastcal in-
stead of 70. Because of this quality t h i
-
mirror can be lighter by a faetor 4 than
if it w e buitt of gkw, and thus a ch1m
the dynmicaf perfmmca ~~
to accamplish the tasks of focusing,
mtring, image sttsbllkation and eippe-
cially chqqlimg.
But very inbmtimg dweIopments
were also preseplted for "old tete
mopesMh i l t sweral years ago, far 6s-
ample the -rig of new technolu$$y
on the GTIO 4-m telmmpe by transfer-
ring teehnolagy davdopad for the €SO
MT to thls "oId" 4-m td85cops. Smifi-
cally, thL crxksists in removing from the
dome and hullding all that ceuld be m-
moved, improving the insulation of un-
rnovabte heat s o u m (pumpsfor exam-
ple;), Improving the ventilation by open-
Ing 4-m-high windows m the lower park
sf the dme walls, refiguringthe sacon-
d ~and, moMlng a PQnnmeMimge Figure 3 ~m~ ior. f S n g #w first 65-m LumsIIhte h a n v m b mlrmr. 73e 6.5-m
anal-. Mom rrmbbus is the pian to m d d undercon~mlon.Ar A t fim of the Cgnfmme, the 6.5-m m i m had nlmdy Been
modiify the primary mImr support and cast.
 {nt,yr)r(O0,00) mu-O.OZ?lU#&m e*, oZ48 a-, 0.443 U WI (rrr.yrJw(l0.3OJ rnu.ll.Dl287pm Em- O.!eB e-9 0.- a-, 4.317

Ruum 4: &gtnmEWcaffonlor tfse Keck Tekssccrpe 8D-m dkm&wpnmaryaryLZZ%I& m n t s u r f a w t withsmw mWpoIi&hg and watpw
hwmm but Mme &I? beam &wing IBO % of the Ilght In OHM). RIghL same afleriton h e m flgudngj CBO % af the light In 0.222 which dfghttly
e d~s c a B o r Prgm
~ t r ~ ~W $ K Mast 8nd J. Nelm].

flexure problems. As far as interfernma- What are the p e r f o m n w af the

try is concerned, it is only with a near present adaptive optics system? What
oomplete wavefront CO~TE&&I ai ~ a c h are the pmdictabk ~ ~ ~ .B and S S ..
krleseope that One a n the difflc~l-? Fram t b 13 0rd p ~ ~ ~ t 8 -
maximum eMdency. Thk is an impr-
tgnt pfnt m hhigh ang~larrewolwtion
of !he intsrferometer means that the Rgum 5: S)lnWk: int@rfWgp&mcalculated
photons of a given s ~ aremspread hr#n the final phase map after s
-4-

-
podishing af the 3.5 m f0.5 parabobid. TIls
over a large number of fnrkyrmdent pic- ~ u r e m m wtwss made in Daawreber 1991
ture elemnts. It is ctmI thmfore,that with a S33 nm phase-mm%rgInten'-
I W c~llecting
~ mertwes ~ K a high
d Mi- ter tl?mugh s r&adiva null ammbr. PiFle
cincgr must accaqany tha large angu- rms surfm enw is 21 nm lfrorn Buddy Mar-
lar r-m. #R, t&&VafCby). k

F I ~ Wrs: u m w amw~rg?w tns COIumt,u~T- (P, Winm; Rgpm 7: TAe JEfPan Nanidnal lag@ P w F&$B~ f d l e al
A ~ wO l bsemWI. the pdrn~ry;8.31r& EneIcwre canapt there are m kvge W k
ramat wails%om on dcYrersSde offhe tellersGQpefn anFeF to cham&
am9 Rush itm ah &we F m t mBack, and W KentiIatm are ptvvr'ded.
t wh fa ~i r tmdiElone(Jinthe &y t h e lfrom K Ko~Wra,
T h e ~ ~ ~ I owill
N&hal A s w c a l Okmmaf(~3,).
 2- Squashingthe resin

Figwe 8: Making convex 9vrf9ms by t)re

repIh MR~QUB. Prfwto makin$ thrap&%,
thtr mould is mated with a m w n g sub-
strafe which at the end coolers the e x ~ l
&n surfax. ?'he final thickness af the resrresrn
kyeu ismp t m P. Assus, 0.C.A.).
Bt'CSBC
Flgute9: Expedmtal PSFat I . 6 8 ~ 1obtafnsd with the COME-ON syrptem with 8 s&ng d O l
with the ES61 d8-m te\rncops. 7ba fhemage L mmpmd of a halo (mtinuous IlneJ of 0%
tlons end the 28 posters one was able to FWHM8ndadwpcarre I&aken tine) which hdls the width ofn?eAfrypattm oft& &/.%?cap
get a fair assessment of the sftuation. (F. Rlgau, G. RQUW~ et 31. COME-ON enperim&l.
mare m two in an adaptive
optics system: one is made up of the
wwgfront analyzer, the defomable therefore to use sevePal lawr stars this is not well ezxplared at present. The
mirror, the detector and the computer. grouped within 10-20 ~ o n d splus , problem cauged by the light pollution
The other one Is the Mwence em. a natural star to correct for the tit. This p m d d by the laser stars is Isss acute
The first part of the system is well is, to say the least, an expensive and in the case of satelite surveillance f m
developed: The WME-ON Plus system c u m b e m e system. In addition, the the ground than for Wmnomical obser-
will have 52 actuators and a correGtion k s r beams produce light pollution vations. Satellites have an optical mag-
rate of 400 Hz. fhe LIncoIn Laboratory which may be a nuiwnoe not anEy far nitude of about 15 or brighter Mila as-
experhtent and the Phillips laboratory the tdescope working with actapttve ap- tronomers are interested in mapping
experiment have 241 controlled ac- tics but for the other felesmpes on the much fainter objects as well as bright
tuators with wavefront sensing and same site as well. &abw;;copic s h w W objects, Astronomers atso have more
analyzing perrfomed in 0.5 x sec- and holographic fibers could provide Ilmited funding. They will have to build
onds. These figures l a d one to M- protection against such a nuisance but the adaptive optics systems withln the
mate that full wavdront correction is
attainable in the f o r ~ b l future e at
-
h 2.2 p for an 8-rn telssoope. Tfie YLT
plans an adaptive optics system of 256
dements.
But the problems are severe regard-
ing full correction in the visible
(- 0.55 p). Qne needs a fmer compubr
and a larger number of actuators. It i~
not easy but it is possible to build such a
system, The rail diiflcuky lies in the fact
that one needs a reference star within
i ~ of the SOUrCQ to b
the i s ~ p l m d tpatch
obsenred, i.e. within a radius of a few
mms. And this star must be bright to
send enough pbtone for analyzing
the wavefront in 1- than a few
milliseconds. The only way to have such
a star everywhere h the sky is to make R
- with a laser beam tuned to the 0.5&9 p WHT
sodium line which produces resonance
scattering in the mesospheric a t m k PRIME
-
sodium layer Ett an altitude of 90 km.
The spot where the laser beam hits the
sodium layer forms a point-like source.
E U a single artificial star is not enough
for large talesoopes because of focal
snisoplanatinm (two points diarnetric8lIy GEMINI CASS
IQcatd on an 8-m-r d h m t ~ mirror r ~igullet O: tuu/tiapertumspmmsmpy m.rn
optical a m pmifion~rrgttm en- oi
the p i n t muroe km at the mical at the prim@focus of the WlIIIam W rtd- on thP a h a f d
rnering by 20 I.e. larger than 4 rnl and at the Casmgln focusof one d the ptanned 8-m- f of the r3Wnl project
the isoplanatic patch). It is proposed (drawn to stele) lfrom I. Parry, Udv- ofL I u h ~ m ) ~
 talks were the faint object spectru-
graphs and the infrared instruments, In
the first case, the impetus is given by
the current emphasis on cosmological
obse~atlonalprogrammes and the in-
creasing reliability and sophistication of
optical fibres and mwltisli systems. In
the case of the Infrared instruments, the
impetus comes from the rapid irnprove-
rnernt of the performances of infrared
detectors, in particular the number of
pixels, and the perspective of using the
large telescopes at or near their dlffrac-
tion limit.
While almost all of the telescopes and
instrument designs were for muKtipur-
pose observations, one project stood
out: The Sloan Digital Sky Survey is a
2.5-rn telescope (with a 3-degree fleld of
view) whose scientific purpose is to ob-
tain a new sky survey, and to measwe
optical spectra of 1 m l o n galaxies and
quasars selected from this survey with
the aim of getting an empirical descrip-
tion of their 3-D distribution (large-scale
structure) and their cosmic evotution.
Figure 1 1 : Ttm Second-Generation C M Cassegrain Specircgmph is in realrty a &u&le The telescope is devoted to the above
spectrograph. One am (hereat top left) k MOS, a multi-object ~p8ctmgmphwith a 10 arcmin astrophysical project and does not have
field. The other arrn (bottom right) is SIS, a sub-amemnd imaging spectrograph with e 3 to justify its existence beyond the
arcmin field. accomplEshment of this project. In that
sense, it bears some similarities with t b
large experiment built around particle
accelerators or the older generation of
resources at their disposal. They will 3. Instruments and Components radio telescopes.
therefore be faced with choices and A distant cousin and complement of
cornpromisas. These compromises will The fourth day of the Conference was this project is the DEEP, the Deep Ex-
translate into imperfections of the point devoted to the dewription of instru- tragatactic Evolutionary Probe. This is a
spread function (PSf). Among these ments under conshdicn lor 4-rn class spectrograph plannedfar the KwkTele
less than perfect ?SF,which ones will or &m class telexapes with a large scope md which will be dedicated to
M most umful, or best adapted to a fraction of the time given to the in- one task: obtaining the redshift and ve-
particular type of observations? The one strumentation for the VLT. (Six VLT in- locity dispersion of ld" to f .5x 1o4 faint
with the faintest halo? The narrowest struments are now in the final design galaxies of magnitude up to 23 to 24.
central peak? The maximum strehl stage - see The M~ssenger65, 67.) The spectrograph is in fact made up of
ratio? Simulatjons of obsswations of Present and predicted petformmcss of 4 identical spectrographs at the Casse-
different objects with a variety of PSF three types of components were also grain focus of the Keck telescope. The
are a prerequisite to answering these discussed: optical fibres, CCD and NIC- spectrographs probe 4 fields dispwd
questions. me answer will depend both MOS detectors. symrnefrically around the optical axis,
on the scientific application of adaptive The two largest groups of instruments the central field being used for lV
optics and on technical limitations. rspresented In the 33 posters and the 18 acquisition and guiding.

Mirror Container and VLT 8.2-m Dummy Mirror Arrive at

REOSC Plant

Within the framework of the VLT pri- Although no ''first light" is scheduled and river transport and upon hand-
mary mirror polishing contract, an for this unfortunate brother of the ling;
8.2-metre reinforced concrete dummy Zerodur mirrors, it is already experienc- - test of the grinding and polishing
mirror was manufactured in Dunkirk by ing the first steps in the life of a real machines at REOSC plant;
SOCOFRAM, REOSC subcontractor for mirror. I n d d , the dummy mRor will - tests with the primary mirror cell and
the manufacturing of the dummy mirror, serve many purposes: structure;
mirror handling tool and transport con- - test of the mirror handling tool; - integration tests in Chile.
tainer. - test af the mirror container upon road The two first steps are now com-
transport container. Figure 1 shows the
white-painted concrete mirror being
hdd above the transport container. The
curvature of the mirror is clearly visible.
Note the 28 dampers (dark plots on the
container bottom surface) that will
support the mirror and damp the vibra-
tions transmitted by the transport vehic-
les. The operation was conducted under
conditions much tougher than the ones
the Zerodur mirror will experience (sin-
gle hook crane, poor adjustment con-
trol), and two trials were necessary to
bring the mirror down horizontal and
correctly centred. The Zerodur mirrors
will be handled with three-hook cranes
that allow far better control.
After that vibration sensors were
mounted onto the dummy mirror and
into the container and the box was
closed. The mirror learned patience
while endemic strikes in Dunkirk har- Figure 1: Dummy mirror being lmded onto the transpwrl container.
bour delayed the ship loading, that final-
ly took place on May 21. Lifting a 36-ton
8.4-m diameter box with a single central In the morning May 25 the ship was at Figure 4 shows the truck at about
hook seems quite a challenge. However, the dock in Evry, ready to be unloaded 10:30 p.m., awaiting b escort after be-
crane operations proved much with a mobile 200-ton crane. Figure 2 ing washed by a light rain. The road
smoother than expected and the can- shows the mirror container being un- transport started at about 0 :OD on May
tainer was lowered down into the cargo loaded from the ship. With the Zerodur 26. Access to the speedway was slightly
bay without particular problems. mirrors, dampers will be mounted on the problematic; a few low branches be-
The ship left Dunkirk on May 22 and sides of the container to damp possible lieved they could stop the progress of
headed through the Channel and up the lateral shacks. science. Actually, they were wrong;
Seine toward Evry, south of Paris. While in Dunkirk a standard truck was mercy for their soul. Figure 5 shows the
According to the crew, it made quite an used to carry the mirror to the dock, in truck an the access road to the
impression crossing Paris, river boats Evry the type of truck that was selected speedway.
being usuatly much smaller. Last but not for the transport of the Zerodur mirrors The speedway was closed for about
least, it's almost active: the whole cabin was used. The key feature is the hy- half an hour, the time for the truck to
can be lowered down at the level of the drautic plafform that allows a precise drive to the exit that still bears no other
bay roof thus allowing the ship ta pass control of the container movements. mark than "REOSC Optique". The vibra-
under rather low bridges. The platform can be driven under the tion sensors were fed with data while
While still In the Channel the crew container and lifted up to toad the con- the truck was driving at 5, 10, 15,
made tests to feed the vibration sensors tainer. In addition, the platform can be 20 kmlh and for a short time at the race
with data the (superb) weather was tilted by + 10" (see roll test shown in speed of 25 krn/h. On the road to
seemingly not decided to provide. Full Figure 3). In the afternoon further tests REOSC plant, the speed was reducedto
power manoeuvers back and forwards were conducted. such as full power walking speed and the flowers of two
reportedly did not generate significant acceleration followed by emergency roundabouts faced a dramatic shortcut
vibration levels. While going up the braking, or acceleration while driving of their iife expectancy. Upon arrival at
Seine, inevitable shocks occurrsd at the over a 5-cm-thick wooden beam (the REOSC's gate we found a muddy
crossings of locks. beam is still ok). horseshoe that we officially offered to

Rgum 2: Unloading of the ship h Evry. wure 3 u ~ ~ c k - m ~ - rtest

o l l on
p the hydmub platfarm.
7
figure 4: ID:3Q p.m.: m d y to go. Figure 5: 00:30 a.m.: or7 the w3y to REOSC plan!.

REOSC representatives. tests, the accelerations experienced to be ~0nfirm6-dafter the data recorded
Preliminary observations seem to were well bdow the critical values for a by the vibration sensors will be reduced.
show that even during the toughest Zerodur mirror. This, of course, wHI have That should be done by the end of June.

Introducing the First VLT Instrument Science Teams

J. M. BECKERS, ESO

As described in the Messenger 85, Echslle Spectrograph (UVES) for the Coud6 Near-Infrared Camera
page 10, ESO has embarked on a very Nasmyth foci of the second and third (CONICA)
ambitious programme of instrument VLT telescopes.
T. de Jang (Groningen)
construction for its Very Large Tele- Both the ISAAC and UVES proposals
C. Perrier (Grenoble)
scope. The simultaneous consbuction were reviewed and approved by the
M.-H. Ulrlch ESO), chair
o# four Bmetre telescopes with four ESO Scientific Technical Committee
H. Zinnecker (WOnburg)
focus stations each as well as combined (STC). A number of other instruments
foci using incoherent and coherent are In the definition phase which will
beam cornbindion result in the need for lead to proposals for their construction Focal Reducer/Spectrograph
a relatively large complement of instru- to ESO. (FORS)
ments, well exceeding the initlal In- These instruments are common-user
strumentation requirements of other instruments bJng built for the scientific J. Bergeron (Paris]
large telssoopes like the Keck tele- community. They therefore have to be S. Cristiani (Padova)
scope. The VLT instruments are being built following high standards of quali, P. Shaver (ESO), chair
constructed both in-house by the ESO reliability and standardization. ESO has J. Surdej (LiBge)
optlcal and Infrared instrumentation atso decided to create for each instru-
groups and by consortia of institutes In ment a team of scientists representing Infrared Spectrograph and Array
ESO member countries. Recently wn- its user community (or "custornws").Af- Camera (ISAAC)
tracts have been slgned with a consor- ter the approval of each instrument,
tium headed by I. Appenzeller from the either by the signing of the construction R. Chini (Bonn)
Landesstemwarte in Heidelberg for the contract or by STC approval, such an G. Miley (Leiden), chair
constnrctlon of two VLT Focal Reduc- Instrument Science Team Is created. E. Oliva (Fireme)
edspectrographs (FORS) for the The IST team monitors the implementa- J. L Puget (Orsay)
C a w r a i n foci of the first and third VLT tion of its instrument, concentrating on
8-metre tetescopes and with a consor- issues relating to its scientific use. It is Each !ST has four members. For in-
tium headed by R. Lenzen frMn the asked for its advice on matters relating struments bulk by ESO all members are
Max-Planck-lnstitut fur Astronomic, to thls use, and it reports directly to the selected from institutes in ESO member
also in Heidelberg, for the construction ESO Director General and the VLT Pro- countries, for instruments b u t else-
of the CoudA Near Infrared Camera gramme Scientist. where the IST is chaired by a member of
(CONICA) for the first VLT telescope. At this moment lnstturnent Sclenoe the ESO scientific staff. These teams
These Instruments were described in Teams have been formed for CONIC4 represent the future user community of
the 67th issue of the Messenger, The FORS and ISAAC. UVES was only ap- these instruments. They therefore wel-
instruments being bulk by €SO are the proved recently (May 12, 1992) by the come your input on scientific matten
Infrared Spectrograph and Array Cam- STC. Its IST will therefore be created dating to these instruments, as doas
era (ISAAC) for the first VLT telescope shortly. The membership of the three the VLT Programme Scientist (the au-
and two copies of the UltravioleWisible Instrument Science Teams is as follows: thor of this note).
PARSCA 92: the Paranal Seeing Campaign
M.SARAZIN, €SO

The f i
b 1 readers of the Messenger or small telesco;pas, acoustic sounder
mainly ma11LASSCA 8t?", La LaSWa and micmthmal sensors.
W i g Gampaign which gathered sw- tn a second rep& and several publi- C m Pairanal emerged as an out-
eral scientnts from tha member states a first step was taken tctwesds standing site with respect to doudinese,
wlth tlw principal aim & studying
I the a mom arnbhus goal in relatian with water vapour contant of the, m o s p h m
physii of the atmosphere above the emerging high-rwdution imaging and im;age quality, but lble WESI known
obrmtory. The success of LASSGA techniques, 1.e.: to m w u r e more about the temporal b M o u r of the
signfficantly increavad the eoM&m;e exotic pammetgrs m m d spsckle wgvefront It was pm~iselyto gain in-
thd the theory developed during the Iffetlrne or Jsopkmtlc anglg and to sights &out how high aove h e site the
seventies for modelling the interaction point out existing relationship wlth thmnat turbulence travels and hcw fast
of atmosphere and staxtigtlt was ad* standard attmosph~rlcparameters n- it mwes Ulat the PARSCd 92 campaign
quate for m o n o m i d purposes. It was carded daily dl over the wotkl by means was w g m W , with a srnatler number of
also a saund starting base for the part of of balloon-borne rn&eor~Iwicalradio partioiparrtsthan LASSCA betxiuse tde-
the VLT slts m e
y related to image soundings. %ape time at Paranal is gHlr a dream,
quality. Duringthe subwquent yews, the VLT but wltb innovating techniques ming
The LASSGA group ass@ssed In a first site 5uavey team In Chile dLIWYlly several tons of instrummtion*.
q o & the g m a l quality of la Sjlla, g a night ~ ~ an impressive
after night The Table below lists the maorded
identifying the relative contribution of data base on various mountains, which pwanwt8r-s and the measurement
doma, surface laysr, boundary layer and prompted ESak governing bodies to place. Due to the imprwke levelling
high atmosphere in the tong exposure take h D ~ e m l b e r18W a decision of work still gohg on &lb on the summit
width of astronomical lmagles (seeing), major amseguenoes for ESUs future of Parand, a nearby surnmit (nicknamed
They &lso oomparvtd varlws means at the VLT ohwatory would bs I w W in "N7T peak" for historical regsons) WEIS
monftoring t h atmosphere
~ wing large tker C m B m a l area used for the m~nitaringclf image quality.
The m ~ r o l o g ibaltwns ~ were
launched from fithe foot of Paranal to get
them as clog$ BS passibteto the summit
during the initial phase of the&awmt
AB for the SIDARmvan 8U-cm-diameter
mllectar mounted in a $ea.ciontatner
(see pbture), it 6tsyed comfartabty at
the ESO base m p , being sensitive
only to the atmospheric Ifkyars at more
than 1 km over ground.
The csunpdgn lasted 14 nights Cn
March 1992 divided into two runs pro-

' & t d particlpam ol the PARSCA Campsign:

M. &ed, A. F w . J.F. tdankwk 4. Vemln
@apt. d'katro-lque, Univ. de N k ] , S Hw-
~l;tndeLz pnat. de AsmMm de Canertas), 8.
tapet (Dapl. A. Ftetmel. Oh.de la Cdte d'Ann),
E CUzard (EtabllmenI d Z W et de Weohsr-
chea MWmlogiq~1es,Toulavse). The cempalgn
was~paFtlyattendedbyJ.&akem,E5o.VLT
i3wmmme~iat.
'"g1DAR slands for SClnNlletbn D e ( m And
Rtmelng.

Tclbllo t : Usf cfatmm@Wc patm&wa rneasw each night during i%ePARSCA m p a i s n

lnsthrment

$t (4 -30km] and sdfltnlam SGIDAR Base m p

?/docityof turbutmt kiym (1 km) SClDbR Baw camp
d usttrcal pram& tD-30 km) Wt0tn-i brxne serrsws Faranal
wnd ~ t d ~ (O-50 o kin)
n RadIosende Pwmal
fempeclatm, htdmklity 10-30 km) Radicmnde Parenal
-g Seeing Monitor m*
wn€l DIMMI mpeak
&intlllstkM Wnt111metw M-rw
Velocity of wavefront and Life time DlMM 3 (modffied) rn-
Gbmn4 mic- SmaaIS mpaak
WCnd, terngetature, humidity r n ~ m l o g l c aW
l b4-i-r peak
viding the team with same days Tar reat telescope control as well as for flexible F. Roddler, M. Sawin, J. Vmin, Q.
and sightseeing. In addtion to the ~hdtrling,1.e.: for optimally tuning the Welgatt et aL; LASStX La Sllta Wing
gathering of an ulmpressive amount of cbsmation to the otrserviq wndEtions. Campaign, Data malwI8 Part I, W n 3 :
(20 baHwns. were launched suc- The PAFfSCA campaign brought a use- December 1987, K T Rep& N0.56.
osssfully), it wirs an oppoth~jfy to corn- ful coRtrEbution to this task. J. V a i n , G. W@R st al,; LASSCA: La
pare the new diferdd monitor Sllla Seeing CampaQn, Data malpis Part
o;f the Institute de Asirofislca dd Itas 11, Spedrle Ufetim, lwplanat[c angle md
outer scale of turbulence; D e o m b r
Canarias to the ESO DIMM. During this 1888, VLTR&porf,No. a.
period also took place the first opera- We wish to thank the members of the
tional run of the new ESO Differential ESO administration in @arching, Sm- M. Mullw, G. Wer, S. Halm, (3. Wdgell;
&AQQ, La Silk and Parand who solved, Optioal Pammtm of the Atmosphere;
Motion arKI Caherence Monitor, a won- Proc. NOAO-Emmnf- on: High-ResolU-
derful oppamnity for calbrating t his one after the other, all the logistical
problems ~ u ~the I Ipreparation of the
tion ImagIq by t n t m e b y , @arching.
modified DlMM, abb to deliver not only Q
15-18 Much 1988,
the seeing but also the temporal & m c - campaign. We convey our special
thanks to the P m J team headed by P. J. Vemin, G. Weigeit, $-La Cacchc, M.
WBtIcs d the wavefro&. Thew para- MOller, Speckle lifetime and kmplanfdty
mebm are awaited by the VLT planners de J o q e who accepted the additional determh'@0~8:d i m m e e 9 u m e and
In need of statistics for better designing worklaad and provided the PARSCA derivation from turbulence and wind pro-
the time sensitive VLT 8~4system. team with unexpeaed oornfort and ex- ; :m A ~ t m .A&t~php,243, 553-558
fhe more we hprove wr knowledge cellent working conditions at Parand. (1891).
of the environrn- conditfons of the &. Lopert, M. Baratin: Optlrnm expasure
VLT Ohtyatory, the mum tsfficiarrt is R&m= times for interferometry: Proc. ESO conf.
the operation of the telescape. Astro- (1) Seehg at at SiSillcl: LASSCA 86; me on High R d u t i o n lrnaglng by I~WBT-
QimaZotogy is a taoi ta be used for A&swnpr No.44; June 1986. orrwQly It: Garchin$. Oct. 14- 18, 1991.

New RmEmOmSmCm Polishing Facility for Giant Mimrs

Inaugurated
On April 24,1992, the f rench Minister ible precision did not tail to Impress the ment. He mentianeel the great optical
for Research and Space, Professor audience. traditions In France and that there are all
Hubert Cuxien, inaugurated a unique, After a few further, short interventions chances that the VLT project will be
new optical facility of R.E.O.S.C.. at by local officials, Professor Curien ex- achieved i~nthe best possibte way so as
Saint Pierre du Perray, near Paris. The pressed a great satisfaction to see the to become the world's first telescope at
delicate polishing of the giant mirrors for new facility rsady and he warmly con- the end of the present decade. The
ESO's 1Bmetre equivalent Very Large gratulated R.E.O.S.C. and the planning Mlni~terthen unveiled e plaque c o w
Telescope (VLT) will take place here. staff to this most significant achieve- memorating the inauguration.
The festive act took place in the pres-
ence of about 300 invited guests, who
were seated in the cavernous hall of the
new building, just in front of the two
polishing tables. They came from all
over France and also from the neigbour-
ing countries as representativesof Euro-
pean Science and Technology. The
event also drew a lot of media attention
and most of the French TV channels
were represented. (The €SO video team
obtained extensive rnaterlal to docu-
ment the VLT Tale.)
Following an introductory speech by
the ESO Director General, Professor
Hamy van der Laan, in which he praised
the very good cooperation between
ESO and R.E.O.S.C., Dr. Daniel Enard
from ESO spoke about the history of the
VLT project, underlining the need to
equip the world's largest telescope with
optically perfect mirrors. M. Jean B-
piard, Deputy General Manager of
R.E.O.S.C.and formeriy involved in the
polishing of the main mirror for ESO's Figure 1 : Professor Nubed Curisn (middle), French Minister fw TechnoIogy and Space, at Ihe
3.6-rn in the early 1970's, then pre- inauguration of the R.EO.S.C. facility on Apri(24. 1SW2. To his left. M. Bujon de J'Etang,
sented the intricacies of the new factory, Chairman and Gsneraf Manager d SFNW) and fa the right. M, hrninique de Ponteves.
whose combination of size and incred- C h a i m and General Manager of R.ED.S.C.
Polishing fhe WorldTslargest
UpticaI Mimrs Speech by the ESO Director General,
It was in the summer of 1989, that
€SO and R.E.O.S.C. signed a contract Prof. H. van der Laan:
concerningthe polishing of the four 8.2- Monsieur le MInistre, M Q ~ s Bujon
~ ~ ude~ IEtang, Monsieur de Ponteves,
metre mimr blanks for the ESO 16- Momieur E s p W , Mesdames et Messieurs,
metre equivalent VLT. This included the
design and construction by R.E.O.S.C. C'OObservatoire Euro- Austral (I'ESO) est une orgalnisation cr& pow
of a completely new polishing facility, rendre IkstronomEe eump&nne plus int&ressants, plus ambitieuse et plus
which would be able to handle thistech- com@tit/ve. Mintenant dam sa trentieme annde, I'ESO a amplement
nically very demanding task. ddrnontrk que b perskvdrance rappo&: il n'y a aucun doute que les pre-
In less than three years, She new 32- midres ann&s furent difi(icE&s,les pmg&s trop lents 4 venir, et la qualit4 et la
metre tall, 11OD d R.E.O.S.C. optical quantitt2 de temps de tBIescape, par miElion de francs ddpensd, ddcevantes.
Iabomtary was constructed and has L'histoire de cette iuite est relate dans Ees livres Bcrifs par les leadem de Is
also been equipped with the most mod- pemI8re &n&roh, les Pmfesseurs Fehrenbach et Bfaaffw. Mais Iea lecfeurs
wn, computer-controlled machines. du MESSENGER, te magazine trimestrid de I'ESi3 savent blen combien
One of these will perform the rough pol- /'allure st la vitesse ant change, dans queI/emasure, on poumdt dire d m a t i -
ishing. Another will give the four enor- que, optique, &lectronique, apto-rn&anique et systtsmes rle contrBle, ddtec-
mous mirrors their final form and ensure teurs et logiciels ont BtB ht&res afin de rthliser des performances encore
that the 50-mZ surf- will b6 B-d- Jncdnn~lgsIEy a wne dAcennie, Le TBIesmpe B Nouvelle fechnologie C(e
ingly smooth, with residuals at the 5-nrn esf la concdtisation ch ce progr8s. mais Ee tdlescope de trois matre soimte
Iwd. partage une h n e parf de ces innovations. Son grand rnimir malrs susi ses
In order to cany out the correspond- miroirs secondaims et mud& furent polis par REQSC sous la direction de
ing tests, R.E.O.S.C. has built a very Monsieur Espiard, avec asses d'habMt4 aftisanale ef de prdcisiian pour
elaborate 32-metre high tower, just maintenir le tdlescop ii la M e du pro$& pour des dkennies.
above this machine. The tower is a dou- L'ESO est au service de fa mmmunautd de rpctrerche et pouraccompIir ce
ble structure which will pratect the devoir, I 'organisation ddpend de I'ingdniositd et de la pe&vBrance innovative
measuring dwice from any adverse in- de I'industrie. REOSC, et avec dle une poign& d'entreprises europrSmnes, a
fluences from the outside and keep I ddekivement participB aux prog* de I'ESO et a tou]aum dpondu a s s
them at a constant temperature and asphtlons. REOSC eut b murage d'accepter que ces attentes fussent
humidity. All of this is necessary to
realize the full potential of the VLT, so
' changdes en obligations contmctueIIes.
Auiourd'hui nows crildbrom une pierre rniEIiaire dans I'hisf~/m commune de
REOSC et de I'ESO, une borne mE/lIaireaussi dans I'histoire drr VLT, le grand
that it will be able to prcrducs the sharp-
est possible images and detect and ob- tdlescope de /'Europe des prochins cinquante ans. Au nom de I'ES4 de
senre fainter and more distant celestial notre personn@l,da notm cammunaut& d"utili'sat~rs je remercie 1'8quipe de
objects than any other telescope. REQsC paur la celleboration splandide et je ysus fdlicite de cetfe installation
esamtieJr'e pour a1Y~'ndmnotre but commwn.
L'ESO et REOSC partagent trois IeRms de nos noms acronws. Mals
Transporting &.%Metre Mirrors REOSC an a dew de plus: le 'C* ce qui, je c d s , reprdsente $ Cr&ativitd et le
from Mainz to Baris 'R' sans aucun doute dkigne la R$so1ution. Que ces ddnominations con-
The ZERODUR mirror blanks will be tjnuent d'etre vas caract8nstiques.
delivered by SCHOlT Glaswerke Je vous remercie de votre attention.
(Maim Gemany).The first blank, which
is now undergoing the final treatment
there, will be picked up and transported
by R.E,Q.S.C. in May 1993; the three
others wfU follow soon thereafter. The
mimr blanks will be ttransported from
MJnz to Paris by barge, down the river
Rhlne, along the Channel coast and
then up the river Seine to the town of
Evry, near the R.E.O.S.C. VLP Faciliky.
So if you happen to be in Paris in the
late spring of 1993 and you see a heavily
loaded barge cartying a 10x10m2
rather flat box, slowly passing the Eifel
tower, you witl now know what is inside!
Jhe Editor

Agum a: Pro- GWrks -F

@gh& farmev D ~ ~ dlhg
O XH # W ~ ~ P R ) V B ~ G B
Obserrataryendchalm of Ms ESQ Fn-
stm- Cormittee* with Dr. W d
OlardofESO, In frant of oneofthe large
prsrkhIng tams.
Distant Radio Galaxies
"
G.MILEY', H- R&TGERING ', R. HUNSTeSD4,F. MACCH€?~D'~
1K. CHAIWBERS~~
SCHILIZ~', and R. VAN OJIK"
J. ROLANB~* RR.
,'

Sterrewacht, Leiden, the Netherlands; institute for Astronomy, Universify of Hawaii, U.S.A.; lnstirut
d'hstrophysiique,Paris, France; Universify of Sydrmy, AustraEia; Radiosterrenwacht, Dwinge100~the Netherlands;
~pam TeI~scopeScience Institute, Baltimore, U.S.A.; 7AstrophysicsDivision, Space Sciences &pf. Eiimpean
Space Agency

I.Introduction that radio sources are unique COS- distant galaxies showed surprising cor-
mological probes. There are three main respondence between the optical and
We am at present canying out an EESO
reasons why radio galaxies are so im- radio struduw. The optical and to a
Key Programme to find and study dis-
portant far studying the early Universe. lesser extent the infrared emission were
tant radio galaxies using a new tech-
Erst, their radio luminosities are sum- found to be preferentially aligned along
nique. Here we give a "mid-tern" pro-
~ientrylarge to enable them to be easily the radio axes. The optical/radio align-
gress report. The Key Programme is
detected out to large redshifts. Second- ment is present both for the optical
based on a method that we developed
for optimizing the c h a n m of finding
ly, most of them also emit intense emis- emission lines and the continuum.
sion lines which enable their redshifts The fraction of objects which possess
distant radio galaxies. It is based on a
to be easily measured. Thirdly, unlike ionized gas halos increases dramatically
correlation that exists between radio
quasars, radio galaxies are spatially ex- at redshifts greater than about 0.1. The
spectral index and redshift. Radio sour-
tended In the optical and infrared. alignment of the halos with the radio
ces with the steepest spectra tend to be During the last decade CCDs have emission can be readily explained by
more luminous and at larger distances
revolutionized studies of distant radio interactionof the jets with the interstellar
than sources having normal spectra. galaxies, enabling much fainter galaxies
The direct objectives of our key pro-
and intergalactic gas. The more vigor-
to be imaged and their redshifts to be ous interaction observed at large red-
gramme are h f o l d . First we wish to
measured spectroscopically. From the shifts implies that distant radio galaxies
increase the sample of distant galaxies theoretical standpoint, the search for may have more gas than nearby ones.
and investigate the statistics of the
and study of galaxies having redshifts in fh9 ionized gas halos could then be
population. Secondly, we are studying excess of 2 or 3 became increasingly
the detailed properties of the early- associated with the collapse of an em-
important as theoretical arguments bryo galaxy during its formation.
epoch radio galaxies in en attempt to based on the canonical "cold dark mat-
understand how they formed and
The second effect to be observed was
ter'bcomologies indicated that it was more surprising. Not only was the line
evolved.
during or after the epochs correspond- emission (ionized gas) observed to be
ing to these redshifts that the majority of aligned along the radio axis, but so also
galaxies were formed. was the optical and infrared continuum
Until a few years ago, it was thought radiation. The continuum alignment
In the late forties, Cygnus A, the sec- that although radio sources were used seems to set in at a redshift of about 0.6
ond brightest radio source in the sky, to detect distant galaxies, the radio and about 80% of radio galaxies having
was found to be associated with a faint emission could be "forgotten" in subse- redshifts in excess of 1 have radio and
galaxy having a fedshift 0.057. This re- quent consideration of their optical optical continuum structures which are
markable discovery led to the realization properties. However, CCD pictures d approximately aligned.

lambda tangs tromsl

-
Figure 1: A z 22 galaxy associated with a Texas mdEo sourn. Left is an 8-band image (60-mintrte Bxposure wHh the 2.2-m ESO/MPI
-
bI~smpe).7 h /merge has a IImHing mqnltude of 24. The superimposed radio contouts are from "snapshot"observa&ns taken with the VLA
at 20 crn. The two lubes are separated by 5". Right show the cmmponding optica!s p a c t m (60-minute gxposure wlth EFOSC2 on the m.
 -
Figure 2: A z 2.5galaxy assmi'ated with a Texas radio soma Left is an R-band image (45-minute exposure with 2.2-m ESOMPI ~ B ~ S C O W ) .
-
The Image has a limiting magnitude of 24. I38 superimp~sedmdio contours are from "mapshof"observations taken with the VLA at 20 cm.
The two lobes are separatd by 12". Note the double optical morphwIugy (we text). Right shows the corresponding optical spectrum (a 45-
minute e.rposun3 wlth EFOSC on She 3.6-m tel&SCops).

Two viable explanations for the opti- 3,Finding DistantGalaxies We then began our ESO observations
cal continuumlradio alignment have by making CCD images of uftrastwp
been proposd. One possibility is that Barely five years ago. the most distant spectrum saurces that were unidentified
interaction of the radio source with the galaxy known was 3C326.1 with a red- on the Sky Survey. Wih exposure times
intergalactic medium results in the pro- shift of 1.8. By concentrating on iden- of typically 3 x 25 minutes through an
duction of a sufficient number of stars to tifying "ultrasteep spectrum" radio sour- R-filter on the 2.2-m telescope, we
produce the aligned component ot the ces, we have since discovered about 25 reach limiting magnitudes of about 24.
optical continuum emission. An altma- galaxies having redshift larger than 2, So far we have imaged 170 of the 300
tive to the starburst picture was promp- most of these during the ESO Key P m candidat~that remained after the pre-
ted by the measurement of appreciable gramme. At the time of writing, the three liminary stages of the project had been
optical polarization in extranuclear galaxies with the largest know red- completed. In order to search for optical
emission from the bright aligned radio shifts were all found using our ultrasteep identifications, the CCD frames need to
galaxy 3C 368 by Sperello Alighieri, Bob spectrum technique. be calibrated Plstromebrically using stars
Fosbwry, Clive Tadhunter a d Peter Finding the high-redshift galaxies has that are present born on the CCQ image
Quinn waking with EFOSC on the ESO involved a long series of systematic and on the Sky Survey. All the CGD
3.6-m telescope. This led to the sugges- steps at radio and optical wavelengths. images have been calibrated and the
tion that the aligned optical continuum After each stage the number of can- radio maps have been superimposed.
light that we see from distant radio didates was whittled down. We first Two examples of our radioloptical over-
galaxies is scattered emission from a made a preliminary selection of several lays are shown in Figures 1 and 2. We
quasar embedded In the nucleus. Be- sample of radio swrcss known to have selected faint fuzzy optical counterparts
cause the quasar shines In a namw defmite w suspected ultra-steep radio on the CCD frames as candidates for
cone along the radio axis, we are unable spectra from the Parka, Molonglo and optical spectroscopy.
to see it directly. However, electrons or Texas surveys. Using these initial seiec- There is a dramatic increase In the
dust dong the radio source see the tian criteria, 650 objects were selected space density of quasars between 1.5 >
beam of quasar light and scatter it. from more than 50,000 sources in- r > 2.8, the "quasar epoch". Although
Neither the starburst nor the scatter- spected. the detailed behaviwa is still uncertain,
ing models by themselves are entirely The next stage was to eany out pre- it a p p m that the radk galaxy statistics
satisfactory. The presence of pobriza- liminary radio observations with the are consistent with a roughly similar tw-
tlon means that some scattering must VLA, and Molonglo Synthesis Tslgscope haviour. For objects which are located in
occur, but it cannot be the whole story. (MOST)to find out which of the sus- the quasar epoch, Lyman a will be ob-
In some of the distant galaxies, struc- pected sources definitely have ultra- served blueward of 4600 A. Because in
tures are observed to be aligned with steep spectra and to provide radio a characteristic spectrum of a radio
the radio emission, not only at optical structural and positional information galaxy Ly a is a factor of 5- 10 more
wavelengths, but also In the infrared. which can be used for their optical iden- luminous than any other observable line,
Using a scattering model it is difficult to tifications. To th$ end we made snap- maximum sensitivity in the blue is m-
produce enough emission to account shot observationsof 550 sources. Using cia1 for measuring the redshifts.
for the observed aligned luminosities. Pc the accurate radio positions, we then Until rwntly, there was m, CCD on
composite picture of distant mdio sought optical counterpark of the radio La Sitla capable of dolng spectroscopy
galaxies which includes both bursts of sources on Sky Survey plates using the with high quantum efficiency in the blue
star fwmation and scattering along the GASP system at the Space Telescope and low readout noise. The availability
radio sources seems most likely, Science Institute in Baltimore. About d the new Tektronix chip with EFOSC
Studies of additional high-redshift 80% of the sources En OUT sample were on the 3.6-m telescope has remedied
galaxis are clearly wananted, unidentifiid. this situation. We used this chip for
 I .ME-14
4
-,
7.5OE-17
'g
I,',
1

2.506-17

0
40
l aabda langstram l
I 1I ; -2 ddJ&j. JSGJ&~ r~riliJ TLWS lgC6t0 mC),L& k a I@-mlnWR-band (7mh@ e;paosgKe Mik EMhW an
rMW!j. T h e r i ~ h e s a I h n ~ ~ ~ a F~ - h 2 4a . ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ m t a w s ~ ~ m ~ ~ ~ a t " ~ i o n s
20m.lhe two I& are sepmed by er."# W dOubk qplW ~ h d f f D g y(9ee text). R@ht Shows rhe &xwrmpmdgopW spmwrn
pO-mEnwte ~ X ~ ~ ~wfth
L VERWC
E I sul 3.8-m kk~cope)~

the first time on our last ofmrving run quasars. h pracrim such an analysis b vrlrlch k expected to ~ E completed
I late
and it KWIW in a significantly Im- compllcertd and requires considerable in 1992.
prwed detection rate. Taking all the cerre. Welkd&ned criteria we being de-
data awned so far, we have detected veloped to allow ther identificaftm pet-
emisston lines In 30 of ths 85 galaxies centage8 to be analysed quantitatively,
4. Follow-Up Olmemzdians
that &sewed spectmmplcdly. We preparatory to constraining the evolu- At this stage, we am only abwt half
have detmind 330 &shifts of which tim ~f the luminosity function. Our way through the nominal observing time
23 hsve z > 1.5 (04. see enclosed fig- spectroscopy was done in several sew- dlooated for the Key Programme. Inmi-
uw. rata sessions with different ~ M v i t i e s Mly, musf af the time until now has
The statistic^ of the ph0tMneby and and dlfk3rsnt colour respansea For b m devoted ta finding n w distant
spectmsoopy are being maty& to- each of these it is necessary to deter- radio galaxies. Detecting distant radio
gether w& radio source counts and mine the limiting redsh'i out to which a galaxies b a prelude to studying their
spectral index distributions anrl size dis-
Iffbutions to ptace constraints on the
standd radio galaxy w t c l haw been properties. The qua= at z 2-
deteded. A w u n t has aCso to &e taken occurred anf y about 2 blllfcin years after
evolution of space density of radb d f h radio
~ qmztml mlmion criterfa the Big Bang. GaIaxies at larger red-
gataxies and to compare the redshift used. A rigorous discussion of the re!- shW are likely to be close to the epoch
depend- of tho luminosity function wmt constraints will be undertaken of their formation. !3emuse they are
of radio galaxies with Wevanf data far by H. Ft&ttgaring h his Ph.D. thesis spatially wtended, radio g~laxiespro-

PJr

4000 5000 6000 7000

lambda t wrgetreas)
Rgure 4: A z = 2.9 gdmy assocjatgd with a Texas radio m u m . LeR is an R-band Image (76-minute a~posurewith EFOSC2 on the N n
telescope). -
image has a limlthg mgnftudeof 24. The superimposed radio contou~;~ am-f m "snapshot"obsematIlons laken with the VL9
at 20 m.The radio extmEon is 4". Right shows the cormspanding optical spectrum (120-minute mposwm with EFOSC2 on the m.
Flgure 5: A gala~yassociatedwith a T' -- , ,.-,--.- .,-,..... ., ,. ., ,. -. . . --..- ....,.- .,.,
, , .....
,,,,,, ,..,.,,,,
-
2 2 - m ESOMPI tet~scopeI.738 image has a limiting magnflude of 24. 7he superimposed radio contours are fmm "snapshot" o b s e n / a t h
taken with the MA at 20 cm. 7he two labes are separrrted by T: Right shows the corresponding Sky-subtmW 2-dlmensiw8l spaclrogmm
(720-minute exposure with EMMl on the NW. The horirortlal awis (wavelenglh) Wend fmm 5270-6260 A and the v e r t b l awls is In the spat&/
dlrectlon along the radio axis. One very bright line is observed with a spatial extent dabout 8". Thetinuurnfalls off sharpiy bluewards of the
IIne. The only tenable tine identification is Lya at r = 3.6.

vide unique dbgrmtics For studying this Hne embslon and the oclaur dstdbu- swpe and European and global VLBl
important stage h history. Sim in most tlons now I@@& us to be!ieve that one nemrks. A m n t dimvery by Uwn of
caws,the associated emklon lines are member of each pair may be a H1 abwrptlon in the radio spectrerm of a
bath bright and extended, they am ex- foreground object. sirnilat radio galaxy with z a 3.4 offers
cellent objsob for follow-up spedros- To investtgate the pmhbillty of exc'Mng possibiltiea for using some of
copy as we11 88 narrow-band and broad- chanm o o i n c l m In obiects d thk our objmts for probhg neutral$as in the
band Imaging, kind, we are analping -the number vs. early Universe.
Two intetesthg objects far which we rnagnltude statidics In each of our CCD Also, study of the rnorpholoqies and
have already dme a limibd amount of frames. study will also prouide am kinerndcs of the ionized gas end the
follow-up are shown In Figures 2 and 3. lmpottant Input into discussions of the mktImshCp of the line emission to the
In both c w a the folknving pr~pertles Idmttflcattan statistics and lumhsity cantlnuum emision should elucidate
are arpparent: fund4on evolution. the proaxses responsible for ionizing
(i) A pair of appmmly I n t m h g apt& We are planning a variety of additional the gas. The l o n M gm halos offen
cal objects are aligned alwg the radio follow-up obsercratians af our highest gxtend for more than 100 kpc. 7he ob-
axm. sedshlft gddes. Oetaled mapping of sewed nuclear fluxes ars EnmfRcient
fli) Each member of the @r is anom- the (aptfd and infrared) spectrsl e n w to produce the large ernlssian-line
aEously bright in R. (integrated dl8Mbutiom and analysis of Ureir vzuia- lminoslties by photoionktion, h a n g
R-mwrtudes 19.7 md 20.8 tlons across the gal&@ should provlde support to tho modsb involving adso-
smkrely compared with a typical value mmtminta on thrt optEcalJradfo align- tropic photolantration artd MerSlg.
of 23 for other raolb galaxl# at the ment sffeat. Models of stellar popuia- The Key Programme 1% pmvidlng us
same W h i f t (2< z < 3). dcnns am M n g refined by Rrsoca and with a unique dabs& of radio galaxies
(ilk)Bright Lya extends for 5" avet Gdderoni of the I n ~ t l MdsAstmphysi- at distancm that would have b m
each system. qsre in Pads for comp~dsonwith the thought Impassible until a few years
From t h e e propeflles we were fed to specml energy dlstr&utim~, The opti- agoOStudies of these 0b16ctS from nwu
c m d e r the possibility that b&h ob- cal data will be complemented by mom until deep into the VLT era should pmc
jects may Lzs primml galaxy mergers. detailed radio b b d i o n s mdlo vide imporkitant information about the
However, a study of the extent of the arrays, including tfie Austnalf~T e b early universe.

European Planetarians Meet at ESO Headquarters

On May 10 and f 1, 1992, about 75 the Astronomical Observatory at the Hartl and Wolfschrnidt, who first con-
Planetarians, representing planetaria University in Strasbwrg, herself re- veyed the new ideas behind the
from most European countries, sponsible for the planetarium in that 1000 rn2 exhibition, the Planetarianshad
gathered at ESO Headquarters in city. the opportunity to thoroughly study the
Garching. It was the third meeting of this The meeting was preceded by a study numerous displays. Later in the day,
international group, following earlier visit to the Deutsches Museum in MUn- they were informed about the new, ma-
ones in Strasbourg (1986) and in Paris chen, where the participants were re- jor planetarium project which will be
(1989).The local arrangements were ta- ceived by the museum staff responsible ready in Munich in 1993.
ken care of by the ESO Information Ser- for the new astronomy exhibitian, just The actual meeting began at €SO In
vice, while the scientific programmewas opened there (cf. page 21). Undsr the the late Sunday afternoon with a warm
organized by Professor Agnes Acker of expert guidance of Drs. Teichmann, welcome by the Director General, Ro-
fessor Harty van dm Lam, who em-
phasized the importance of close con-
nections between the planetaria and the
scientific institutions. The scientists pro-
duce the new discoveries which are
then conveyed to the public by the pro-
fessional planetarians. Together, a h
tey
work to explain the science which is an
indispensiblepart of our general culture.
This interwention was followed by a
demonstration of some of the latest
ESO video films and other educational
and publlclty products from the E m
Infomation Service. One of the ESO
astronomers spoke about the VLT pro-
jed and soma of the research projects
m
which will be undertaken with it, begin- .;- -
ning in 19Q6 when the first 8.2-metre
VLT unit telescepe will be ready at Para-
nal. Thereafter, the participants had the
o~~ortunitv to visit various areas of the
E S tieadquarters,
~ induding the Re- Rgure 1: m ESO Director General, Fmf-r Hany van der Cam, w l c o m ~the Eumpem
mote Control facility, the image pro- Planetadam fa ESO.

Figure 2: a r t LWbah, Remote T w Operidor at ESO, ex- Figure 5; Wrru6 M d s m kom h ESO I n f m Service demon-
Pne,118 the Hemote C M r d Fac~UtyIn GWChIns, fmw h m ohm- stmtms some of the photcgmphk W q w mpkyed k the sky
riom are made with the New fwhdqy -C' %tLe @//a, atlas kbmtary at Che EsO k d q w t m .

cessing room and the photographic rims in Europe learned more about the thered by mutual support and it certainly
laboratories. At each place, ESO staff various materials, availabte from €SO contributed to bringing the originators
explained the techniques. The possibili- and which may be useful for their work. and the disseminators of astmnornical
ty of observing from G e m y with a The meeting was a good demonstration xlnformstion closer to each other.
telescope in Chile, 12,600 krn away, of how the common cause may be fur- The Edifor
was particularly impressive to many of
the participants.
The evening d e d with a fsative con-
ference dinner in a very Ekvarian envi-
ronment. The VLT Tale
The next day was fully devoted to the ESO announces its latmt vidm fllrn: THE VLT TALE. It has been produced by the
presentation of new projects and tech- E50VIM Team and describes the background and the first fifteen years (!) of the ESO
niques and the individual planetaria, and 16-mette Very kyle Telescope project. Beginning with the very first, vague ideas in
several demonstrations of new quip- 1977, it follows the many-sided developments that have Ied to the present, hectic
ment were made. constnrcUon phase. The VLT is placed In Its historical context and some of Rs many
high-tech features are explained,
ESO was pleased to be host to this W E VLT TALE is avaltable from the ESO lnfonatlon Service (add- on the last
meeting and to Enfarm this distinguished page), In VHS and S-VHS format; the duratbn is 29:20 mln. The price is 70.- DM and
audience about the scientific and tech- prepayment must acmrnpany aach order. Please be sure to indicate the desired
nical work taking place at this organiza- format.
tion. At the same time, many Planeta- -
A Giant VLT Model for Seville
Just before the new VLT model teti for EXP0'92 IR SevNle, ESO photographer Hans-Uermann Ueyer made thrs picture of tt m the ESO Cauncrl
Room. This IS the only place at the ESO Headquarters which s big enough to accommodate the vast dtmensrons of the 1:35 model: 3 x 4 x I
metres.
The model represents the VLT configuration as rf was in early 1992. In the meantime, some mrnor changes have occurred (which wlil be
corrected in the model when it comes back to the ESO Headquarters tn late 1992. In paftrcular, srnce an extra 5 metre wJi/ be removed Irorn the
top of the Paranat mountain, i. e. altogether 28 metres, the VLT platform WIN become even larger and the nd~viduatdomes will be fariher away
from the edge of this platform.
The VLTmodel was duly Iranspofled to Sevrlle and IS now on drsplay IR the Paviilion of the Future. Standing in lronl of it. the vts~torsWIN lind a
small table wtth erght buttons. Pushmg one of them they wrll experience one 01 four short vtedeo lrlms produced by the ESO V ~ d wteam tn
English or Spanrsh and WIN see some interesting examptes of the drfferent types of research that can be done with the VLT.
ESO Exhibitions in Chile a Tremendous Success -
P. BBUCNR, A. CABILLIC, ESO, I-a Sitla
C.MADSEN, &SO,Garchjng

1. Introduction opportunities to meet the public of the Hamilton, aH Deputies and Senators far
4th Region, which hosts La Silla. the lVth region, the provincia! Governor,
After havina travelled over South the Mayors of La Serena and Coqujrnbo
America, witk stop-overs in Rio de who showed a genuine interqst in learn-
2. The Pefiualas Exhibition ing more about ESO. Mr. Renlin Fuen-
Janeiro and Buenos Aires (during the
IAU General Assembly), the ESO exhibi- PeiiueEas was originally a fishermen tealba, the "Intendentem(highest author-
tlon was &-up in Santiago, at "Univer- village, along the beach between La ity) for the lVth region came several
sidad de Chile", where it attractsd more Serena and Goquirnbo. Some fishermen times to our stand, and Mice at night
than 18,000 visitors during last De- are still active there but no longer with his family to look through our tele-
cember, Concurrently and in the same the heart of the village, transformed into scope. Most of the ESO local and inter-
premises, conferences were given by one of the attractive beach resorts in national staff living in the La Serena area
ESO astronomers Olivier Hainaut and Chile. Every summer, during the totrrls- visited us, showing great satisfaction at
Andrea Moneti, and by Chilean as- tic peak, a "FINOR"takes place, a good the initiative taken by the Organization.
tronomers from that university (Maria opportunity to show to people corning What may be most important is that a
Teresa Ruiz, Jose Maza, Leopoldo In- from all over Chile and nejghbouring great number of professors and stu-
fante) and "Universidad Catblica" (Her- countries, what is happening In the dents came and asked all kind of Infor-
nan Quintana). The impact of such an North. €SO could not be absent from mation. The permanence of an as-
undertaking was a surprise for all of us. such an event. tronomer during the fair was therefore a
Although we were concerned that the Together with a selected parf of the requirement.
official "Salbn de Honor" of the universi- standard exhibition, a 1I" Celestron tele- A total of about 80,000 people visited
ty would be too large for the expected scope was installed on the site. Indeed, the fair, of which more than two thirds
audience, it could hardly contain the our stand and our telescope turned out actually visited our stand. As for the
numerous and enthusiastic public who to be one of the principal attractlans of telescope, we had only one cloudy
rushed upon this opportunity to learn the fair. The interest of the public was night, and people queued up from 8:30
more about astronomy in general, and demonstrated by the crowd of people p.m. till 2:00 a.m. (and even later during
ES0 (and its VLT project) in particular. A visiting our stand, the numerous qua- weekends): with a typical observing time
great interest from the public, a great tions asked (some very interesting), and of 15 seconds each, about 13,000 peo-
fun for us and the speakers: a really big the patience of those queueing up to get ple "observed" during the whole fair!
success. the chance to glance at Juplter or the Our stand was the last to close at night
As a consequence. €SO has been Moon. The enthusiasm of the public re- and on Saturdays and Sundays we had
requested by several universities and warded well the efforts ESO put into the to require the help of the "Carabineros"
organizations to set up the exhibition in event. Also we had a chance to clear the to control the queue, and close the ob-
vaflous other places throughout Chile, confusion many visitors made between serving mns by 3 am.(
and ESO is now considering how best to €SO and CnO. After a few days of As a reeognitlon for this success and
meet these demands. Next firm ren- exhibition, several bfoadcasted Inter- our efforts, ESO was one of the 3 stands
dezvous has been taken in Antofagasta, views and a 1Brninute documenhry (among 1001 awarded a special distiic-
a very important place for ESO's future. presented during the local TV news, this tion during the closing act of the fair.
Basides these larger wexhtbitlons, ESO confusion did not occur so often. Although this prize is highly symbolic, it
participated in the fairs of Pefiuelas, Our stand was visited by the Ministers clearly shows the impact of the ESO
"FINOR" (Feria Intomaclonal del Norte) of AgrS~ulture~ Mr. Juan Agustjn Fl- presentation at this event.
and of Ovalee, and these were great gueroa, of Mining and Energy, Mr. Juan Following this great success, ESO

The opening of f&. &ffrk&r d A@f~lhYUm+ Mr. J. Oenml view of the ESQ stand with plrbIEc.
Ffguem, with H
CJ staff P. i3wd'mt, A, M E i c J, Pix&&
P Bol~clirl;111dJ. Pt?r;?lrnjwtlo usrr;?l/yn r t e ~ ~Nle d ESO ofr~ct?. ~ tile
t bus ternllnal stntlon lo La R V~?gaand P. Ooc~che!tvrtl~tlrc "Is! vtce-
Seretn) ~ v t t t i!11r"queen" iri !!re f:irt, Mtss T~?/I~-AIIII M;ISIYO// ~ L I C ~ I01T !"/ I C fi71r ;7f ilrr ESC7 Celcstrorl lele-
scope

was requesled b y the orgamzers of E x - goal, btg shows of a nat~onallevel wcrc or~c-hourbrondcastrr~qstook place ev-
po~/nlleto partlcrpate In that f a r , too. oryarirzccl tli 3"' Chlleari Hr~asosgames er y day, dur ~ n gw h ~ ~ tltic l nud~ence
competrt~on,balll~lgout dernoristr at~ons could phorlc nncl ask q ~ ~ e s t ~ o bunncj
ris.
w ~ t htlie nat~onalctiarnp~ons.stunt per- one such broadcast 75 people callcd.
3. The "Expovalle" Exhibition
forn~aricesby the liatlonal tearn of the Tli~ssliowed the very large ~ n t ~ r ~not sf,
Ovalle, a c ~ t yof 100,000 1nIiahlta17ts Chilean Air Forca. oulsland~rign,~t~onal only for astronomy 111 ge~lernl (baslc
and the capltal of the Ltnratt province, I S slngers, etc.. knowledge. ~ t s goals, rts i~scfulness),but
located DO k~lometresinland from La Four months after part~c~pat~ng rn ttic also for €SO and 11sI~itureplans 111 Ct~llc
Serena S~ncc 1980, Itie Ltt??art valley FINOR. ~t was Indeed useful for €SO to (the VLT of course!) Several reg~olial
has become the r cg~orlolleader 111ng- go to Ovallc. Whrle the Inore cornmerc~al personal~tlesand a grcat number of pro-
I culture. It produces 70 90 of t l ~ e grapes FlNOR attracted mostly toul ~ s l sand c ~ l y fessors and students v~sltedOLII stand
for Prsco, I! coritdrr'ts 61 " h of the re- people, the Expovalle reached a d~ffer- Aborrt 30,000 people In tola1 vrsrlcd
g~onalsurface devoted to frurtgrow~ng, ent, grassroots publ~c,equally. ~f not oul stand rn Ovalle, of w l i ~ r haboul 7500
arid concentrates 95 90 of tlie region's ever1 more. curlous about astronomy got 'observ~ngt m e " As In Peri~~elas.
tiydraul~c resources (10'' m I ) . Srncc arid ESO. h stands closed 31 1 a.m. w r
a l t h o ~ ~ gthe
1990, a f C i l r called Expnvnlle IS compet- Once agalrl, our starid w ~ l hour tele- could I~CVCI cut Ihe cluPue beforo al
111g5 ~ 1 tthe
h FlNOR lor the status of the scope was OIF of ~ I I C pr~ric~pal attrac- least one hour later
most re~iporlant,lyr~cultural, mlnllig and tlans of tlie falr (rf not The one). Also, an
rr~dustr~nl dernonstrat~onof lhc North of Important d~ssernrr-ratroneffol? was cle-
Chile Thu 1992 Expovalle took place In veloped durlng (tie farr: 3 confcter\ces 4. Dedication of ESO Staff
early May vu.~tlla declared objecl~veto or^ of W ~ I C ~dI ~ v o t ~todtcacll general The success of Ihe ESO e x t i l b ~ t ~ o ~ i
gatt~or niore tt~an 100 exli~b~tors and dst~opliys~csto students) were or- dur~ngthese two reg~r~nal
events could
attract 60,000 people To reach Ihat ganlzed on the locatroll of the far; two never have been so gteat w~tlioulIhe

The Head of the La Silla Administration department, A. Cabillic, with FSO infrared operator R. VBga explaining Fhe VLTprojecf to a group
officials during the opening ceremony. At the m t r e of the picture, of students.
the Mayor of Ovalie, Mr. E. Damgrande.
 I . li-
A view of the queue to glance at Jupiter with the ESO 7 1-inch A view of the ESQ 11-mch mestran telescope. Also the yuungest
Celestron. w e much interested in seeing Jupiter!

collective and enthusiastic help of many verse; some who just could not beiieve the knowledge about some of the mys-
ESO staff members in the preparation of that they were actually seeing a "real" teries of the Universe is a moral obliga-
the exhibit and En the most friendly planet. Finally, one anecdote deserves tion every astronomer should feel (not
attention to the public. In particular, we special mention: with the telescope only to iustify his existence!). However,
highly appreciated the competence of, pointing at Jupiter, a drawing was made not only astronomers, but also many
Messrs. Rolando Vega and Eduardo of the planet and its 4 largest "moons", people working at ES0, are proud of
Matamoros during the setting-up of the with a note saying that Jupiter has 16 what ESO has built in Chile, of belong-
exhibit and the telescope as well as their "moons" in totat. Several women were ing to this Organization, and they like to
extraordinary patience in attending the standing near the tetescope, very in- make our beautiful observatory known.
public during observing time and the terested and enthusiastic about what For that reason, it has been really
help of Mr. Jorge Peralta (attending our other people were seeing, but absolute- satisfactory to verify, first in Pefiuelas,
stand), We would also like to acknowl- ly refused to have a look at it them- and then in Ovalle, that the response
edge the valuable assistance at La Silla selves. Puzzled by such attitude we in- from the public makes up for the ex-
of Messrs. Jaime Alonsa and bldo vesfigated the case. So we learnt that an hausting work such efforts implied. For
Pizarro who helped with the electronics old folkloric belief says that if a pregnant sure, La Silla is now well known in the
of the telescope, and Pvmando Bmna woman looked at the moon, her baby lVth r~gion -
of Chile and what is maybe
and Victor Echeverria who buiEt a new would have birthmarks. Now just im- -
more important a window towards as-
mount for it. agine a poor creature whose Mom tronomy has been opened to a popula-
looked at 16 moons! We can credit ESO tion eager to understand what it is all
for the destruction of this belief in a about. For a long time, ESO was not
number of minds. known in Chile as it should have been.
Among the large public who attended As a scientific organization, ESO has Things are changing, for the best benefit
our stands and telescope, a few charac- a role to play towards the publc at large of the public at larqe, for the ESO em-
ters gave us some occasions to smile (and in Chile, in particular). To spread ployees, and hence.. . fox Astronomy.
and we would like to share those with
the readers: an old couple, after a
glance at our sign (La Silla), made an
immediate link with the chairs (sillas in
Spanish) in front of our video'screen,
and decided to buy them on the spot (it The Youngest Visitors Yet
was not easy to convince them they
were not for sale!); this other man was The call came early in the morning Patent Office. Children of ESO staff
very disappointed to realize that even from Mrs. Keller. She was at the Euro- have access for some years under an
with a telescope one could not watch pean Schml in Munich, she said, and arrangement with this organization.
the sun at night; that lady blamed us for she would like to hear whether it would A is always a particutar pleasure to
reproducing in our NTT Saturn plcture be possible to visit ESO with a class. It explain astronomy to young people and
(the one with the white spot) the colours would be so interesting for the children with the special relationship between
she had painted on some plates (after to learn about astronomy and also to this school and €SO in mind, I had little
being convinced of our good faith, she see their parents at work, doubt that such a visit must somehow
left with the assurance that heavens had Now, some Messenger readers may be arranged, and that a hole in the
contacted her while she was painting!) not know that the European School in otherwise rather tight schedule of visits
Other reactions were more touching: Munich its one of a dozen "European'" to the ESO Headquarters should be
the old lady crying and kissing us for schools, established in major European found.
having given her the possibility to see e cities, where there are "European" in- The children had already studied the
planet before she dies; the many people stitutions. In the case of Munich, the planets, Mrs. Keller said, and they were
kneeling and crossing themselves to school there was set up and operates in very eager to learn more. Perhaps we
thank GoU for the beauty of the uni- close collaboration with the European could show some slides? If it would not
be too much tmble,to r8081w 20 chil- only did t'hey know a lot about M r s md pmad-3 the instrrrment, and t-Mmsb!#
dren d age 4-6 firun the Mndetgartm Jupk, they also asked qudons d m d n g what they saw, I unrlmtoad
in the Gimm language eectlon? wR3& were way beygnd +whatycru would thaf the @sithad pakfoff. Not only was R
A dwlCengel And whynot? If Istid m, ~ ~ t f r w n ~ ~ f t l " l ~ ~
obvimcsly w Iaam5awe that the chfldrm
' ~ t fun;
ai future CopemEcus might dwide to let am F pleasure, espedaliy to watch from m e away with a impression
another miancs bnefit from his&et a distance when hdlguel Albr&~:htlof ESO Two days later, tYEg telephone rang
.
abllltks.. So d COWSB I said yes, (whose daughter webs in the group) and a tewlwr from t b Munich Euro-
~ to entertain auch a
whib w . o M r t how showd a baa~*ful galaxy an t'he cam- pean School called to to if a SSpaniatF.
group and w M the d w r ESO staff puter s~feenof Ma85 and to hear aptaklng c1gss could pahaps Wrt
W d my,whim some of their young- the gasps whan he mads it e w e . ..
€80 Bul this time I anwered truth-
sters suddenly twned up & their place e~5tMEm fully that the vislt Wmdar is booked out
d work Mar a sandwbh lunch, the VIGL long in advance surd we are r@mr fguv at
The pbto, taken m the batcony out- fhtshed wrth a toak thromh a s
m d wile- -
E W mybe We could d W s such a
*
side the €80 o a ~ ~ l s tha tour,
s h m haw nice the ahildm w e . Not
scope at t h e m m adlsltantcarpatk.
Patiently waing fw the& tum to -ap-
viaith a ooupleofrnonW~e?
R, W B T , ESO

A Most Impressive Astronomy Exhibition

Next time you come to Munich, don't ence Pms Conference" on May 6, The basic idea has been to show what
miss the opportunrty to visit an out- featuring t2 brief talks by well-known modem astronomy really is and how it is
standing new astronomy exhibition! scientists and covering the grand lines done,while also demonstrating the long
In early May 1992, the world's largest of virtually all of modern astronomy. It development that has tmsformed the
technical museum, the Deutschs vvas attended by about 200 media rep- oldest of sciences into one of the most
Museum which is located In the middle resentatives from Germany and several modern and exciting ones. The but-
of Munich on an island in river Isar, other European mmtries and was sches Museum b in a unique positionto
inaugurated what is most probably the widely reported in the media, do so,thanks to its very extensive cob
largest and most comprehensive as- The exhibition was concev ied and Iections of historically important instnr-
tronomy exhlbitlon in the world, and in realizedby a team headed by Dr. Jijrgesl men& In this context, ESO was very
any case the most up-to-date. Teichmann of OeutsEhes Museum and pleasad to make available its I-metre
After more than five years of pEannSng. supported by scientists from many re- active optics mirror and support systam
Involving a large t m of museum search institutes En Gwmany, imludlng with which this revolutionary optical in-
speciatists and scientists, the new, ESO. The f o m r Director of the Max- vention was first demonstrated. Only a
1000rn2 exhibition opened its doors to Planck-Institute for Astrophysics in few years old, this equipment is now on
the public and was quickly and com- Garching, Professor Rudolf Kippen- display in the same area as the atliest
pletely overrun by Entwgsted visitors. hahn, played a decivise, coodnatlslg astronomical telescopes, representing
This went was accompanied by a '"Sci- role. yd another decisive step forward in as-
trm~micsJtachnology. The ptinciple cFf
a p t i v e optics is of course also ex- 1-I6 Satellite Conference*
plained hem. Them are lots of mdlD
astronomy, a sectlon of a af reat 15- on
matre submillimtre antenna, the latest
X-ray results from ROSATI gravitational
Active and Adaptive Optics
lenw, missing mass, Big Bang revi- Qamhlng, G m n y
sited, the end of the Universe, image August 2 to 5 , 1 m
pmcasdng stations, etc.
The exhibitfan b grouped In a soma- Tgpfcg:
what ~tnuugualway. Believing that the m Atmospmric chamtarbmorl far adaptive optical sptm design
vishrs come to have theft- curiosity a SyWm considetgHons for lasgr beam eantml and mmnomid hnaglng
satisfied, the "mwers" to many "ques- m Theomtiad performam Itmitatkns
tions" are given, by @xtens!veuse of a Wavefrlmt Eo-
a d l a n d didactical means. The public u YTmavefrYn
l t ssnsats
will not only see beautiful pictures and rn Applidon of phase cOnIUgatlon
the sky and Its a b w ; there is also a Ccntnrl for W e and abaptlw optical system
h e r WfdesZgV techniques
subWUal number of interaotlve as-
play8 which saw6 to involve and attract For more i n f w , plerase cantact:
even those who have m parHcutar pre- IGQ Cmfmnce
vious refationsto our scfmce. There we u'o E Nerklb
several very reaUsttc experiments, e.g. European %&tern O b m t a r y
abemtion, pho&elWc llghtcurves of K a ~ - S c h w ~ N I d * S t 2r .
an eclipsing binary, the origin of spectml D-8048Garchlng bd MCrnchen
Hnea, etc. Gemy
Visit the exhibition, whsn you mrna to * Sponsored by ESa in conjumtlon with the 16th CQNGRE;SS of the I m N A T I O W
Munbh-you will not tegreit it1 CQMurBslorJF;DR OPTIC8 OW) Bodapest Hungw), August 9-18,19@3
R. W T , ESOl

Astronomical Observations in 2001

D. ALLOlN and T. LE BERTRE, Obsewatoire de Paris, Meudon, France

A forum organized by INSU with the M. Zolver reviewed the recent pro- ably, that the standard procedures for
support of ESO was held in Paxis on gresses made at ESO on the knowledge callbration b y e to be revised and that
March 20, 1992. The motivation of this of seeing statistics and on the expert systemswhich incorporatedl the
one-day meeting was to resume the possibilitiesof smhg prediction. On the constraints have to be developed. Flexi-
discusdons within the astronomical latter, Wee methods are presently in- bile should not create Inamclency.
community about the future operating vestigated: ststistical analysis, models The following contribution, by Mrs.
modes of telescopes in the VL'6 era. ot the atmospheric motions and warning k k e r (from the lnstitut National dm
We enjoyed the visit d an important del-
egation from ESO Headquarters,
-
from a station located 30 km ehead of
the observatory in the dominant-wind
TB1Bcomrnunications), was along the
line of expert systems. She reviewedthe
P. Shaver gave a revlew of the study dimation. Wcwries about the effect of present situation of queue managing, a
madea few years ago by theaVLTOpera- levelling the Paranal summit on seeing completely new topic far most of us, but
tlon Working Group" and of the concfu- quality were expressed in the audience; with whkh we might have to get familiar
sions reachedat that time. The operation- in fact, as seen through modelling of the if we are to observe in the yews 2001 on
al modes were divided into three broad dnosphsric mations around the large instruments.
classes: classical observing, remote ob- summit with its new profile, the effect C. Boissan reported on her expwi-
serving and servlce observing. The re- shoutd n d be significative. ence with mrvice observing at #e Brit-
spective adyanlagee and disadvantages J. Breysmher described the present ish tdesoopes. She explained that this
were d l ~ ~ m #and, d at that time, the situation of time allocation at ESO. With m i c e requires from the potential users
concIwion was reached that all three 13 telescopes flncludlng SEEIT) and 34 a very detailed preparation of the obser-
modeswould be necessary.To allow this, instrumental configudians, scheduling vations and from the organbation which
It was important, in the conception of the is a complex task. Many csmstraints d offers it, a n or responding &Mng.
VLT, that na essential options be de- different nature (astronamlcal, logistic, D. Baade reviewed the experience
signed out and that innovative ideas bs human, etc.) have to be fulfilled. One acquired at ESO in remote obsming,
incorporated. Now, it la more and more simple change in the planning may lead FrMn his talk, it was evident that remote
evident #tat fiexxbble scheduling will be a to its complete revision. In these condi- control is already a succsssftllly
central feature in the VLT oparatlons, tions, flexible scheduling cannot be in- managed at ESO. Several questions
implylng servtce observing. However, troduced straightfmardly. Neverthe- were raised by the audience, mainly on
only the experience acquired with the less, it is presently tested on a limited the actual perfoman~esof this mode of
NIT and then with the VLJ will allow to basis at the N l l so that experience observations. In the case of the CAT+
select the most efficient ways of obsenr- might be acquired. It is already apparent CES, the users are presently requesting
ing and, mast probably, the VLT opera- that the changes of instrument must be mom remote observing than can be
tions will start with classical modes. done rapidly (ina few minutes) md reli- handled at ESO Headquarters due to
various constraints (-50 % of the been accepted recently as an ESU Key systems are workirg at best when they
nigh&). This example illustrates that re- Programme by tlte OPC and requires are used by or for wien2tgts. Of courses
mote o M n g is a competitive and the use of the existing 1-m telescope on similar condRions are also necewq to
su-fut mode of observation. ta Silta more than 50 % of the time maintain the compe;titivity of the otherJ
D. Albin discussed the coordination during at l e a three years. DENIS will conventional, ESO tebcopas and
of programmes on an international produce a complete cowaDe of the hence to allow tor the justification of
h i s . The nature of some amphplcal southern hemisphere with a spatial res- acstivitiew an La Silla tit1 or even beyond
qu~stiomto which we are faced today oIutionof3"dsrwnto I- 18, J - %and 2001.
is such that their handling requires the
Mort of a vrsry large astranombal cam-
-
K 14. In continuation, A. Omont advo-
cated the canstntctIon on Paranal d a
R. Cayrel called for a rarvolutlon in the
astronomers' hebis, in thdr relations
rnunity. She insisted an the potentiality modern-twhnot~ small-slre tele with the data-acquisition prowdures.
offered by the new electronic devices scope dedicated to deep wUe-fleld im- The evw-increasing compWty of mod-
and on the fact that their optimal use agery in the near-inMd mge (1-2.5 ern instruments and telescopes is In-
atlows nowadays world-wide cullborn- pm) as has already beern proposed by tractable for a scientist obsenting 3 or 4
tion in an easy way. soms members of the DENIS t m . nights each year, m d sometimes Ies.
Mom speclflcally, J. Ciavel described A, Blanchard discussad possible uses For &xample, the introduction of adap-
an example of an internationally coord- of the future medium-&e telescopes tive optics which will produce a coneid-
natsd observing programme with IUE.
This coordination allowed the proposers
(D - 2 to 4 mm). He demamtrated the
need of wide-field rnuKiobject spec-
erable gain in the performanw of mod-
ern telescopes ar the development of
to paform observations that they would trosoopy for cosmological progmnmet. tho inte&mmetric mode will require tfig
not have been. able to conduct indivldu- In this respecs the already existing permanant presence of specialists on
ally through standard procedures. bm-class telescopes are well suited the Paranal site. All these specialists will
Theser Wo talks stimuhtedvarious rwc- and will stay competitive in the era have to interact strongly with the users.
dons from the audience. The mdn point of the mm. Some must be themselves scientists
of both speakm was that, in some Then, a panel discusdon chaired by with an insfrurnental speciality. 450, a
cases, there is no other means to tackle P. L h a was held. Intervenors were J, standardiWi~nof the observing pro-
fundmental problems that can be Beckm, R. Cayrel, J. Qavel, J. Lequeux cedure~will be necessary to avoid du-
solved today thank to the technol~gl- and L. Woltjer. P. tena himself op~ned plication of the calibrations and to im-
cal p r o g m m W w h the day, stelkw the discussion. Ha remiled the cost of prom their quality. Finally, R. Cayrel
seismology wrts quoted as a Rdd in the new equipmsnts and tfie volume cd ca+ledfor an effort towards a more solid
which an international collaboration is data that they wlll produce. He urged conversion of astronomicat units irito
essential for obtaining the necewq astronomers to rationalire their pro- phy$iCEll one&
continuous tim-verage. gmrnmgs and to imr%ase the productiv- J. Clavel bmugM the &stance bisck
Through several examples, M. Cr&B ity of the instrumerrts they use by a b space. He ~autlwledus to be very
demonstrated the necessity of archiving Proper distribution of the outputs- car&I at organizing well in advance the
data. His talk was followed by a vivid J. B m k m talked about the complwi- management of observatories In their
dlscuwion about the nature of what iy of future tel8800pes and especially of routine phase and at setting on time
should be mckr'ved. Everybody agreed the VLT which will be d i f f m t from all proper medla for data procasing. Rnal-
that we shpuYd w e the ~scltsntificout- other existing teliescoptx3 including the ly, he spoke about the development of
puts aimed at orlghally. The CORAVOL M7. In additEon, the VLT may evolve in ESES whose mission is to archive and
mpwlment was mentioned in that re- the direction of even more complexity. dktrlbute sclwtZific data in Europe.
spmt; its condensed output I$ consid- For instance, adaptive optlm Is farewen J. Lsquwx intewned at that time
ered as a key to its renownedefficiency. today only at the primary coudh, but we and reminded the mallence that publl-
But should we also kmp what we might. cannot adford in the future not to haye it cation in scientific joumals is a way of
in the light of new developments, need at the othar foci; furthwmore, artificial saving data of importance for the future.
..
in the Mure?. At that time the spectre refemnw'stars appwr now avdlabte, so Paper is still the most permanent
of Sk -69202 was haunting the art- that they will certainly be requested In support for archiving. On #e ather
..
dttorium , short, it mans that we wfll be dealing hand, access to the relevant data is not
A talk centred on the interfierornetrlc witti a "wtsole new age of tel~soopes" Jways easy as they are not &xed digi-
mode of the VtT (VL'TI) was presented that must be operated difemntly from tally. He advocated the evolution of
by J.-M. Marlotti. it is clear that this very before. From this follows the require- printed journals towards dtgitally-
complex mode of &sawaticln will r e ment to have on the Paranal sits a very supported and eledranl~ally-distributed
qulw a cowdfnation In the observing competent and dE4diated staft, Solid journals (see also TI,8 Messenger 67,
programmes to obtain an optimal and programmes d maintenance and p. 58).
efficient use of the VLTI. Before the 4 check-up will aho be required. The con- As a conclusion, L WoNer sum-
Ti8m can k ooupted for intwferom&yl ditions are neceassary to assure that the mazed same of his ideas. He insisted
the 2 t~ 3 auxiI'i rnombb telescopes
(VISA) will be wed on Paranal. Already,
this mode will rrsqulrs on the site a v e ~ y
cornpertent soknafic staff spslpscidiized in -
intwfemmetry.
A, Omont .di9- some scientific
projects \hrhieh need the hll dedication H.-W. Marck 1914-1992
of a tslscope, in general now consid- We recelvd the sad newe that Mr. Hans-Werner Marok, accountant at from
ered as small (D5 2 m), and which have 1W to 1978, &ad on 25.1.1992.
a sbategld interest for the dewlop- Mr. Marck was Fn the earIy days of ESO a close collaborator to the Manag@, Mr. J.
ment of astronomy. As an example the BLoemkolk, and was In charge of dl f l
m l
aS md accounrfng mattwrs at the beglnnlng
2-prn survey of the southrn sky was d the Organhation onntll the relocation fram Hamburg lo M u n b h In 1978.
described (DENIS). This programme has
on the importance of professionalism. to move (or replace) the' La Sllla tele- whole day. Enough to say that It was
Stateof-theart equipment might be w p m ta Parand. Finally, on the sub- very difficult ta keep on schedule! After
better operated by experts in astronomi- ject of data archival, although agreeing all, these vivid exchanges were demon-
cal obsewatlons, rather than by as- with its necessity, he cautioned the strating the interest and motlvatlon of
tronomers vlsiting on short stays. Also, community against doing like these the participants. The proemdings of this
he stressed that the majar cost in run- schoIEus who, for centuries, only studied forum have been edited and are avail-
ning an observatoty is not due to the "archivesu from the Antiquity ... able on request to the organizers. They
telesc~pes and the instruments, but In the present report, it is not possibte contain the contributions of all speakers
rather to maintaining the infrastructure. to reproduce even coarsely the lively and a complete transcslptian af the
Therefore for the year 2001, he advised discussions that we had throughout the panet discussion.

The Sonneberg Plate Archive

H. -J. BRAUER and B.FUHRMANN, Stemwarte Sonneberg, Germany

Sonneberg, until recently behind, and about the future of Sonneberg Observa- tography be discarded before a smooth
only a stone'sthrow away from the Iron tory, the IAU felt compelled to recom- transition is achieved. Then, once the
Curtain, is no longer shut off from the mend, in a resolution of Commissions CCDs can be used, patrols can be auto-
outside world. Its observatory is re- 27 and 42, that "all efforts be under- mated, and it is necessary to run them in
stored to the international astronomical taken to continue these important mea- a climate better than that in Central
community, and the community ought surements and to ensure the appropri- Europe. A new responsibility might then
to know what it has gained. Above all it ate maintenance and availability of the accrue to ESO, too.
now has access to the world's second data archives" (IAU Inf Bull. 67, 39-40 Sky Patrols aim at providing a con-
largest plate archive and an intact (1992)). In accordance with this recom- tinuous record of the sky. Not only do
photographic Sky Patrol. Its series of mendation, the Sonneberg team leaves they lead to discoveries of time-variable
recordings reach back into the past as no stone unturned in avoiding any gap objects, but they allow the investigation
far as 1926. Sonneberg (240,000 plates) and preventing a premature discontinu- of objeets retrospectively. The first time
excels the Harvard collection (400,000 ation, and is grateful for every support in the Sonneberg collection became a
plates) in the continuity of its recordings its endeavour. talking point was when, in 1937, the
and in the machine-readability of the CCDs are advancing on patrols, and Minor Planet H e n e s came extremely
archival data. in the near future they will be big enough near to the earth and the Sonneberg
There is, however, a drop of bitter- to take over after the photographic patrol provided data for the orbital de-
ness. In the face of a present uncertainty plates. But on no account must pho- termination. Other instances, just to

Table t : #st of #EMS

mguIarly c o d by the Sonn&erg FM Patrol routine. R.R and M.give tbposition of the field oentn3s, N the numbw
of plates Emm3d.

Cmrdmates (1950) CooKtlnatm (1050) Caordlnates (1 Q5QI

R. A. R.A. N R, A. Dwl. N
- - - - -
o"Os.sm 48052' 415 eh41.orn + 3050' 344 1?hes.am +m15' 340
0 47.0 4 0 48 409 8 51.8 +13 IS 298 17 58.1 + 2 50 373
1 06.8 +35 21 372 8 533 -16 59 260 18 78.1 4 6 02 473
1 16.9 4 7 58 403 6 59.5 - 6 39 226 18 41.5 + 8 34 265
1 98.8 +29 48 325 7 31.5 -14 25 240 18 52.2 +27 51 243
1 57.8 +70 40 258 7 36.7 +5 31 240 18 53.8 +43 53 574
2 04.3 t.23 14 159 8 05.4 -24 10 144 18 75.9 +53 17 298
2 06.6 +34 45 356 8 52.8 +600 413 13 29.0 + 3 01 550
2 21.7 +!% 23 313 9 29.5 +51 54 124 19 37.4 +30 02 424
3 02.0 +a39 413 la ~ 5 . 7 +t2 13 184 19 43.9 +qo 20 376
3 20.7 +49 41 349 11 06.9 t44 46 409 19 50.6 +I9 21 432
3 51.0 +3t 44 110 11 21.3 i t 0 48 47b 20 01.8 t 0 51 388
4 11.2 +48 17 259 11 38.2 +21 30 168 20 12.2 +50 25 371
4 24.3 +2P 53 128 11 45.4 +2Q 30 353 20 19.5 +30 26 243
4 36.7 +30 42 29 1 12 00.8 t20 49 280 20 20.4 +40 08 346
4 52.1 +I0 04 98 12 30-5 +10 34 315 20 35.2 +14 25 391
5 05.4 -509 197 12 36.6 t21 20 289 20 56,s t44 17 340
5 13.0 +34 16 233 12 51.0 +l9 46 92 21 28.0 i-70 20 130
5 W.2 + g 16 381 13 38.3 +20 12 292 21 32.1 4 5 22 388
5 44.5 +17 43 301 16 28.3 t21 36 3a3 22 18.0 +46 17 495
5 50.2 +z7 36 274 16 42.0 4 4 08 7% n 21.6 4159 I89
5 55.9 +aa 440 16 55.3 + 9 27 2H 22 47s +65 05 221
5 03.9 -14 56 89 17 10.2 +45 23 199 23 08.9 +52 47 3113
6 13.6 + I 2 17 233 17 22.0 +23 00 356 Total:
6 28.0 +20 15 371 17 32.6 +I2 30 318 22304
-
 Ing ttw last 65 y e w the object had
stediiy g r m brighter. Sin- 1890 it
had rkm 3.5 mag over its Initial bright-
ness of 13.2, Th publication of its light-
rn curve triggered a spate of inveatf@ons
m. and subsequant thmmtbd studies all
aver the world. Among other things,
high-rwlution speEtroscopy revealed
that, fTm 1965 to 1976, tts central starI
FG Sge, had travels& the Ha-rung-
Russell diagram fiom the left ( S p m W
type 84) to the right (spectral type G2)
and that, in 1867, singly-ionhed tart3
earths appeared, whbh five years later
becams sa strang as to show about 25
times the solar abundance (HoffmeMer,
Riohter, Wenml; Variable Stars, Sph-
ger-vwrq 1985).
It s w s to reason that the existence
of the Sonnebera plats callection Os not
clue t~ mere waiting far unwwC;ted
FigUW 7: The W#iUUIlW@ OF tm S;onWWQ maPW'. events. It has been m e of the comer-
st~m of the Sonneberg progmrnrne of
variable star res6arch. O m quarter of dl
variable stass k m n in the Galaxy w m
dig~~w bydmeans of its plates. The
particular value of this collection con-
Jsts in that it is an erxdlent stock of
infmat1on for studying the long-term
behaviour of active objects. Inweming-
ly, it is supporting observatjons made
from satellim at non-optical wave-
lengths For the mast part+though, the
plates have b m taken In the framework

Table 2: hfudmrs of Sont?efwg Sky Pgtml

p4&& taicen dunhlg the k t 3 0 pats, dbt&
but& over 6 &Iinatlon zones. &ars
hatch& Blue @$XI, mt tmtohed: n3d bv). fhe
petm'ng-wrt d zone 4"is dm to ltht
po~~ut~m.r

m d o n a few, were the quasar 3C273,

whme light-curve - the first mmplete
Ilght-cuwe of a quasar ever to be estab-
-
lMed was obtained mainly ftom Har-
vard and Sonneberg remrdlnlgs, X-ray
sources as the "Sonnarbeu X-ray star"
HeeX-I, or the two planetary nebulae
NGC 2348 and 65-7'1. The nebula
80-71 {CaMrque of Perek and toll.)
was to be a test case for stellar m l u -
tion, and its iinportanoe was compared
to th& itd the Rosetta Stone for the
dwyphering of Z h €gyptan hiem-
glyphics. Its variability was $hovered
by C. HoiMeistcsr (Sonnaberg; 1892-
19m,who regarded it as belna a vari-
able star. In the late fifties G.A. WcMer
(Sonneberg) inspected recordings that
had been made at Sonneberg in clam
succession since 1928 md, Wine Into
aarrunt a fw additional data-fmm -2d ra
CambddgeJMass. and Hddetbarg from
between the yeam 1890 and f820,he
rax:ognIzed an excfting paciuliarity. Dur-
fable 3: Cmms used by the S a n m @aW&.Yhe k t mImn g/vss Wpm of d m .

sky pyaad1
14 cam- Rif260 mm f 4.5
133 @v)

%we& I M m W
nomay used
Fwd W a t
Sky Patrol
fodw

OF the & m n B ~ (~dder-

~ JPatrol On May 1,l@22,the number of plate carbigumtion udm~a I%b& CCb line
plan) and tb S o d e r g tlky Patrol. m n a t hm &en invmted and Wxted in
of the Sonneberg vattit toWed 240,222,
The Fieid Patrat aims at recording, in not caurrting W 12W older p l m d coopsratim wkh the L n W fiir
every dem Mht, BT fields s%hz£& ~ n I ~ w i t h m s ~ t o c a -rhemtttis* m - AetFOphysIk of TObin*n
along, or near the notthem Milky VVay era,Hmer af ~xp05m,w coednatm af Unkmiry. Gomparatiw rmmwern~nts
with astrogmph~it was me$h the the field, &.
The annual Increaw has w8w petformed at tZra mhhing PDS of
mkl-twmtim by C. Woffrn~bt~p. Tabh f bawl 4500 mIKtlndls On #magb. ESD. Opewt'mn at Sonneberg, f t o w 1 ~ w ~
gives a list d lthe fl%lcbs most regularly ~ 8 0 W o f h p l a t e ~ a n a rh- e t s r n % m b e e n ~ k r b l b y ~
mM, and the mudm of pla;t88 cMv& and rWvab1e. me 20 MByte C U & d~public fund.
kskw. The §& mtro1- going b k to an datedxae e~mlstaof mwrd fiW, emh A h u g h itti $11- vault b stln h ~ k i n g
-
idea of P. CjuUtnicKs (1819- 1843 is a ram& containing Rsfmation on one corn*- nlm-g &vim, wig-
programme mf~~Fng the entjrrs rrwthsm PI& S U C ~ date and time d expo- b m to BonmbFIrg O h m t o r y am at-
sit$ in two satouts with I 4 short-factm auw, trbjBcf OT fjdd re~~rded, phota- WyS ~leomieand Can E d I y R M ~
camma on two muntiigs. Table 2 graphla mMm, s m W v filterst fmm its w&h of information wing Lts
shows in di-rnac form how fhe state of the sky,~ w mm 'm m t s , eom8nxFod equipmepit. The mall
plgtgstslkmhMue@g)andinred@v)&G*, a n u m h d amniary file@,arrd % m m staff, sew* pmed by 19-
during the tast 30 yearn are disMbuted prugmmmes for mawgment and usw. cent refiarms in fownlsr East t3almany,
over the dmlln;ttlon mmmbetails For the digltlzatim of the pt~bgaphic are doing W r beaf to bmme a fully-
&bout #Is ina$umm are given in i r t f ~ o on n me platers t h m w e l c~
~ fledged m& of W CNR socisty
Tabffe EL made-twrdat*time- and EDst-mving &OML

A Scrutiny of HD 62623and HD 96446

L.Q. L0 ~ Astmnomiska
6 ~ ~Observatoriet, Uppsala, Sweden
Thee has been a general consensus to show a positive luminosity depmd- behaved in an awkward manner indicat-
that C? A stars are all near-main-ser- mcs. Secondiy, there is a non-ignorable ing neither "trad'iionaF" psculiafity nor
quence objects. If so,the chemical pe- number of stars, elassified as both pe- particutarly high luminosity. Rather there
culiarity might be a valuable luminosity culiar and giants, or even svpergimts, might tte reason to suspect a superpad-
criterion, useful, for instance, in c o n m - particularly in the Michigan Catalogue. tion of two spectra, the appearance of
lion with optical soundings in the Mitky In a wries af previous contributions, which could give Peason to rnisclassify
Way. In reality, however, the &ation the authofs have ma& attempts to re- the luminosity or the attitude of chemi-
ssems to be a lMle bit tm complicated classify a selection of such objects in d compositiw or bath.
for practical application, Firstly there is order to either confirm or refute the The main nsult of the Investigation
an awkward fact that a anslderable "double" or "ccmntradictorym clwlfica- was that a possible adrnlxkrw of pecu-
amount of peculiar features obsewed in tion of them (LadBn-Sundrnan 1987, list A-type stars in the abservational
(upper main-sequence) stellar sp.ectr"a 1989, Laden 1990). In no case the result material does probably not imply any
&ready coincide Mth well-established became deftnitely conclusive, but, for enhanced risk of distance mideterml-
luminosity-classification parmeters - certain objects. there was no indication nation at optical soundings in the Milky
although in the "wrong sense", i.e, some whatsoever of any combination of pecu- Way.
spectral lines typical for CP stars, tend liarity and high tumlnosity. Some of them Still, however, there are a few notori-
ous stars which show a rather clear wi- Table 1.
- -

dence of high luminosity and peculiarity

Star Decl. (2000) V B-Y U-8 Sp;
of some kind as well, albeit this pecu- - P000)
- -- - -
liauity may not dwys be considered a8 HD f32323 7h 49m 484s -28" 57V1C 4-16 0.18 -0.01 A2 labp
"traditional" in t e r n of enhanced Si, Sr, H O W I t h 8m 5.r~ -59" 56' 59" 6.68 -0.15 4 . 8 2 M119p
or Eu &udn$ance. A few of these stars -
-

have now been subject to a mom In- 'aamr* toltemm

quisitiie study. The bash of the am-
ment has baen that M them stars oauld
dso be shown to be, In reality, rather
normal, then it will probably go for abundance of certain dements and esti- fainter, the dlshrrbance from the nolse
other ones too, llw obm'ng th&s mation of the effective temperstwe and b ~ o m e more s important, as well as the
would not be d i d , however. lwninoslty of the starstar production of false lines, one of tfae ma-
Tlwr targ& of the present invest'ia- in the present investigation the h i c jor problems with the ECHELK: spa-
tion are HD 62323 and HQ 96446. iswe was to reveal possible systems of frograph at W .The identlfidon d
The b 1 c data for them are shown In lines with radial velacity displacement the Hnm in the spectrum of HD 06446 Is
Table 1. deviating fFom the majority of lines and also dmcult as a consequence of the
thus suggesting the presence of a corn- fact that many low-tempemture lines,
Ther Obsewa#,ions panion s t ~ r About
. 500 lines have been with or without mutual displacement,
ktentlfied end the 80 most caPtain ones? tend to appear very close to the position
An obsmaffons rekant to the pres- $elected for radial vetocity caIculations. of cerPain high-temperature liners. A seri-
m t report have been performed at La The result clearly indi- that no sin- ous drawbeck at the study of any type of
SElta. Phdtornetrlc photometry was ob- gle line or system of lines, within the stars with the actual equipment Is that
tained wlth the 5 9 - m €SO tetwope In limits of accuracy, show my significant one m n o t record the whole spectral
1988.S p W o p p h i c plates were taken devktlon from the average value. It also m g e at one and the same exposure. k
with the mud4 sg>adrograph of the shows that this average value, after W it3 not pwmittedto change t4w spectral
1.52-m tek~copein 1987 and echete m t i o n for terrmtrial motion, is com- region durlng a night, it is then impossi-
q m g m s with the same tertescops pletely unchanged during the run of the bb to follow the position of a certain set
in 1988 atxi 1991, The db rsion actud five absenifng nIghtstsR is esa- of llm fram night to night without in-

&mm at mob,.The reduction of tfie

A=
ranges fram 3.1 W/mm at 44000 to 4.5 Wed to 28.7 k 0.2 ksnlsec. convmient restriction of the spmral
Hence#lare is no indicationof a com- range- Also the m m m m of this
CCB echelles was performd at ESO posite spectrum for Mis star. The appar- circumstance were partlculariy hams-
Headquertm in Gaahing during the ently peculiar appwanm of its spec- ing in the case of HD 964-46.
first pari of August 1991. trum might, at least partly. Itw explained At the actual ~bservatlonsIn 1991,
as an acoidentat c~mblnatiortof high the total spedrf m g e was split up into
luminosity LWFd very low v sin ivalue. the foHowing partial sections:
1.3867-41& ~ebruary2
This star has b a n subject to parbiw- 2,4075 - February 1 and 5
Par Entarerst for a long time, and a series H0 9&448 -
3.4296 4622k F & w q 3
of papers dealing with it have been pub- -
The study of this object is m i d - 4.4562 4863.4 February 4
Ikhed. erably more complicated than the c o r m The concluaiona cemmlng possible
The mtribufions generally concern sponding study of the previous one. multiplicity am,because of the circum-
Iderttiicatian of J m
i in the sparum PartZcularly the technical circumstances stances mentioned, conwitwing for
and also calculation of the atmospheric am less favwrable. AB HD 9 W 6 is HO 96448 than fot HD @@3. Them is
no p a l r n e or unique indication of a
cornpanant, on?ya swim of ~ g V#B ~ -
1 1 tie.The fotlowing ones are to be men-
W tioned.
6.67 - .. 1. A weak photometric v8riablity. Spec-
burn vdablity ha8 b n reparted by
- F&rsen and Thomeen [19m and
-
6.69 -
t Kaufmann and Thw'l11980).
2. Presence of a fw spectral lines,
-
ch&erSstiic for an atmosphere of
wnslderably lower temperature.
-
-
t + +
3. A tendency for wrtain spectral lines
to appear as double.
-
4. A corrmponding tendency to chow: a
6.71

-
+ -. Doppler displacement, significantly
differant from the amage value for all
-
lims.
5. An apparent symbiosis d sharp and
s t r u m tines in the spect~um,
I 1 I
These observations require some
J.D. 244+ 6195 6200 I 7310
I
7315 wncm~ntswhich am,in fact, highly im-
Figurel: UBVphotcmetryofHD88448fmtwO~ntocwrsjons,1 9 3 5 a i ~ d 7 WThe portant.
ac~umcyin #m measurentents was hbher 8t the k t ma fhe oWlJ h m is, aic~1w~1. llw light wiation (Fig. 1)is not par-
VterShesbsr$ I"eMys3abAe.Thersissomemttxn~, hwew, t o ~ t ~ t ) Pvari~tkms
e ~ l ticularty well pronoun& and it has
Vi&@ anes&mmt. probably nothing lo c i ~with any
 are actually not mtevant and, besides,
the routlm of the CGfl-ECHELEC
FEHjUCffon do not permit any high-
wuracy mmumments cxf line Inten-
stti88,
2 TypTd examples are mms Fe lines
crowding between 3935 and 3Q3fr
and som mysterious I h fn 17)
arpund 4W9. In an exterrsive mn-
Wmion by Wolf (10?3) a k q e
number of u"high-temp~~twen tine
are I€fentified. Unfortunately It is not
mif-evldmt *that all Unss found-in a
certain position rally md entirely
represent the 9xpecAad oneis. The
Ines themselves do mt tell you ex-
plicjtly who they mare. As mentioned
above, WEKQ are quite a few coin-
eMences between high and mscfhrn
Mnes in the s g w t r w without any
passibilEty of convinciq u n b i e d
IdenWbat1on-
In Tabie 2 1 have added some Iden-
Wed high-temperature Ilnes to the
lie gwptesented by WOK Besides, how-
ever, there are a h Iim which I
pexsonally condder as not e h m m
tefW far a 52 star although axither
eclipsing phenomenon. Rather it parameters I-ras turned out. to be mn- 56rJcts of observations with still higher
might indicate an lntrinai~variability, stant, Thus the UBV mean valueg ob- resioIut5on is required for definite con-
not chara~Mstlc for &y-type stars. Qind from 7 nigh& in $985 are: fim*.
It has to be noted, however, that, 6.696, -0.151,4.823 end the c a m 8.The M and K lines seem to be of
when observed on different occasions sponding ones fram 5 nights in IQSS: Fntmtdar wigin. W& mpad to tothe
with consldsrable Ume-separation, 6.705, 4.155, -0.826. The padbls sW9 lo&ion in t b Milky Way one
the mean vatu% of th6 photometric He-llrw mrtdons, rnmiond above, has to expect a msiderable con-

A Panorama of l a Silla
H.Z6DET,€SO
The centrefold in this Messenger zon and is a composite of eight individu- tlons in and around La Silla. It turns out
issue was obtained in late December al exposures, made in rapid succession that dus to the pattern of the telescope
1991 and depicts the cenhl part of the so that the Illuminaticrn would not domes, there does not exist any spot
189" panorma reproduced below. change too much. (on the ground at least] frame where all
It shows the La Silla observatory and I used a Hasselblad 2000FC camera, buildings are simultaneously visible.
most of the? telescopes there, just before equipped with a Zeiss Planar t 10-mm
sunset. It was taken from the road that lens, stopped to 1:2. The fllm was
leads to the 3.6-m telascope. Quits a Kodak Ektachrorne 100 Plus. The la Sllla Panoma which is well
few cws with busy astronornws and In order to combine the slides so that suited for the preductian of horfion
engineers passad me and probably them would be a smooth transition be- panwarnas in Planetaria, @tea,is now
tween all of them, they were scanned I availabfe from the €SO Information Ser-
wondered what a photographer was do-
ing there, with plenty of equipment in and re-assembled electronically by Re- vim (address cn lasit page). It may be
obtained as a 1 -metre-long photographtc
the middle of the road. Thanks for their ger Studios, Munlch. pn'nt or a 24-em-wide slide, both at a cost
kind consideration, a minor traffic jam fhls photo Is one of a series of of 115 DM. Please be sure to lnelicate an
was elegantly avoided. pa no mi^ views of the ESO obsemato- the order which of the two is desired.
This panorama covers half of the hori- ry, whlch I obtaineel from various loca-
On the Optical Counterpart of PSR 0540-693
P.A. CARAVEO', G.F. B I G N A M ~ ~S.~#EREGHE;TTI'
', and M. MOM BELL^^
*lstituto di Fisica Cosmica del CNR, Milano, ltaly
2Dipartimentodi Ingegnesia Industria/@,hlniv@rsit&di Cassino, Cassino,Italy
3~artjtnento di Fisica, Universifd degli Stud!, Milano, Italy

Part of the remnant of the pehultlmats contain a v power-law spectrum dleditch and Pennypacker, 1985; Mid-
known supemova explosion In the Large radio to X-ray synchrotron nebula (Cha- dtedltch et al., 1987) wEth B and V mag-
Magallanic Cloud, PSR 0540-693, is the nan et al., 1984, Clerk et al., 19821, nitudes -22 and coloun slightly redder
only "classical'' yaung pulsar not seen in where the Einstein Observatory discov- than those of the Crab pulsar.
radio because of Rs distance. Neverthe- ered the 50-msec pulsation of P5R After Crab and Vela, PSR 0540-893 Is
less, X-ray and optical ~tudlesof this 0540-693 (Seward et al., 1Q84),con- thus the third pulsar detected as a fast
object, as well as isof the surrounding tributing -23 % of the total unmsoived pulsating optical saurce.
SNR, classify It as the most striking ex- X-ray emission. Although below the cur- However, partly because of the lack
ample of a Crab-like SNR-pulsar associ- rent detectability limit of the southern of precise position (usually computed
ation. hemisphere radio telescopes, the ob]wt from long-tarm radio timing data) and
Llke the Crab, SNR 0540-693 does has been swn as an optical pulsar (Mid- partly because of lack of high-resotution

Figure 1: Data analysis sequence fwthe 2-m!nu& V liltef Imagt? of

SNR WO-t5g In M C , taken st lhE3 ESYj hi77 uRder s u b - ~ ~ a
seeihg mnditiom lrkwth b up,east at
(4raw data aftsv Itat fidh?gi 7he star im&gesvisible new fhe SNR
IWIed f-5. Tlre SUSbMT pT~dske & 0.13". F ~ f sGsla f h
ph3fs.
(b) (4& & t v a & ~ OF S~NS5-5. 7he 4" diametw m r d d e
~~WSCM& the HRI pition of the EinsteinX-my ptrkting sourn IE
0540i5-6921, while tha 1.8" dhmier aide Ism been mmpufed by
Msnckter and P b m (18Bkl). Of the two m a t h a ihe
nqrthsm {central)at the kmdary of the X-ray m,appears m
mrnpact and $! i s p p o s e d m u m for the 60-~WH: pulsarIsar
I'c) Isaphrrte map of (bJ. Low ibx contour to €hewth-emt of the
mmt d d arise fm unrecognlred faint fhW stare.

I l l l l l t t l l t l l l l l l ~ 1 1 1 ~
440 460- 480 600 520 540
Position
 Image: l32m

ww
I -
-
405

-
c--
480
-- -
* -
:! 440
3
- --
'8 -
tz.
420 -
-
-
--
4UQ --
- C
--
3 8 0 ' 1 , , " 1 ' " 1 ' 1 ' 1 1 r ' 1 L t ' [
440 4&0 +&D 600 620 64Q
Pusition

R g m 2: IN- m,&s&mmoPs&m$43, oftha 2-mirude Awre 3: Star subtcacted & Q @ ~ ~ Em$o SIf @ -8728
V of ZQ-rnlnut~ A,
B Werimaga d = S e 4 image.

optical data, it has so far haen impossi- nute Ollt (h=5015 A, bh=55 ex- -69"2lV23".5,with a 0.9" uncertainty,
ble to eptically identify Its counterpart posures, and one 20-minute Sll obtained by Manchester and Peterson
aglnst the background of the synchro- @=6728 A, A b 5 8 A) exexposure, during (19891 on the basis of pulsar timing,has
tron nebula. two nights with seeing conditions vary- been add& for completeness, in spite
W i an angular diameter of -1 0" and ing from 0.8 to 0.9 arc-. of later criticism by Nagase et al., 1990.
an integrated diffuse emission far brigh- The choice of filters was suggested Our astrometry was performed using
ter than the pulsing source, PS8 0540- by the previous imaging and spectros- -Id by the GuiCk
693 and its Synchrotron nebula are in- copy work done on this object (Mathew- Star Gmogue and kindly provided to
deed a challenging target for high-reso- son et al., 1980, Dopita and Touhy, us by the User Support Branch of the
lution imaging. 1984; Chanan et al., 1 9W Kirshner et STScl. \rVe estimate its r.m.s. error to be
Nevertheless, In the absence of a a!., 19891. Our data-analysis procedure leas than 0.4 arc=.
radio signal (a condition unique to this was as follows: after the usual cleaning Two distinct maxima axe visible inside
ob]&X)),the optical Identification would and flat fielding, the five stellar images the nebula In our B and V image, md
be the only way to know its precise nearest to 054.0 were subtracted in or- the northern one appears more point-
position. This is a critical piece of infor- der to avoid their contribution to the like. They are located, respeottvdy, at
mation for long-term temporal studies, diffuse structures, and a standard L X ( ~ ~=D sh
) 40m 33.84' (+ 0.57
such as the measure of the braking In- isophote image was constructed. Figure -6(3"21'20.9" (* 0.5'3, Mere the esti-
dex, a key parameter for the under-
standing of the pulsar emission
mechanisms, known, sa far, only for
1 (a, b and c) show such process for the
V filter. The same star subtraction
routine was than applied to the B as well 1 .v
-
mated error ia mainly due to our as-
trometry, and qlm 5h 40m33.78' (*
B(resor = 69" 21' 21-9" (f 1.OY,
PRS 053W21, the Crab pulsar, and PSR as the narrow-band filter images, and where the estimated emr comes mainly
1559-58, the "150-msec'"pulsztr. The the resulting isophote maps are given in from the uncertainties in the centring
Crab-like young pulsar PSR 0540-693 figures 2, 3,4 and5 for B, $11, 0111and algortthrn.
would indeed be a prlme andi id ate for a Ha. respectively, The 4" circle in Fig- Both positions appear compatible
preclse mesure of the braking index ure 1 represents the error region asso- with the X-ray emr box as well as with
because af its high P. The results are, ciated with the HRI X-ray source, that of the 4.6 diameter aperture used
however, inconclusive, mainly because 1E 0540.5-W21,located at cx(tasa) = by Middleditch md Pennypacker (1985)
of the uncwtalntiesinduced by the 2 2" fih40'"33.Q2 bo(lsw = -69TIp23".2 with to search for (and fin4 the optical pulsa-
positional error in the barycsntrizationof the 2" accuracy reported in the dis- tions.
the pulsed photon arrival times, a pme- covery paper by Sewad et a]., l$W. Moreover, the 8 and Q magnitudes of
dure needed to phase correctly light The nominally more accurate position, our two maxima am both compatible
curves collected at different epochs. at (r(1~50) = 5h40m34.03s fr(taso) = with the time-averaged values obiained
The resolving power needed to start
on this problarn has been pmvFded by
Table 1
SUSl (Superb Seeing Imager, pixel sire
of 0.13"over a field of view of 2.2x2.2 V flltw S filter
arcmin) on November f 991, under sub-
arcsec seeing conditions, as part of the Northern maximum 22.4 It 0.2 23.6 5 0.3
ESO Key Progmmrne 6-002-45K. Southern W m u m 22.8 ~t0.2 23.0 k 0.3
We obtained two I-minute V ex- Pulsar (Middleditch and Pennypacker, 19s) 22.26 + 0.20 23.15 r 020
posures, one 2-minute B exposure, one Pulsar (Middledkh el al,, 1987) 22.38 rt 0.14 22.76 k 023
10-minute Ha &=6552 A, A?-.60 4 ex- The values reported in this table have not been cormted far interstellar absorption.
posure, two 10-minute and one 40-mi-
 400 - 0 I--
-
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 I 1 1 1 l
-
4a0 460 4eo soo azo 640
P o d tion

Figure 4: Sku sub- Emph~tamap ol N38 4@minut@OM

fl-5llls A, M=55 &j&powre

d u h g the fast photometry studies {see ence as well as of its central position 1984,Pg.J. (Letters), 2B7, U3.
fable 1). This would imply for PSR with respect to the remnant as a whole Clark, D.H., Tuohy, I.R., Long, K.S., Szym-
0540-693 a pulsed fraction near 100 %, and to the Ha structure, which m s to kovisk, A.E., D o p b M,A., Ma!howson,
to be compared with values of 75 % for originate from it. D.S. wid Culhane J.L. 1982,Ap.J., 255,
440.
the Crab and -50 516 for Vela. However, A high resolution U exposure of the
Dopita, M.A. and Touhy, 1,R. 1984, Ap.J.,
our magnitude estimates are uncertain mnant is required to canfirm the pro- 2B2. 135.
becaw of the presence of the ex- posed optical counterpart of the pulsat- Kirshner, R.P.,Morse, J.A., Wlnkler, P.F*and
tendad emission and any wnclwlon ing source, which is known to be par- BlahmW.P. 1989,Ap.J. 342,260.
has to be taken with caution. ticularly bright in U (Mlddlditch at al., MancWer, RN. and Peterson, 0.A. 1989,
Besides identifying these two poten- 1987). Ap.J. (Letters), $42, L23.
tial counterparts of PSR DMO-S93, our PSR 0549-693 would thus be the third Mathewson, D.S. Dopita, MA., Tuohy, I.R.
data confirm the previous findings an case of an optically identified neutron and Ford V.L 1980, ApJ. (letters) 242,
the expending shell as well as on the star, providing a nice example of the L73.
capability of the NlT equipped with Middleditch, J. and Pennypackw, C, 1985.
continuum synchrotron nebula. They Nature, 313,659.
also add considerable detail on the SUSI. Middleditch, J., Pennypacker, C.R. and
stnvcture of both (see Caraveo el al. Bum,M.S. 1W7,Ap.J,,315, 142.
1992 for a complete account of the re- References Nag-, F., Otaeter, J., Dotarti, T., Lewis. W.,
sults). The Ha image, not available in Caravao. P.A., Bignami, G.F., Mereghetti S. Makino, F. and Mksuda, K. IQW, 4 . J .
the literature so far, shows a structure and Mornbelli M. 1992 +.J. (Letters) in (lettern), S T , 113.
smaller than that of the synehrotran press. Seward, F.D., Hamden, F.R. Jr. and Helfand,
nebula and with a totally different shape. Chanan. G A . Helfand. O.J. and Reynolds. S. D.J. 1984, 4 . J . (Letters), 287,b19.
The dimenston of the "major axis" of the
remnant, as seem in the different fibers,
varies from Q in 0111 to 7.5" in SII to
5.5" in the cantinuurn to a bare 4" in Ha,
While our results on the dimension,
shape and brightness of the remnant in
l3, V, 011 and SII come as no surprise,
1
the Ha picture is somewhat intriguing.
Our Escrphote map suggests either a ring
seen edge-on, not dissimilar from the
0111 ring of 1987A, or some kind of jet-
like structure. The symmgtljc pattern
outlined by the Ha image appears to be
centred on the northern maximum we
have described above. This Is shown in
Figure 6, where the wter ccrntours of
the remnant seen in the Ollt, Ha and in V
filters have bean superimposed to the
position of the two maxima. d u.
j ei--contdurs-ofth remnant as
seen at vmBn0u8 w a ~
Thin tine OEIl, thick line V. dot-
ted Ir'ne Ha, the two mtinuum
m i m a are also shorn.
~

The northm object is clearly favourite LCO 260 480 500 SZQ 540
because of its more compact appear-
DCIING RESEARCH WITH SMALL TELESCOPES:
FrequencyAnalysis of Multiperiodic 6 Scuti Stars
E. PORETI, Ossen/atosbAstmomico di Brera, Milano, Italy
L. MANTEGAZZ9, Universitit di Pavia, Italy

I.A PreliminaryApproach to the the only exception of the smell m- tions are KU Cen (Porettf et a!., 1990)
Problem plitudecase of tp Tau; his recornmencia- and V974 Oph (Poretti and Antonello,
b Scuti variables (hereafter DSCT var- tion was "to obtain complete frequency 1988). Fourier &composition of high-
iables, following the G~?neralCats1ogue solutions for as many rnultimade pub amplitude DSCT stars opened some in-
of Van'abie Stars notation) are a numer- sators as possiblen. me main mason for terestlng questions about further sub-
ous class of pulsating stars loated in this difficulty is the complex mixture of division of their photometricf a r e s , as
the lower region of the instability strtp; radial and non-radial modes often ob- for example the exisfence of a subclass
they are Pop. I, A-F main-sequence or sewed in this class of variable stars: we characterized by light curves with a de-
giant stars and they are now clearly will meet cases for which six periods are scending branch steeper than the as-
separated from the Pap. II objects, cur- not sufficient to solve the light curve. cending one. Morwv8r, the multimode
Moreover, ths!problem of the stability of W r e of V974 Oph became evident
rently named SX Phe stars, The prm-
ence of many non-radial modes simul- the mode amplitu$es was recently re- only after a second 7-day observing nm
viewed with the analyses d datasets at the 1-m telescope, but on that occa-
taneously excited in some of these stars sion we could not obtain a satisfactory
spanning several.observing seasons,
renders them very interesting from the
point of vhw of asteroseisrnology, mak- At Merate Observatory, the study of soIution because of a bad spectral win-
DSCT stars began in the sixties and dow, Indeed, the light c w e of this star
ing possible in prjnciple to resolve their
spectroscopic and photomstric cam- is ac3ually much more complicated than
internal structure. Mareover, most of paigns were continuously undertaken In that described in the preliminary andy-
them have very high apparent lurni-
~ clarify the controversial points. $is (Poretti and Antomllo, 1988). ThL
o r d to
noshies and the task of obtaining the
needed data can be achieved in a very As an obvious extendon of the re- case showed us that a rnultimodaputsa-
economic way by uslng small-size tale- search, the obsmation d DSCT stars tion is also present In very large am-
scopes. En spite of this, Kurh: (1888) was proposed for te3-e-time allo- plitude stars (VW4 Oph reaches an am-
emphasized that multimods DSCT pul- m ~ o atn ESO, in order to take advan- plitude of 0.5 mag in 6-light and Fig-
sators for which a successful frequency tage of the €SO facilities and of the ure 1 show an example of the dramatic
analysis is available are very few and considerably MEW sky of La Silla. After changecs occurring over a short time
restricted to high amplitude cases (AC
some observing runs devoted to a baseline) and the collection of larger and
search far variabitity in open clusters, longer datasets became a fixed step In
And, VZ Cnc, 1 Mon, h Sct, Al Vet) with
we monitored s o m faint stars with an the study of all the DSCT stars.
amplitude greater than 0.4 mag and
classifid as DSCT stars, Tf-ie obsenra- 2, A More Rigorous Approach
tions, carried out at the ESO 1-m tele-
i 1 I I I I I scope, were planned to increase the All this considered, the study of DSCT
8
J.D. 2447113J
sample of stars for which Fourier para- stars constitutes a stimulating challenge
\ meters am available, but they led us to which requires not oniy a careflsl choice
"r - the unpleasant discovery that a lot of the of the programme stars, but also the
stars classified as DGCT or SXPHE by &-up, of a powerfull method of frequen-
v
v
t =t the GCVS we actually eclipsing vnri- cy analysis, of an emr-minimizing ob-
% ables (seeLebrgne et al., 1989 for the sewing promdure and the readiness to
\
. .. case of CK Aqr). Remarkable excep- spend many nights at the telescope.
'i i -

- *
" '-
JD. 844&147137
Table 1 :List of the LXSCT stars obs~wsdat Mmfe end B O . 'nFB number of m m m e r i k N
and the total length of !he mmitoring ars mktive to the pmgrmme star, whila the standerd
dsviatlon SD. & relatiwe ta I t s mparrIson stam.

Star Site Observing

perlad
Nights N Survey
ihoud
Filter S.D.
bwl
V358 Aur Merate Jan. 1986 6 462 32 B,V 0.9090
MR 1225 I30 Nov. 1987 7 705 38 b 0.0033
o' Erl ESO Nov, 1987 7 710 38 b O.M)33
HR 547 ESO Nov. 1987 8 462 22 b 0.0050
SAg 47tO Merate Dec. 1988-Jan. 1989 10 1131 54 0 0.0081
.TO m .W
HD101158 €SO Apr. 1989 13 1234 62 6 0.0033
I I I I I I V974 Qph ESO Apr, 1883 13 '1329 64 B 0.0060
X Cae ESO Nov. 1- 10 1013 54 V 0.0044
44 Tau Merate Dec. 1BM-Feb. 1900 25 2434 317 V 0.0087
Figwe I: Elghf C U of ~W74 Oph on 80+2"1867 ESO Jan.-Feb. 1991 14 1392 100 V 0.9046
three close nlghts: the sr'rcng !=harps in the BD+2"1867 Merate Jan.-Feb. 1981 10 708 43 V 0.0994
shape are the largest in amplitud e w ob- BD-3"5741 ESO Sep.-Oct. 1991 20 2W9 120 0 0 . W
sewed in a DSCT star. Ticks on the ve&imE
axis am sepamfed by 0.1113 mag. -
HD 18878 Merate Nov. f Bgl -Jan. IS% 25 ' 2W10 150 V 0.0056
 val (about 0.002 on the average) and least squares power spectra farm was
they allow us to reconstruct the light preferred. In the upper power spectrum
c w e in a very faithful way, Imvtng no the two peaks are separated and the
ambiguity on the sense of or on frequencies be. 6.00 d d and 6.10 d d )
the reality of small features: this is par- are exactly identified; in the medium
ticularly important in view of the ex- panel the two peaks are separated. but
pected cnmpllcatsd light curves. If the taps occur at 5.98 c/d and 6.14 dd,
necessaty, uvbyB magnitudes am cab 1.e. at wrong values; in the lower power
culated by oberving some standard s p m m the two peaks we not re-
stars located m a r the variable star. solved and instead one large peak
A fundamental point is to understand tentred at 6.04 C/d is visible. Even if
the importance of an adequate resolu- these discrepancies could be predicted
tion in order to perform an accurate by evaluating the interaction af the main
frequency analysis. To show it, we gen- peak corresponding to one periodicity
erated a synthetic dataset containing a with the sidelobes related to the other,
signal which is the sum of two sme- they are a demonstration of the con-
waves with f 96.W c/d and f2 =6.10 c/d, spicuous gain in the handling of data
amplitude 0.020 mag and phase differ- that is achieved by increasingthe length
ence of 2.0 rad; no noise w a added. ~f an observing run.
The signal was sampled in time in the
same manner as the measurements of
HD 1011521 (see Table 2 in P o M for
3. Obserrational Results
further details). Then we performed a For some of the stars listed in Table 1,
frequency analysis on the basis of the figure 3 summarizes the ldentiM fre-
whole dataset (AT-13.7 dl, the first 7 quencies with the respective am-
nights (AT-7.2 d) and the first 4 nights plitudes. The frequency spectra of HR
(AT-3.2 d). We used either a Fourier 1225 and HR 547 display an abrupt
Figure 2: W m deafing with a cbse doublef
of frequencb, aan inwiTfci8~rlength of the Transform method or a least squares decrease between the first two (HR
ObServEng nm can lead to m un&@ peak method (for a comparlson between the 1225) or three (HR 547) Righest am-
e ~to wmng &RtEficaHons (mid-
~ w e r p a n or hnro methods, sea Antonello et al., plitudea to the others, while 0' Eri repre-
dle panel). fhe right p o w specbum is 1386): the results were the same and sentsthe most unfavourable case where
shuwn in the upper pane/. they are shown in Figure& where the a rather high amplitude value (0,W mag)

How can the task be tackled? h e

past schedules indicated that the ESU
50-c;m telescope was more suitable
than the 1-rn telescope for ob#nriq
runs longer than a week.With respect to
the problems described above, the time
resolution offered by long observing
funs with a very performing instrument
such as the ESO 50-cm was an as-
tronomical facility that it would have
been J l y not to exploit fully.
We therefore put in our obsmfng pro-
gramme DSCT stars showing cycle-tu-
cycle variations and, possibly, an am-
plitude larger than 0,05 mag In order to
have a better signal-to-noise ratio. In
Table 1 we report the list of DSCT stars
o b m e d at Merate and at ESO for
whilch at least a preliminary analysis is
available. The rnwsummnts were per-
f o m d in a dierentid manner, always
using two close comparison stars hav-
- -
ing the same 6 V (or b y) index as the
variable this procedure allows us to
minimize the errors introduced by
changes in the sky transparency, crucial
at the low height above sea level of
Merate Observatory, but of some im-
partance also at La Silta. For each uari-
&le star, the last column of Table 1 lists
the 8hndard deviations observed be- Rsq. lc/fil
tween the comparison stars. Generally, figure 3: Graphical deswipffion ofthe fmuency identifffiatfam in the power specm of some of
the meesumments obtained In this way the DSCT stars d i s m w d in the text. Note the dose doublet fwuencynear 7,4 cJd in the
are sepamted by a very short time inter- a p e d m of X m.
is the sum of many small-amplitude
terms. In all these cases the colPected
meawrernents are not sufticienl to
solve wrnpletely the light curve (sinceat
least six frequencias are n-ty to
reduca the r m residual to the level of
the observational error and they cannot
be dl determined unambiguously), but
together with uvbyA photometry they
furnish the possibility to discriminate
betwm radial and ncm-radial pulsation
modes (Poretti, 1989). The amplitude
spectrum of X Cw is similar to the previ-
ous ones: we observe a single dominant
fmuency and a group of t m s with an ~ g u r e4: A @bt w m of BII + 2'11867. his: Mmte measurements; w n circfes Em
amplitude f m 5 to 15 times smaller. In m e a s m m t s . Y7ks on Ule VertfcaI axis are separated by 803 mag.
spite of this, the high-precisdon mea-
surements atlowed us to evidence non-
linear coupling t m and possible reso- cated lfght curve, such as SAO baseline of 10-1 5 nights can establkh
nanceeffects and a satisfactory solution 4710= HD 16439, I-fD 31819 and HD some experimental evidences in agree
with 8 sine-waves could be proposed 101158. This type of stars is the most rnent with the theoretical requests, as
(Mantegazza and Porettl, 1992). The suitable for single-site observations and testified by our activity.
non-tinew coupling terms are also evi- perhaps for the study of variability in For these reasons we look at the ESO
dmcd in the frequency spectra of mode amplitudes. The double-mode policy in the near future with great
!30+2"1&67. Thanks to its equatorid sitars SAO 4710 and HD 37818 were wony. Even In the wse where the
position, thls star was also observed at observed at Merate and we note again *streamliningn of La Silla would not in-
Mwate Observatory in a doublesite the presenceof a factor of 4-5 between volve a reduction of the efficiency of the
simultaneous carnpalgn which allowed the amplitude of the dominant frtqtoen- E50 facll#es, we are not able to flnd a
us to reduce the aliases at & I c/d and ey and the $econd tern. In the light scientific justification to the strong re-
to perfom a more accurate analysis. cuwe of HD 101158 (obsmed d €603 duction In the E50 photo-electric A-
Figure 4 shows one of the longest three pulsation modes can be identified stturnentation [after 1996 only the 1-m
strings of measurements: the multimode (Fig. 3). Our sdu8on is different from a telescope will be equipped part-time
pulsatio~lnature is evident These ob- previous one reported by Lampens and with a photometer; CrEstianl 1991). In
jects are a good example of Me dlfficul- Rufener (19W), but it fits thetr measure- wr opinion. the possibility to obtain a
ties inherent in the frequen~yanalysis of rnents satisfactorily. Thls fact ern- high time-mlutian is a requirement in
USCT stars. Howsver, lt was always phasizes the necessity of having light rnany ressarch fields and it is a facili
possible to search far periudicities c u ~ e with s a good coverage at our dis- which should be rnlntained at the dis-
down to vary small amplitude values posal {as they result from a continuous p m l of the s~ientificcommunity since
and to give a satisfactory picture of the monitoring during the night described in it is bawd on the same attitude as the
modal content. the previous section) bmause in this one that, for example, drives technolog-
Multi-slte campaigns am oilen in- w e we can obtain a mlution only Iwv- ists to plan sophisticated instruments to
vokd to solve the most complicated ing the uncertainties related to the +, 1 improve spatial resolution of data anal-
light curves; this is undoubtedly right, d d alfas problem. The technique of ysts to develop software packages to
but our intensiveobservations of 44 Tau measuring a BSCT star once every better extract the signal from the noise.
show that single-site monitorings can 10-15 minutes generates datasets for
be very productive If they take full ad- which many solutions are possible, each
vantage of the greater availability of t e giving slightly dirent m s residuals.
bscope time. The light curve solution 44 From a mathematicd point of YW.this References
Tau (Porettl et al., 1392) is important for means that in the least-squares para- ~ ~ t E, ~Mantw-, ~ l L, ~ pawl,
, E.:
mother reason: if we look at its very rich meter space the objwtb8 function has a 7988, htrm. &mphys, m.
p a w spectrum rsported in Figure 3, at very smoothed behaviour and many pa- Crisliani, S.: W91, 7hle M-wr 65.2.
first sight we can think that it originated rameter ~ornbinations can be pickd up Kurtr, D; 1988, in Mu&imde Stwllar Pu1sa-
from the work of rotational splitting. The wia only marginal differances on the ffansl K Q U ~ , m a d m * B. Szeidl
presence of the second-ordar GOMI-goodness of the fit. eda,, Konkaly Qbemtory, Budapest
Isas, p. 98.
cients can destroy the equidistant struc- Lampens, P., Rufenar, F.: 1890, Asiron. As-
ture a d gene- groups of unwlaly 4. lmpliaBombr*e ~w~ [email protected]. 83,145.
spaced frequencies. 44 Tau is a very LeBwgns, J.F., Figer, A,, Poratti, E: 1989,
dow rotator (v sin is5 kids) and our The frequency analysis here sum- t ~ v ns
analysis concluded that the seven iden- marked can be regarded as pictures of Mantegaaa, b., Pore&!, E: 1992, ~stm* AS-
tified frequencies are Independent from the complicated rnrrltimode pulsation of tro@tys. 256,153.
each other: we also noted that the two the stars in the lower part af the instabill- Pomttl, E: 1W9,A s l m Astrophy~~ 220,
largest amplitude freqtrenci~differ by ty strip. If the variability in mode an- 144.
only 0.1 1 c/d. Therefwethis dose d a b - plitudm will be confirmed by new abser- E: 19910 Asm. Ashphp. -*
136.
let and more gemrally the whole spec- vations of other DSGTsUm the scenario POr8a, Es, Antomilo, f., LeBorgne, J.F-:
trwrn should be ascrlbied to physical will be wen more complicated. To solve Asm, Astrophysys =,56.
reasons that are different from rotational the matter it will be necessary to get well pow,E,, ,t,ntonaa, E:,sea,bm,htm
splitting. sampled datasets h the future. There- m.199 101.
We must also mention that there are fore, the possibility to do precise pho- pwetai, E., hrleartegana, L,Ribaxmi. E.: 1992,
asCP $tats with a much less carnpli- tometry with a small telescope on a Astmn. kstrophys. 256,113.
Halley Back to Normal
0.HAINAUT, A. SMETTEand R.M. WEST, ESO

This phato shows a small sky area in

the dirktion of Comet Hdley, bbtained
with the €SO 3.5-metre New Technolo-
gy Telescope (NIT) in the morning of
April 6, 1992.
It is a composite of 10 individual ax-
posures in the standard V-band, ob-
tained between LIT 2: 33 and 4: 58 with
a total integration time of 130 minutes.
They were combined in such a way that
the image of the moving comet remains
at the $ m e position and the stars are
themfore seen as trails. The position of
Comet Hdley is at the centre of the
circle and is located mb 2 arcmin
north-west of a magnitude-7 galactic
star. Its strong light Introduced a very
skew background illumination which
was removed by fitting a, 3rd-degree
and subtracting.
At the time of the observations, Com-
et Halley wwas 15.67 AU (2343 million km)
from tha €&h and 10.22 AU (2424 mC1-
lion km) *urn the Sun. The predicted
mean magnitude of the nucleus alone is
V = 25.95, w[th variations from about
25.5 to 28.5 due ta thar rotertlon. A care-
ful analysis indicatesthatthere may be a
very fajnt Image near the limit of the
c~mbineelframe at the ~redictedp d -
tion, and with magnitude V = 25.8 f0.4.
Howevw, it Is hardly vistble and this
--
value must rather be considered an up-
per lirntt of the present brightnew of the during a dramatic eruption in late De- left near the nucleus,
comet. But in any case, the magnitude cember 1990 and first o b s ~ m dat La The ESQ obsenratEons of comet
cannot be much brigMsr than what is Silla in mid-February 1991, has now Halley will continue.
rtxpectsd from the nucleus alone. effgctively disappeared. At the present The phato covers an area of 85x85
This observation therefore shows that time, 16 2/2 months after the 1%mag a m d s ; north is up and east is to
the large dust cloud which was ejected outburst, there is very little, if any dust the right.

Spectroscopic Obsewations in the Cluster of Galaxies

Abell151
D, PROUST, Observatoire de M~udon,France
H.QUIWANA, Universidad Catdlica de ChileI Santiago, Chile

namical evolution. This hfamation is models of the dark matter content.

Redshift surveys in clusters of galax- useful nat only to test scenarios Of Gataxy velocity m~tasumentsprovide
ies are newid to &udy their dynamicid galaxy formation, but also of the forma- information cornptamentafy to that o b
and evolutionary states, estimating pa- tion and evolution of large structures. tained through X-ray observations of
rameters such as the mass, shape and In clusters, ths m a n velocity is a key clusters. Bath form basic pieces of in-
distortion of the velocity flald, presence factor En deriving distances, permitting formetion for the understanding of clus-
of substnucfurw or projested ga1axies the study of matter dbtrlbution over very ters. However, reliable parameters are
and groups, strength of dynamic& Mc- large scdes. Within clusters the analysis dgrived from analysis of large samples
tion and two-body processes and, in of the velocity field can lead to an esti- of veiocities. Them am laborious to ob-
general, the present stage of their dy- mate of the *rial mass, constraining tain, a task made more efficient by the
 tregraph at Ute Cmsegmin focus,
equipped with the 600 IinWmrn grating
b t d at 5000 r$ and coupledto an RCA
CCD (1024 x 640 pixels) datector with
pixel size of 15 pm. A dispersion of 129
&mm was used, pnwlding spectral cov-
erage from 3750 to 5700 A
h e &a reduction of the OFTOPUS
data was carrid out udng the IW
package, while the 1-52-mone was re-
duced t Ganhing using IHAP. The ra-
dial velocities were &rived from the
cross-crrrrelatlan procedure dwefoped
at Meudon In the eve sohare.
Wavelength calibration was performed
uJng the HeAr lamp reference.

Results
With previous mwrements in the
same cluster (Froust et al. 1988), and
few other data from lite&ure. we obtain
for A151 a total of 65 velocities. Ten
galaxi=. with vetacities greater than
20,000 krn s-' are background &jwts.
Duringthe preparation of the OPTOPUS
obsmatims, 158 galaxies wen
s e l W after lnmection an the Pailomar
glass plates, &sidering suitable mag-
nitudes in the central 40' diameter
field, approximgte1y. Ngure 1 shows JI
XSCALE the galaxy positions symbolized with a
circle for objects with V, > 20,000 km
c',filled dot whh 14,000 s V, < 20,000
wider use d rnultiobjmt spectroscopy. Observations with the 1.52-m tde lanst, and filled star with 10,000 IV, c
Here we study the veIocity and galaxy scope were carried out in October 1m0. 14,000 Imr s-j. Man-measured obi-
distribution in the cluster A 151 which is We used the BDller and Chivens spec- are represented wlth a woss; A very
a richness 1 one ancl a cDs RS-type for
which 105 obi& have been listed in
Dressier's catalogue (1.980).

Observations and D a b
Reductions
The programme of radial velocity mea-
surements was carried out in December
1885 at the ESO 3.6-m telescope and in
October 1990 at the ES9 1.52-m.We
u s d the multijobject spectrograph O P
TOPUS in Ita; "old" csnfiiwation at the

-\
3.8-rn C a w r a i n focus equipped with
35 separate optical fibers for collecting
tha llgth from galaxies spread over a
field sf 33 arcminutes diameter In ths
telescope focal With the use of
the F/1 .£dioptslc
I spectrograph camera,
each fiber output was projected onto an
RCA GGD (512 x 320 pixel) detectcr

-
with a fiber image sibs of 85 p m (2.8
pixels). A dispersion of f 14 hr
n was
used, providin $pw+Eral coverage from
f.
3800 to 5570 The preparation of the *a *
2WOa, aOllDa crSOOP.
drilled OPTQPUS plates was made by
measuring positions d galaxies an the 5 m
:p,'
glass copy of the Pdomar Sky Survey sl= . o r .
with the OFTRONlCS machine at ESO- #W, 1
-
P P

-1
Gmhiig, with respect to 20 reference
SAO Btm. Rgum 2.
 bound ta the main cluster. Therefore, it
is a projected foreground duster.
The velmity data show 3 struatwes,
the maill ctuster at z = O.fE37, a
fomgmund group at 2: = ll.W1 and a
badtgt~und population at t = 0.1. The
nearrtst cluster with known z close to A
151 ia A 133 @ = o.WU4). No close
cornions at the game t am apparent
within 6 degree d A 151. WDWW, the
background galaxies have similar t a9 A
188atz= 0.13. Mmer,W4cllaivters

- -
A 131, A 1198, A 1 s and A 1% have
similar distanoe tlw 5 md similar
AbeiD radii Ra, 038 within 2 degrees uf
the centre of A 151. It likely that
bckground grouping belongs to a
supwclusW at it = 0.1 1-0.12. W/ltlrin 6
de~~%%, h r e we three c4hwr clusters in
this redshift rangq Uwre 4 show the
pcsit~onsof the, mresf clustem on the
sky.
Wetbank -&@ ESO and esm-
ly ~ ~ i v iHdnaut,
w pierre bw,
I-
foregmwrd galaxy is symbolized J t h a ~ B tadmS newt~nim Foulqug, Mornmrrd Heryrku( and
me
diamond. WiWEon for gmvl-nal binding can b Daniel M e Johann Seb&lan
nglm 2 shows the velC3dty wad@ sWed in tern of the obse~abl; as: Bach music p w b d by Bo ReipWtr
diagrams h right &9&Bnsim, and d d l - was grentlly appreciated dufing the ob-
nation. horn Rgu~ea1 and 2 me an 8 M n g runs.
see the p m a of a ~egroundStNC-
turn In the zwthm raglan. ~ i d ~ g
thad In the 30 armin c m h l teglon the where V, is the reta~ve vdacity dmg the Refw~nm
sampling la fairly homogenmu9, we can LTne of sight of the dWer and its sub- m
h k r a 1980, Af2.J.G. m.
mtlmate that the central D g a l w Is .&moturn, Rp the pmjWwJ -ion W~ttlgW. 1958,W m Ma~k. 2& I@.
IoWd 5.2 m l n , fm fhe main dus- between $he dugtar and the subsiruo- Prwst D, M v A, SQddL,*C H.,
ter Centre# turn, M the total mass (clusW + sub Lund Gf. IW, dhwp. & ~ y s ~
. 3uml.
Figure 3 shows the histogram d cadiat struetum) and a the angle btwmthe 72,41&.
wib&iIies for the main cluster with a clustar and the substruchlre with the

-
fitted Gaussian centred at atthe mean \re
tocity O 161390 .+ 94 km
0 0 m e d velocity dlsp~~iion
wit31 a
a = 687%
p h of the sky. A necessary conditicrn
l ~thaw left
for b o w ~ l u t i o t is
fity in the abave equation must be h s
km s"'. From the standard Friedmart than 1. Our mrnputatiom lead to the
m o I w (maitig 1G58) Wlm: wnduaion that t
h substru&um k n&

we &in
-
e m m cluster dWmx of
148 M p c assuming 1-1, 100 krn s-'
Mpc ' and q, = 0.1 and an M radius
of 35 m i n . (1.51 Mpc); the fomgmund
structure has a mean d i n t x of 115
Mpc.
The *mid rn- dmatims are!
tabulated below for the mJn dustwand
for the doraground s&dructum;

In or&x to ch& if the strbmcture b 1 36;

borrnd to the maln body of the clust%rI
we hiwe used Uler procsdure which w m d ,
 Russian Rockets and American Comets
Lasf Messenger issue featursd differenttypes of objects in the sky over La Silla and other observatoi-i%s,including two
sighting$ of "strange"phenomena, one supposed to be connected to a Russian rocket and the other ofunknown nature
messenger 87, page 56-58).
I f is always a special pleasure for an editor to learn that the journal he w ~ r k son is read by other people! This was
certainly the case In connectton wlfh the mentioned articles, and quite a few commentaries were received. The fact that
many Messenger articles with scientilic8IIy much more "valuable" content remain without such reactions may have
something to do with human nature and the attitude towards the unknown.. .
Like a good detective story. the solution of the mysteiy comes at the end, in this case on the fol/owingpages. It was
indeed a Russian rocket,but who would have guessed the true nature of the second object?
I am most thankful to Drs. Blfhnhardt, Ferrin, Johnson and Rast, for having contributed to the de-mystification of #?ern
events. Each of the following four articles cast their own light on them,
It also appears that these (and other simllar) cases have now led Richad Rast to seriously consider fhe establishment
of a non-profit "Center for Analysis of SateNite lnterkmce with Astronomy (CASA): As form~rChief of the Orbital
Analysis Division at NORAD in Colorado and later at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas, ha is in an excellent position
to judge what such a Center could do for astronomers. fhe a-posterJorl identification of satell&e trails on phobgraphic
plates and in CCD frames may be of #Vte consolation for the unhappy observers, but the day might be near when
particulady critical observations will benefit from a-pdod knowldge of the sighting directions of the roughly 30,000
artificial objects in known orbits. In such cases, it m y become possible to predict exactly when the shutter can be
opened without risk of discovering a dense trail on top ofthe object of interest, at the and of the ~xposureseveral hours
later. And dramatic events experienced by the public like the ones described here, could quickly be sxplaimd In the
correct way, if the Information were passed on In real time. This would undoubtedly have an Important educational value.
Further Infomation about the CASIA projecf may be obtained from:
Richard H.Rast, 1841 I Anne Drive, Houston, Texas 770504203,USA, Telephone 713-333-2830. The Editor

Magnitude at Maximum of SN 1872 E. Abundances In Hato Stars as Tests of

New ESO Preprints Astronomy and Astmphysiw Letters. Galaxy Formation. Astronomy and As-
trophysIm Lettern
-
(March May 1992)
830. G. Mathys: The Inhornogenews Dis-
tribution of OxygBn on the Surface of 841. J. Einasto, M. Qramann and E. Tago:
the Magnetic Ap Star HD 125248. Power Spectrum of the Mattar Distribu-
Scientific Preprints 831. S.M. Viegas and M. A. Prieto: Problng tion in the Universe on Large Scales.
Photoionization Models In Two Well 842. T. Theuns: Hydrodynamics of Enwun-
824. M. Olberg, Bo Reipurth and R.S. Booth: ters and Molecular Clouds. I.Code Vali-
Studied Extended Emission-Une Re-
A Molecular Outflow Associated with dation and Pnllrnlnary Results. II.
gions: Cen A and 3C 227.M.M.R.A.S.
Herbig-Ham Jet HH 46/47. A s t m m y Limits on Cluster Lifetimes. Astronomy
and Astrophysics. 832. A. Jotissen and H.M.J. Boffin:
Evidences for Interaction m g Wlde and Astrophysics.
825. E. Pal-, N. Mandolesland Ph. Crane: 843. LB. Lucy: Resolution Limits for Oecon-
CN Rotational Excitation. Astmphysical Binary Systems: To Ba or Not To Ba?
To appear in "Binaries as Trac6-m d volved Images. Astronomical Jwmal.
Journal. L.B. Lucy: Statistical Limits to
826. M. Detla Valte: Nova Rate In M 33 and in Stellar Formation", Eds. A. Duquennoy
and M. Mayor, Cambridge University Superresolutlon. Astronomy and As-
the Galaxy. Invited paper praented at trophysics.
the Workshop on "Cataclysmic Variable Press, 1992.
Stars", July 15-19. 1991,Vlha del Mar, 833. B. Barbuy et al.: Light Element Abun-
dances in Barlurn Stars. A s m y and Technical Preprlnts
Chlle.
827. 1. F. Murtagh: A New Approach to Polnt Astmphysis. 43. M. Faucherre: Summary ot the session
Pattern Matching. Publications of the 834. H. Van Wlnckel, J.S. Mathls, C. Wael- on Methods for Optical Pathlengths
Astmmical Society of the Pacific. kens: Unusual Chemical Abundance6 In Compensation. To be publlshed in the
2. F. Murtagh MuWtuariateAnalysis and Some Peculiar Stars Due to Fractlona- Proc, of €SO Conf. on "High Resolution
Classification of Large Astronomical on. Nature. Imaging by Interferometry", Garching,
Databases (followed by discussion), 835. D.Q. Yakovlw el al.: Photoionkatlon Oct. 14-18,19D1.
Statistiwl Chailenges in Modern As- Cross Sections of Atoms and Ions from 44, A. Wallander. Remote Control of the ESO
Immmy, G.J. Babu and E.D. Feigelson He to Zn. Astronomy and Astrophysics. new Technology Telescope. Paper pre-
(Eds.), Springer-Verlag, New York. 836. E.D. Feigdson and F. Murtagh: Public sented at the Workshop on "Remote Ob-
3. F. M w h : Contlgutty-Constrained Software for the Astronomer: An Over- sewing", held In Tucson, USA, April
Clustering for Image Analysis. Pattem view. Ptrblications of the A s f r o m i d 21 -23,1992.
Recognition Leftm. Society of the Pacific. 45. 0. v m der Ltlhe: Ground-Basea High
4. F. Murtagh: Cosmb Ray Discrimina- 837. A. Moneti, I. Glass and k Mowwood: Angular Resolullon Observation of the
tion on HST WFPC Images: Object Infrared Imaging of IRAS Sources Near Sun by Interferometry In the Vlsible. Pa-
Recognition-By-Example. First Annual the Galactic Centre. M.N.RA.S, per presented at the ESA Workshop "So-
Conference on Astronomical Data Anal- 838. R. Pallavicini, L. Pasquhi and S. Ran- lar Physics and Astrophysics at Interfern-
ysis Software and Systems. J. Barnas. dich: Optical Spectroscopy of Post-T metric Resolution", ESA HQ, Paris,
C. Biemesderfer and D. Worrall (Eds.), Tauri Star Candidates. Astmnomy and 17-19 Feb- 1992.
Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Astrophysics. 0. von &r Liihe et al.: lntetferomehy
828. P.Padovanl: Is there a Rdationship Be- 839. R. tiseau et al.: Star Fmatim in the wlth the Very Large Telescope. Invited
tween BL Laoertae Objects and Flat Vela Molecular Clouds: 1. The IRAS- paper at ESA Workshop "Solar Physlcs
Spectrum Radio Quasars? M.N.R.A.S. Bright Class 1 Sources. Astronomy and and Astrophysics at Interferornetfic Res-
829. M. Della Valle and J. Melnlck: The Dls- Astrophysics. olution", ESA HQ, Paris, 47-19 February
tan# to NGC 5253 and the Absolute 840. F. Maffeuccl and P. Fmnpds: Oxygen 1992.
Close Encounters with Ice Balls of a Second Kind
R. RASX NASA, Houston, Texas, U.S.A.

Ther excellent photograph of a possi- ary 28, 1 computed a trajectory for each crete ice crystals have a much larger
ble n a r miss obiect Messenger 6?,p. near 9:05 UTC. Only one matched. area-to-mass ratio than the Shuttle,
67) allows confident idenffficatlon. Al- The autfmrs did obswva an ice ball, these Individual "satellites"experience a
though Srnette and Hahaut mention no but it was not a cometary nudeus. considerable orbit perturbation from tho
colour far the bright, dmse object, a Space Shuttle Discovery's crew, with tenuous atmosphere at this altitude.
lithium or barlum release would havs German astronaut Ulf Merbold aboard. Note also in the photograph a m m -
been noticeably red or green, respec- had just csmpleted a 25-litre Spacelab ljanying the Mesmgwr article how the
tively. The authors consldw a d then waste water dump at 8:58 as the orbiter angular diameter of the bright conden-
reject such an explanation. Mey also was headed toward South America from sation incteasm from right to left as it
suggest a, re-entering satellite, bbut the war the South Pacinc Ocean. fhe bright expands, despite actually reosd1ngfrom
trains sometimes left by these conchsation of magnitude approxi- the camera
phenomena rarely, if ever, appear eir- mately 1 was not the arktitar itself, since Spadab" waste water k typically
cular, DJmvery would have appeared to dumped only once per week-long mls-
Sme$te and Hainavt mention that move at three timers the angular speed sion. Even the most cconmative es-
the object was about 75 deg above the of the cantlmzion, Instead, the 2-dq- timates prSbdEet that such an Ice ball
horizon, but white appearing to p a s wide, circukw nebulosity, backlit at a cannot survive in sunlight without sub-
above Mars, it was really at only 9 deg solar phase angle of 157 deg, was ice liming or wen remain in orbit for more
elevation. This accurately known pod- crystals which formed as the dumped than a few hours.
€ion in the sky suggested oomelating a -
water condensed from the m ' s res- Thus, although Srnette and Hainaut
pass of some outgassing artificial Birth piration and perspiration - froze In did not experience some dose encount-
satellite with the path of the unknown space and thsn slowed due to high er with a vjsitor frem the outer soh
obW. drag. The d ~ l e r ~ ois ndirectly pro- Bystem, they can at least feel privileged
From the available orbital elements of portionalto cross-sectional m a and in- to have witnessed a ram and fascinating
almost 7000 saltfrllites in orbit on Janu- versely proportional to mass. Since dis- Wfidal comet!

On the Nature of the Srnette-Hainaut Object

I. FERRIN, Department of Physics, University of the Andes, Mdrida, Venezuela

I.The ObsenrMons (1) D m s ] = 2 . 4 x l ~ ~ x F I ~ This result means that if the object

was a comet, then its diameter was I f0
In the Mwenger, No,87, Sm&e and where R = Distance Comet-Sun. Since
Hainaut report their observation of a di- S-H's Object was near the Earth, R = 1.a times too small for its speed. Or, Ets
fuse cornet-llke object of visual angular AU, and D = 2.4 x 10: if this object was
speed was 170 times too large for its
diameter. In any case we have a dis-
diameter araund 2 degrees, moving 1.l a comet. Then from
degrees per 10 secands of time, R a crepancy by a large factor.
northemly direction, at dawn (from n w (2) tg ra = DiA
on refemed to as S-H's Object).
we obtain d = 6.9~10' krns if the 4. Comparison with Comet lras-
Using the published picture, 1 rnea-
sured a photographic diameter of 0.2 diameter was 2 degrees, and 6.9 x 10' If Araki-Alfiock 1983d.
the diameter was 0.2 degrees.
degrees. Let us take this value as a Comet lras-Araki-Alcock 19836,was
tower limit for the angular diameter, and the closest approach of any comet to
the former value as an upper Ilmit. 3. Escape Velocity Earth since 1770 (when that of Comet
In this work I will explore if the abave Laxell took place), and thus it can be
obserrations are consistent with what Using this distance, its linear velocity used as convenient comwson. On
we actually h o w about corn&. can then be calculated: May 11, 1983, it reached an angular
If this were a corn, it would be of the (3) v=w.I.l diameter of 3.5 degrees in the sky, at a
gmtest importanceto dculate its size minimum distance to the Earth of A =

tulated by Frank st al. (1986).

-
and orbit, since the object could belong where w Is the angular velocity In the
to the group of pygmy mm&s pos- sky. Ushg w 1 degree / 10 seconds of
time, we flnd Y = 1.2 x 1 O4 kmdsect And
0.031 AU (Green, 1983).
Its trajectary was very similar to that
of S-H's Object, since it was moving in a
10 times more if the angular dlameter Is N-S direction, almost perpendicular to
0.2 degrees. The maximum relative orbi- the ecliptic.
2, Distanceto the Object
tal velocity of a parabolic comet and the
We can obtain the distance to a com- E& is about 71.& = (29.8+42.0) kms/
et, A, from its observed angular diame- sea Thus the above veSocMes are much
-
Using the above Information we ob-
taln D 2.8 x 1O5 kms for Comet h4.
This value is plotted in figure 1 as a
ter, 0, using Figure 1, which shows the too large1 The cornet woutd have had a quare. It Ites right on top of the calibra-
llnear diameter, D, of the coma of many very hyperbollo orbit. No comet with tion by Wurm (1939). Thus this Earth-
same& compiled by Wunm (1939), fitted such a hyperbole orbit has been dis- approacher smes as a good test of our
with a law: covered up to now. hypothrtsia
 The motion of IAA was then of the
order of 2 degrees per hour. Object S-H
was moving at 2 degrees per 20 sec-
onds of time. This is a f&or of 18.0
larger, which muld be accommod$ted if
the deject wers roughly 180 times near-
er. But then its size would have been
roughly 180 tima lager than IAA, in
which case it should have covered the
whole sphere, and not 2 degrees as
seen.
If L were 180 t irnes nwwthan Comet
IAA, Its distance would be 2.6%104, a
value smaller than the coma she by a
factor of 10! Thus we would Iw sub-
merged In the comet's coma, and there
would be a glow over the whole sky! The
pfiotograph would look like a very
diffuse central condensation, trailing
over the sky, and not as sharp as shown
In the pubtished image.
In other words, we get the same dis-
crepancy, S p e d and diameter are h-
consistent if the object was a comet

The object w t d be ths remains of

the exhaust of a Soviet rocket. Several
cam have been known of the 3rd stage
of a Soviet rocket separatiw over Chile,
producing spectacular clouds of
geometric forms (Nod, 1985; Morates, Figure 1:Dlamefw of wmtary coma as a function of distance to Sun IWurm, I=).
1989).
The object auld have been a "round
cloud" or a "round haze". When the
atmasphere is very stable, or En laminar object's altitude, which might not be the References
Aow, as it frequently happens in Chle, it we*
can support rwml clouds, or round Additional information could be Ffarrk, LA., Sigwarth, J.B,, Craven, J.D.,
hazes,a spherically symmetric region of gained from a study of the image struc- Gwphys. Rm- Lett., Vol. 1.8,p. 307 (1986),
saturated water vapout. They do not last ture in t h published
~ picture. If the ob- G m , D., Intern. Comet Quarterly, April,
for long, but look remarkably as corn&. ject was a cornet the image structure p. 31 (1983).
They are even tmsparent, since bdgM should show a h i l i central conden- Moral&. G,"An OVNl Over Wvta", Univer-
so. No. 29,p 62 ($889).
stars can be seen thmugh them. sation, decaying slowly In brightness Noel, F., in "ARKA, Search for lntelngent Ute
1 have seen two of them, o m of about outward. This does not seem to be the in the Unhremn. L Campusam, Edltor,
1-2 degrees in diameter, The other one case from a cursory analysis of the im- p. 300,Unlvdty of Chile (1985).
was of 5 degrees of diameter. I re- age. However a more detailed study is Wurm, K. (1939). Plotted by Mdis and Ip,
member Iz distinctly because It was lo- required. Astrdph. Spm Scf.,Vol. 219, p. 335 (1976).
cated on top of comet Hallleryl with the
rest of the sky wmpletely clear (a g d
example of the way natuw sometimes
behaves)l It lasted for about 15 minutes
and then went away. If such a round
cloud Is Imted at 10 kms from the Unidentified Object Over Chile Identified
obsmer, at dawn, it may look remark-
ably as a comet. Its speed can be calm- The unidentified flying object (UFQ) second stage lnEo a transfer orb& of
lated fmrn Equation 3, and cones out to seen from Chile between 2 :15 and 2 :21 roughly 200 by 600 krn* After sapara-
be 60 kmsh depending W t h dlametsr
~ UT on January 24 (The Messsngw67, p. tlon, the flrst stage remains in the bans-
is 2 degrees or 0.2 degree. This is 56) was mectEy assessed by author fix orbit and the secwrd stag@firm while
compatible with the surface winds on Hainaut as the upper stage of a rocket. heading northeast off the west caast of
Wh. H w e w , it was not re-entwing, but South America, before completing one
Thus this hypothesis can be tested. If "exitSngWto a higher o e i . revolution of the Eatth.
S-H's Objed was a cloud In the Earth's An hour earlier*the Cummonwealth of Until now there was speculation
atmosphere; then the wind should have Independent States (CIS) had launched whether this type of UFO seen by Chl-
bsen moving toward the N, at between Cosmos 2176 on a thrw-stage rocket leans was the Mrst stage venting un-
6-60 kms/h. This information should be from Plesetsk 12300 km northwest of burned fuel or the second stage firing.
available in the meteorological office. BaEkonur). Typically, the strap-ons and The fine photographs and description
Notlce that this assumes that the sur- stage zero impact within CIS borders. pmlded by La Silla wtronomers indi-
face wind is the same as the wind at the The first stage places the payload and cate that, at I M in this case,the latter
explmation is correct. A nominal sec- the launchBf rnlssElestowwdsthe 015 in 24.1.92 2.15-2.21 La Sllla
LIT OVH
ond stag8 bum Imts a T t b under the Infrared1 could have been a part f r m the Cos-
4 minutes. Ironiadly, although its launch R WT;#AM, Houston, Texas, U.WR mas 2176 launch. However, fsrrther in-
was detected visually by ashonomsrs, N. JOHNSON, Kaman Sciences, vestigations am neadsld to verify this
the mission af Cosmos 2176 is to detact Colo~adoSprings, Colorado, U.SA explanation ( l w & site of Cosmos
2176). In this context, a more detailed
dewription of the UFO trajectory over
La Silla or other p k m in Chile could be
On the "Unidentified Object Over Chile" very heEpW for a positive identifteatlon
of the Cosmos 2176 hunch as orlgin for
In a recent article (7% M e s m g ~67,
r during the first orbit revolution when the UFO. The decay of a space debris
p. 56-57), 0,Hainaut prspases a re- launched from 8aikonur and mest Rus- (Ilke 1986-19-CX or others not given In
enten'ng satellite or rocket as aspba- sian high-inclination hunches 0.s. those the NORAD catstugues) cannot ha ruled
tim for the obwations of the unid~n- above 60 deg) are made from PlesEttsk 0t.d as possibleexplanation.
tified object over La SHla on 24.1.92 at In summary: The UFO observed on N. B&WHARDT, Gaffihivrg,Qannany
2-16 to 2.2t UT.
A preliminary analysis of the informar
tion on satellite lwnmchesand decays for
the period 23.P24.d.92 was perfwed
by H. kanke, Satellite Station Stade,
First Images with IRAC2
and myself in order to c o d m or dis- ESOvsnew infrared camera equipped the various modes. Amongst the first of
prove this hypothesis. with a 256x256 Rockwll NlCMlOS 3 these am the czccompanying images of
Satellite decay& awnding to infor- array (5619 the Mesmgw, W, 21) was the A1689 galaxy clwter at z 4 . 2 and
mation published in Spacewarn Bulletin, tested an B e 2.2-m telescope for the the supernova remnant RCW 103. it is
the following siteIris demyed on 231 first time durlng the secmd half .cM May. pbned to include a more detailed re-
24.1 42: Although the wmher was (gmenlly port In the next issue of the M85s(9ngere
pow 8 large number of images of a A MORWOOD, G.FINGER,
7
vari&y of objects were newerthdess ob- P. BdEREiCHEL,H. QEMPERLUN,
ObJeat Desatptlon m Y tained and am now being reduced k, YE.-L.LEON, M.MfYER,
1988-1WX Part ofA&iM 23.1.92
assws the performance achievable in A. M O M r El30
Launcher - I
1991-51-A Mlcmsat 1 23.1 .gZ
1941-51-B M b m2 23.1.92
19@1-S1SI M b m t4 23.1.92
19W-514 M b W7 23.1 .@
1991dl4 Microsat 3 24.1.92
1991-614 Nllur088t 5 U.1.$2
1992-1-B Racket Cosm06 24.1.9%!
2175

Orbit catcwlatiow of the Micmsats

and of Rocket Cosmos 2175 show that
none of these objects can be consid-
ered a p~tentlalmdidate Eo explain the
observations of the mideniified object
over Chtte. Fw the Arliane launcher part,
no orbital elements were available for
our calculations.
Satellite teauncb: according to the
RAE tables of E8rth Satellites the only
launch of interest for the UFO obsenra-
trons b that of Cmmoe;2176 on 24.1 .W
at 1.12 UT. The orbR indimation of this
launch was about 63 dgg wh1c-h points
towards the Plesetsk §paw Centre
(near Plrchangdsk) as launuh site. With
thls assumption an o b a b i l f t y over
Chile resulted on 24.1 .€Qbetween 2.1 5
to 2.20 UT far re-entering parts of the
Coasnlos 2176 launch. The scenario of
the re-entry of a rocket launched from
the Wonux space Centre as propasd
by 0.Halnaut can be led out for two
reasons: no parts from the Cesmas F i w I:K' (2.7 p$ imtarge ofthe @my cfust~AIB8g
(2-0.2) o b S g M with IFt4C2 at t h 22-
2176 launch would pass over La Silla m tebcape on La Si/1aBThe w I e is 0.49*/px@m d tlre #"d Is 4 x 2 ' with N at.the top and
E t~ fhe I%& This /map wae cwrstnrcted fmm tm 2-mlnute e m made at d??%mt
@ i i ~s W by - 7 6 # the sky to enabfee a u m t ~sky subtrxctlm and m v a l of bad
pk& and has been flat fieIded using tm?a&ummm ofthe illuminated diffusing stmen b the
' ThB decey and arbit InfOnnsUan waa klndly pro- donee. Rm g a l ~ f e shave hrtagmted magnitudes In t b range K' = 18.5-IS and thQl m.6.
vlderd by E90C Oannstadi. mise tmmqmd~ to -21 mag (ammI4 ( r m a g e p t - ~ ~ % R e~pwk t a t e k j .
Rgure 2:Narrow band [FeNJ(1.644 pm) image of the supernova remnant RCW 103. ThlsIs a mosaic of nine 4-rnin axposures ~omblnedto yieEd a
fleld of 5x5: N Is at the top and E to the left. [!mag@processing: Reynier PeIetierJ.

The Influence of the Pinatubo Eruption on the

Atmospheric Extinction at La Silla
H. -G.GROTHUES and J. COGHERMANN, Astronomisches institiit, Ruhr-Universitat Bochum,
Germany

The atmospheric extirrction Is an im- sphere at attitudes MtvYem 20 anand (ML Agung. Bali, 1W) md Rlnfener
portant pammeter for the reduction of SO km, Them t!mmsd$ are cdistributed (SW, Lockwood et a. (1%~) (U
phatornelric measurnern. Besides over wide areas crf the d W s surfme by Chichdn, Maxim, 1982). Enrptisns of a
daily, seasanal and other Jmg-term vari- the stmt~sphertc jet streamsand We- slrnilar slmngth nappen about 3Q t h n ~
ations k g . Rufenw 1986) them are quently influence astronomical observa- per Eentury, most of fhm In the geolog-
occasionally significant t n c r m d the tions wen far away from the patent vd- lcidly active zone araund the P a c k
extincttian coefficiants due to major wl- -no, Examplei asf tha lnffuence ofvd- Ocean.
canic eruptions that induw large m b mptiens on the exthetion have On Juner 14/15, 7991 CJD 2448422),
amwm of' aerads inta the strata- been glvm by Moreno and stock (7964) MP, Pinatubo on the idmd ol luron in
 I I I I I I I I I ' I . ~ic~(cf.~&I1Qg1,pallis
ter & al. 1992).

$ i- No signiflcmt di3Cr9W In the high

$ 1 level extinctinn during the n&y IUD
days of our 1991N2 campaign pojnts
- towards an end of the volcanic contami-
nation of the abmosphem. A possible
dewease should be less than 0.01 mag
AM-' in 100 days for dl barrdpasses lf
t h clear
~ bump m n d Mcvemlmr 13,
1991 (JD 2448574) ta arnisted, Seasonal
effects as d i ~ w r e by d Rufener (I986)
could, however, superpa~ea long-temr
dewewe during our comparably short
observation run. Frn-8- Rufener
has shown th* the renxwal of small
v o W c dust partkles from the strato-
sphere will probably take 10to 20 y w s .
Our mmumen2s reveal again that
st~~t08pheri~ V O ~ ~ ~ C sub-
- - d ~ ~ & ' & ~ 'do'& & ~ a 4i ~~ 1 h t ~ stantlB,IY 1 ~ lnRummOH)8~nctianBtaY
o
tJYLLAN DATE- 2WBWh7.1
optical photmetrlc h d w . The
Flgure 1: Extln~tionvafiaffms. a v m e extinction ooefflcimsare In-
&d by values of 0.95 to 0.08 m a g
the PhElliplnas (rp=+15", k=+1204 Bochum telescope shce 1889. There is, malning on this hgh bwl fat
wupM violently, thmwing out In total however, an obvious i n o w of the ex- mom than 100 days, probaby wen for
3-6 km3 Qf rock (t3.g. el M a n in d three bandpasses in the several yews. For a so far indefinite
al. YW1). it was amongst ihe large& 1W1/92 data with respect to 1WO.The the, photomettic rnmnments at
wuptions of thls century. The height of typical extinction mwfficlsnts and tha least at sauthwn hemisphere obmr-
-
the Rlntm odurnn reached newly dHerences between the time everaged vatorb - shrould therefore not be
30 km on June 15, and ash falls were d c i e n t s of 1990 and f991&2 are mected using the standard extiration
observed as far as Thailand and Slnga- IW in Tabla 1. Within the errors the soeMc9smnts. This is e m mare impmknt
pwe more than 2000 km away. R# discontinuities mmpm quite mason- a8 fluctuatiom @mbbly due to in-
ejected t & has besn mverted In the ably to the findings of Rufmer (1M)
3 homogendties In fhe votcanic d& lay-
switospkre into &so4 during the first con~emingthe U Ghichdn eruption in er)like the bump in November 1891 may
two vvmb and was dlstributsd In a MmhlAprU 1982. Plnotllw conflrma~ inr;rease the extinction considerably on
2.5 Irm thick layer in about 18 km height c ~ m from e ~ eutffnctbn measurvlmetrrts a @mascaleof a few days. Peak value
(Klerola and Timnrermmn 1992). with the 20" Wescope at SAAO Suther- of kp0.3 mag AM-', k g 4 . 4 5 mag
A8 a part of an Weneive, ph0tometr;lc land tn South Afrtca, also made between AWi and k, = 0.8mag AM-' can be
pnogramme In the M C we me& N~wrmber 1991 and F;etmrary 1902 reached h ~ l bumpa ~ h
two long conseoutivet h e series of UBV (Mtkenny 1992). Fmm these data we
extlnctim *PefficSents @,, h,CGyS with the find the following A b with rwpct
Bochum 61-cm T e l m p e 9t La Sllla: to the standard extinction valuw Refmnms
one sharteP &es betwmn November a&=o.mmq AM-', A~-0.07mag Bmard 8, DemaHe Ow.M8tWIl N.,Punong-
26 and clecsmk 18, 1890, before the AM-"', AkpO.06 mag W1.At t h ~ bayan RS.1W1,N a i m a, 139.
Pimtubo wuplion, and a longer one Kltt Paak Obsewat~ryon ths noathem Gcmhermann J, ljrothuea H.4'. omwchet
from Nwember 8, I@$ to February 13, hemtaphere Landdt (1BfH) found M.O.. Bergh6fw I%., Schmkft-Wer Th.
1992, mr the enrphn (Gmhermann d ~ h - 0 . 1 0 mag A W , ~ b - 0 . 1 2mag 1992, A&ASwtmW.
al. 1S2). This pro~idesthe opptunlty AM-', Ak,-0.08 mag AW'. Kmla D.X. T [ m m R 1992, Stme
tsr compare the atmospheric extinction She addttimal extinction oaused by und W t m m 51,510.
at La Sills wlth and without the wrW of the Pinatubo eruption seems to be tmdcdl K i l h n y D, 192, p M e mmEcatCon.
A. 1WI, #Am M~wlmerOeo
volcanic aeromla Im the atmasphere. wawJsr@h ind@pendend wbin the
lW1, p. 28.
Figure I shows the variations of the wrws at La SiUa as well as at both other hLcwwd G.W., W h b N.M., T h m ~
cdcient-s b,kb and CCY for both the abserv&orSw. This m1atkr1y f r l sa par- O.T., fug H. Gmf. f M S , 351.
Intervals.The 1990da& fit closely to t b tic!@size of 11.35 pm calculated frm the Mannrr H., Stock J. 1984, &ASP W , 56.
standard dnction coeffEciants for an Mia Itheory (Herola and Timrnemmn ~al~igter s.s., w m R.P., R- AG. IW
avemge, p h o night ~ sky ~ at La 1992) agrt#tIngwell WM the parUoIe size N a t m m,428.
Sitla found from measuments at the proposed by Mmer (1588) for El WWW F. 1W6, A&A lm,276,

Table 1: UBV wrdln&an mrrt~&ei La SME$

Pinatubcl7991 El Chichdn 19821
350 GHz SIS Receiver Installed at SEST
N. WHYBORN, Llept. of Radio and Space Science with Onsala Space Observatory, Chalmers
Technical University, Gothenburg, Sweden;
L.-A. NYMAN, W. WILD and G.DELGADO, SEST, La Silia

At SEST an SIS receiver for the 350 SIS 350 GHz

GWz (0.8 mrn) atmospheric window was
installed during the maintenance period HRS LRS
of AprlVMay 1992 and is now available tM
to the astronomical community. The re-
ceiver was buiR by Chalmers University 1.w
of Technology, Sweden,
The receiver Is tunable From 328 GHz s.o
.R
to 354 GHz with the present local os-
cillator. Single sideband temperatures
are between 320 K and 480 K across ,,@ -.w
the band, with a minimum at the 60
J=3-2 frequency at 345 GHz (see %.a 0.0 -td.O a . 0 -.0.U -4U.U *.I 4 3 , O MU.# iW.0 -.O 4 . 0 ¶W.O
vtp. Dp1.I Yr Drrrhl
Fig. 1).

1\ long
B w m sw
$kcon 1
. ,. I....,...

m.O 0.0 -m.O -m.o -80.0 -40.0 so.0 4a.o

. Yzp -I

fl~l
@.Q

Dueto a long bad weather period, test 6.0

IF ' lTIF
I.. .,L
LYIi*
absenrations with the new receiver
could be performed only for one day. 4.0
During these obsarvations the recelver
2.0

".O

6.e 0.0 -0.0

,a9 v Lk&w
Figure 3.
.m

.mo

in0
temperature was 330 K (SSB),zenith from observations d planets, are 0.1 6
-.om opacity between 0.6 and 0.8, and the and 0.25 respectively.
lowest system temperatures above the Figure 3 shows some of the spectra
-.o ap" atmosphere were just above fOOO K. obtained during the test observations.
Mars, El scan HBPW~IS" The receiver is easy to turn, and was We measured the CO J=3-2 (345.8
used In the three observing modes, po- GHz) and CS J=7-6 (342.9 GHz) emis-
sition switching, beam swit~hingmd sion towards IRC+10216 and IRAS
frequency switching, From an azimuth 15194 in beam switch mode. No base-
and elevation scan across Mars (Fig. 23 lines were removed. The quality of the
we derive a M H M wtdth of the 350 GHz baseline after a long integration can be
beam af 15" in both directions, with seen in the CS J= 7-8 spectrum of IRAS
sidelobes below the 15 % level. A scan 15194 (integration time 68 minutes).
across the moon shows a wide [OW level Also shown are the mersopheric CO
error lobe with an extent of about J= 3-2 line obtained in frequency switch
-w8' -.u ID" + 2.5' (arcmin). The aperture and mode. and the GO J=5-2 absorption in
Rgurs 2. beam efficiency at 345 GHz, derived Mars' atmosphere.
Fine Telescope Image Analysis at La Silla
A. GILLIOTEsESO-La Silla

With the arrival of the 937+ at ta Silla a heatingwtrrcrz in the dome). A minimum dary mirrors produced the sphwical
new and paweffwl instrument for tek- d 5 mls is required to ventilate wr- errors, An€ar85 Es the best toot to adjug
scope testing was added to our tele- redly the dome. A wind sbnger properly the primary-secondary mirror
mope alignment facilitlm. than 15 m/s increases the telescope separation, thereby determining tha
The automated Shack-Hartmann in- instability anand produces oscillations. nominal telescope focus position whsre
strument mounted with a CGO detector With no wlnd the tdwmpe quality is the e m - referne surface of all in-
was developed for the M-T quality anal- dominated cornpletsly by the themel struments muat be located. The pdncl-
ysis required for the prime mirror sur- contribution, plrt of talescop focusing tor different
face correction and gecondary mirror On a few occasions, stable thmal instrument posithns by movhg the sec-
moment of the active optics c o n q t . eff- attributed to local air motions ondary minor is wrong. Telescope
A portable verslsn of the Shack-Hart- disturbed the telescope &matlane focusing should be used only far corn-
mann has also been developed under o m a period of more than 30 minutes. pensation of small rnechanid changes
the name of ANTARES. Spherical aberration, astigrnattrn and of the teles~opestructure due to tern-
Durfng the last yew, 911 ta Silla imag- coma can be aff&d strongly by the pmtum varltzitions.
ing telescopes have besn tested. The I& a t (air bubbles). Convm'on OT a Telsseope quality testing has &also
Antares software has been i m p r o d warm main minor sunounded by caId been pe~cnrnedsucc&lty with An-
and it is possible now to obtain in only a air inmzws drastically the high fre- +ares at other ~ & o ? i e S .
few minutes the third order aberrations quency abcmdons and the rms residual Vhe basic telescope quality Is g m r -
(spherical aberration, coma, mtigma- can rise to a bad value elme to 1 arcm. dly good (except far Me too large
..
tism, .) of the telescope optics, A map The resldusll m a p performed for each spherjcal a b e ~ o n ~80%; anergy is
repmentation of the higbr order "aber- sequential analysis show incons'ktency concentrated within subarcsec values
rations" wer the tdescope pupil is atso in this case. Avgraglng d aEl residual and the thermal effect dornlnates mostly
available and we commonly call it the maps shows the stable local defccts the final tdesoope quality.
map of residuak. over the tetmmpe pupil attributed to It is now fundamental to avoid too
The telescope analysis power of An- mirror figuring errors (although there is much t h m a l actbit$ in the telesoope
tares is very high and often complex to no information about which of the area If high imagingquality is wanted. All
Interpret hitams resYlts indicate all op- mirrm). heat sources must be wmoved and a
tical aberration effects occurring in the Almost EtlP telescopes tested suffered good d a m v~ntlYatIon[with air fans) will
telasobpe light beam, including the pure from sphan'cal aberration. +her A n t m Improve the air exchange between the
aberrations of the optical system and analysis allows a correction of the MOT and the dome. t U l l analysis ex-
the thermal (bubble w convection) h'lh- aphericd effect by a modifleation of Ule periencehas shown how it is possible to
order aberrations. Antares analysis instrument positian along the telescope improve the dome design.
gives a complex and murate average axis. Dlscrepandes bstwewn theoretical However, it would be best to use the
of the optics and the light beam aberra- and real matching of primary and sacon- telescope without any dome at all!
tions.
With a large number of analyses, An-
tares result$ m y be more easily divided
into the two separated aberration
effects, the telescope optics (mirrar de-
formations and collimation errors) end
the therrnal acWty (bubbles and con-
The Dust War
vection effects in the light beam). A. LSILLI07TEf P. GJORDANOSA. TORREJQN, ESO
The experience gained over the past
year has confirmed the Imp.ortance d
the Antam analysis; not only can the Telescopes on terrestrial sites suffer Pawt experience at La Silla shw tht
telescope be better aligned, but precise of an wnavoidabIe phenmenon disturb- the average loss of mirror reflectivity is
information about the thermal effects ing highqudlty astronomical obsefva- oftheordwof10% pwmrbmandpe7
has also become available. ti-: Dust pollution. year. Our pmwt remating periodicity
The light b m thermal activity de- By the term dust we include dl dmer- is a f the ordr of 2 to 2%years. A lass of
pends on three effects: the extmal see- mt kinds md skw of organlc and min- reflectlvity of 35 % after two years also
ing (normally averaged with as m c t mi partblm. Effects on astronomical mearrs that wen with very; good swing
integration time of the star image expo- ctmrv&*ons w n be redly critical. A canditions the dust eontamInation be-
sure), the dome seeing and the I d ait great dm[ of progresg has been made comes the main factor ducing the per-
effect or mirror wing. With appropri- recently to improvethe optical quality of formance. Image contra& Is atso r e
ate, precise temperature mestsuremnts modern grcyund-basedtelescopes and it du~eciby optical surface diffusion and
performed dwing theAntares amlsjs, a is quite m y ta keep the &kwupe per- the surface missivity produoes serious
measure of the dome seeing becomes fanances at a oonslstgnt level of high contrast and sensitivity limitations on 1R
available and impmwmgnts are then .optial qwquali. We must p m e high observations.
possible. We already note a dramatic signal throughput and low noise level. A monthly eleming p t o d u r e will re-
dearease of the high frequency abem Regular cleaning will increase the move 90% of all the limiting sffects
tion redduals for the classid dome lifetime of the coating and optical eur- above listed. Rematirag frequency will
when the dome slit is turned towards the faces, thus improving safety by r&wc- be decreased to four-par Intervals. The
wind dimdon (ventilation Met3 of the g the frequency of handling.
i ~ also longer internal is also fundamental in
maintaining the quality of polish, which - & 4 r - - 7 y
QItwul .
-.
ia inevitably reduced by cleaning for
alumiRiz&on.

C
,.
Oust deposM0n is not only a dim3
effect from our atnosphm, eontaminol-
tton rates increase also drastically with
h m activity on the tetacope area.
Dust lies on the opUcal surface and
&er a period of months with varying
climatic conditions, the dust adhews to
the surfam by either phydmrpt!~nw
chemltmption. Adherence force may
reach more than I00 g with physisoW
submicron-sized partides, Org~nicor
even m i n d dust may become glued to I
the wrfaca by chemisorpbicrn with water
or oond$n$atIon solution droplets. -5% +
vere localized rntrror mrrodon may ':-
occur producing the spots, transparent
ta light, cclasslcdly sewr on old
aturnhiurn mirror ~oatlngs.Then the
dust fernoval becomes imp~ssibleby air
blowing only and washing {with
mechanical acttion) is required to over-
' +

.-
btr L
I-.
, & '
I
$i I - ,
,
'5
*,

.
",
C I
'
come the sticking forces of the dust
partjcles. Figure 1 : cog CfWIrFB.
Two diredons must be pursued to
limit dust contarnhation: We must first
hy to & c m e the dust rate &position
by avdding unnerc-ry dirt-pmddng
aotivities in the telescope and in- the dust eontamination and to perform carbon dioxide snowflake J&is used on
strumentation ateas. Then a periodical cmful optical part cleaning. a monthly bids to nmrrve the dust
cleaning of optjcs must be scheduled to Systmzrtic and thwough cleaning of acoumutatlon over the surface. This
remove the d l dust mntminati~n the dome and telescope structur~have method is a rapid md easy-te-me tach-
Ware &her physriwrptkn or cheml- beern oparating for half a year with the nique; onfy a fetw minutes are requiredto
sorption have fixed the particles on the help of all the La SiUla team. A w m e s s clean a four-metm-tdsscope mimot.
.-s of ~cieanlhsrequirements of all people T h e is oonsmed only duringthe clean-
It is an easy matter to o w n rapidly a involved In telescope work will be the ing prepa&on (COB bottle with ade-
griming a w m e s s of the impoflance of major challenge of high-pefformwnce quate pipe lengtb to reach the rnimt)i.
keepin0 telescope and i n s m t a t t o n optics. CO, liquid Is throttld through a nozzle
areas aa clean as p o d b k Optidam Two +cal suface d m i ~ gtech- and expanded at atmo$pReric pressure
will have the impoftant task to survey niques will be used at La SiDla: The pure into a spmial plastic tub oriented wRh
around 45" inclinatton towards the
mimr surbca. The resulting snowflake
jet mmwes dust without any damage of
the aluminium surface, the bkes slide
I CLERNING E V R L U H T I O N ovw the surlaee on a. cmhlan of GO2
g ~m s d l a v e ncu mtduas behind. Dust
is m m w ~M h different physical
effect$from those of a gas blowing and
particles &ticking over snowflakeg crys-
tals. The procedure Is applied on an
incllrred m i m fieleaope atlentation
@~tter 45* w~thetl d i s t ~a~ d)
gravity alluw8 dust and realdud snow to
. - . mom down end nut of the mimr sur-
face, Figure I shows the cleaning
methoel, Same dugt residuals rmdn on
lhe surface (php180rbed sllbrnC~ran-
s'wd particles with the strongest stick-
in$ f o m ] , the C02 cleaning allows a
E - . . . .
r d d v l t y Immss to W % of the fresh
ccatlng*

-
L"c
r The p l n g .technique allow6 an al-
moat cornpMe mfimlVify recuperation.
Howevert appltcation on large surfaces
is dellcate and t h e mnsuming. We
WAVELENGTH Trim>
- - -
f w w e a pegling cbning e v q year or
figure 2: Gom&$on of cleaning t&n@ues. every six months, d~endingon future

47
expedencer. fortunately, lacquer pro- formed on test mirror samples with four is at the stage of a call for tender at the
ducts are now available In spray cans conditions of the mirror surfaces the ESO Headquarters, Mirror cleaning will
which wlll simpllfy the application. original coating being protected with a be pwformed with C02 snowflake jets
Various cleaning tests have been per- cover to obtain the reflectivity and scat- on a rotating arm.
formed either at La Silla or Garchlng. tering reference of data, haif the dirty Cooperation canceming the cleanli-
Ffgut-e2 shows the clmlng effbtency surface then cleaned with GO2 jet and ness of the obsenratory, telescopes and
of the GO2 snowflake and peeling tech- peel-off-la~quer.The results canfirm tlae instruments will be greatly appreciated.
nique on a mirror exposed to dust con- Molency of the two procdum. Maximum efficiwrq in astronomical
tamination. Recent scattering and re- A project for an automated pilot GO2 obsewatdons make these Mwts
flectivity measurements hms been per- cleaning deviw for the NIT main m i m mandatary.

Adaptive Filtering of Long Slit Spectra of Extended

Objects
G.RICHTER ' B ~ , G.LONGU~,H. LORENZ', S. ZAGGIA~
'Astrophysical Institute, Potsdam, Germany
*~stro#omicalObservatory of Capodimonte, Naples, Italy

1. lntruductfon
tors coupled to spectrographs, while an allowed to reach fainter light levels thus
In both galactic and extragalactic as- tha one hand irnplifying some aspects arlsing tho need for a careiul removal of
tronomy, long-sri spectroscopy has -
of the prmssing of 2-L) spectra such all souroes of noise.
proven to be a useful toel to study the as, for instance,the need for correcting One of the most extreme examples Is
phydcal properties of extended objects. the S-distorsion introduced by the im- the study of the kinematical properties
In the last two decades, CCD detw- age tubes -, on the other hand have of the stellar component in early type

NGC 3384 P.A. 125.5' Spec. 34

Filtered Broadening Function Normal
259

200

n
7m 150

-B
2d
b
100

50

300
--
--
T
-
- 200 - --
;
i -
+. . - 20Q
..
Im

8
4;
U
loo - _ .--
,, ,,
:,3.-
.*
.i l.- loo
P~

-100 ' I " " " " * ~ "

Radius [arcsec] Radius [ascsec]

Figure 4.

The spectra w ~ r etaken aa a part of a sky kkground subtrmion and hspectra w e Altered a~cordlnglyto
pmj& on the kinematics of my-type wavelength ~ l b m t i o n The spedtra the prscedum described in the previous
galax!@ and are detailed in Tabte I. were then analysed using the Fourier pafagmh and than analped exactly in
Tabb2, inshad, gives some ret~vard correlation quotjent method kindly the same way as in the first case.
inforrhatton about the &sewed galax- made available to us by Bender (1990), Wgure 1 shows the radial velocity
it%. Objects WGC.7174 and RIGG7176 which mnsists in ~e daconvrolutEon of (bottom) and the velocity dispersion
belong to the HiEksan group n. 89. the peak of the galaxy YS. template profiles ttop) obtained frem spectrum
MI speGtra were p r o c w Wee: in a cross-meEatlon fmcrion with the peak 34. B a h pro(I1ss ate foldldad over the
first reductJon run, they were pmcwsed of the autocornlation function of the phstornWc twloentre, and the oppo-
following standard MIDAS muthes for template stet. In the second reddon site of the g w are marked with
fl& flddlng, b i and dark subMlon, nm,afkw the standard pmprowsing, different symbols, "filtered" data are
 shown on the left side, while normal - NGC 3384 P.A. 126' Spec. 27
-
i.6. "unR1W" data are on the right
Filtered
one. 7ha spectrum was taken at a posi-
tian angb differing wry lmle from the Broadening Function
direction d the minor axis of NGC3384
and, as expected, no rotation is found.
Even though the Mnition d the last , -
meaningful paint is somewhat Wtmry, I,
it is evident that, even with a a m m -
give estinwte, tt~efiltered data extend E
out to 23 msec, while the nonnsl data
r e a c h o ~ t t o a b 0 l r t 5 5 - 1 6 ~ ~ c . T h eb
ccrrnpadsan with the luminosity prcrAle
given in Rgure 2 shows that the edap-
tive filtering of the d m allow to go
dmost 1 mwnitude fainter in surface
brightness than with the normal ap- I
-
I*

proach. h the Inner region, the twa wts

of data match very well even though the 0
1nimal error inthe filtered data is much &
smaller.
The fact that adaptive mMng isi very
effect'lveat V q l~ light leveb is C O ~ -
firmed by the results obtained for spec- -40 -20 0 20 40
ttum 78. F i r e 3 is a CCD irn- of Radius [arcsec]
thm members of the Hickson p u p
FJgure 7.
n.90; tha two bright eltipticals are
NGC7133 (left) and NGC7176 (right),
whib the spiral close to the centra of the
imqp Is NGC7174. The line marks the (obtained from spechvm n.34) show In Illa-J, with a awtral resolution cornpar-
p d i a n of the spectrograph's slit, FEgm 1. abb to our set of data The totat expo-
which covered bath NGC7178 and The diffwmr exposure times imply sure tlme for M34 was 8.5 hours. Taking
NGC7174, Figure 4a shows the raw irn- that the game signal-to-noise ratio is Into account that the quantum efficlen-
age of spectrum 78, while FQum 4b reached In W m 34 at a l e ~ d0.7 cies of the two InsbumenW set-ups are
shows the same spectrum after pre- magnitude9 fetnter than In spectrum 27, mare or less comparable and that both
processing and adaptbe filtering. Fig- thus pat%allyeornpmwtlng the effects the collecting a m and the sxposurrj
urn5 and 6 give, ~86pe&ively, the ra- of the filtealng procedure. Thie match time am largely in F m w of the K84
dial velocity and the velacity disperskrn btwmthe two mdtal velocity curvets I8 data, ths good agreement between the
profiles in the "unfiltered" and 'WWrBd" quite good, A furthertest dthe relability two sets of data is a striking confirma-
oases. The ovgtirnposed solid Ihe gives afthe method, is shown fn Flgum 8 and lian of the rdiability of the adqptive fil-
the luminoslty profib dong the sllt In an 9, where the radial veIoc1ty wrve of tering technique.
arbitmy scale. NGC1553 obtained by filterfng spec-
An empirical test of the reliability of tnrm 69 Is compared to the rotation
the rasults may be inferred by the corn- curve publklted by Kormendy (1984
parison of Figure 4, which gives the ra- M43. The K&4 data were obtstined
- AGhwvledIlements
This work was partially sponsored by
dial velocity curve obtained from the by using the 4-m KPN0 telescope+ the bnan Space Agency (A.S.I.). 6.R.
"fntwed" spetAtutn 11-27, and the curve RC spectrograph+image ~ e + acknowledges
~ k a grant by the ltalm

NGC 1553 F.A. 150"

Kosmendy J., 1984, Ap.J., 28.6,116
4 0 0 ~ T r . r ~1 . 8 - .,. I , , . , A

-400fu' . ' " . . " f

-100 -50 0 50 LOO
Radius [arcsec]
CNR (National Councjl of Research); CapaccioL, M., Cam, PY. t 992, In ~ o r p n m g - Cappe(lam, E., Gapecloll, M, Hew, V. 1989,
SZ. ackn6wEsdges DIGlTAL-ltalia for fed and F h p h l h H i c ~ f i o of
n OaImLs The JW-, B8,48,
granting a fellowship (Reidel, Dordreoht), p. 314. KimmndY, J. 1984, aghphysys J,, 288,116.
Capaccioli, M., Longo, G. 1QW,In WIrKIow Komndy, J., Djorgovsky, S.B. 1989, Ann.
on @hxtes, Fabbiano G.et al, e., p. 23, Fhev. A s t m . dstraphfl., 27,31.
( b o r d h t , Hdland). Richter, GI. 1978, Aslron. M a r . , 299,283.
Rafmm Capamtoll, M., Held, E.V., Lorem, H., R W
G., long^, G.,F d i , A. I@, AS- ter, &M., tfener, R. 1988, Asfmn. Nbr,,
uon. ~ ~ y sin .pnws,, 349,68.

The Determination of the Dead-Time Constant in

Photoelectric Photometry

It is a well-known fact that raw eaunts proximate eNTwith a McLaurin develop- consequently not generate f%tigue
measured at the output of a phuton- ment stopped at the first order, ob- effects of the photomultiplier; tm regards
counting photometer must be corrected tainlng the obsewer's fatigue, moonlight can
for the dead-tlme constant z. This pr~videan alternative target ... In any
correction originates from the finite time case, parh'mlar care must be taken to
intewal necessary for the electrons ta wold expositions to vary bright light
cross the photamultiplier t u b and, The latter is the formula most widely sources. We have
overall, from the time nmesuary to the used in data-reduction routines. The
amplifier/discrEmhatcr eIectronEc to re- vdue of the t constant Is generally sup-
a l by the manufacturer and It is #-
cord the output pulse. From a p ~ ~ ~ : t I cplied
point of vilew, this m n s that the in- potted in the usen manuals without any
further checks. In general this assump- for the large and small diaphragm, re-
strumentation cannot resolve two Inci- spectively. In presence of a uniformly
dent photons separated by a time shor- tion Is justified by the impussibllity to illuminated image (bright stars shwld
ter than t since they will be counted a~ a perform accurate laboratory tests. In be carefully excluded from the fheld of
slngle event. Hence, the output counts some mses, the dead-time canstant is view), we can calculate
will always be an underestimate of the confused with the rise time (i.e. the time
input value, interval during whlch the output rises
Photons are travellhg clumped to- from 10% to 90 % of peak output) and
gether In space and the corntiom term b wlus is therefore underestimated. In
can be calwlated by means of the the dome, astronomers can directly cal- and by means of simple passages
BossEinstein population statistics.. The culate r by measuring two standard
probabllitjr denslty fm that two photons stars, one much brighter then the ether,
arrive separated by a time t is and comparing the o b w e d Am with
the expected one.
However, this method requires a veey In a nl vs ndn, plane the last squation
precise knowledge of the magnitudes of represents a liner her ratio 05 the dia-
where h is the arrival frequency af the the two stars and of the extinGtlon caef-
phagm amas a is the irrtercw, while
photons. &, the number of photons flcient. Gooper and Walker (1889, "Get-
the angular coefficient allows us to cal-
which arrive in a time Interval shorter ting the measure of the stars",Adam culate r.
than r, is given by Hilger Publ.) report a mdhod which
w r n s ta ma much more practicable.
The telescope should be pointed to-
wards sunrise and, when the sky is
while N Is the total number d photons brightening, sky rneasunrnents should
elrrl-rlved dun'ng the measurement time. If be performed alternating two different
it is 1 s,we have N = b. By integrating, diaphragms, one much smaller than the
we obtain other; let u be the ratio of their weas. An
upper limit should be fixed to satisfy the
following conditions: it should not be
too high to causle damages to the
and, if we indicate as n the photons photomultiplier or, from a more formal
actually counted, point of view, to invalidate the Mctaurin
development, but it should not be too
small to make the tinear R t described
below uncertain, Weighting thew f a -
This is the retatton W e e n the tors, we can establish a maximum rate
number d incident photons N and the of 1.2 1O6 counts per second. Sunrise
number of taunted photons n. If we can should be prefened to sunset to better
suppose that Nr is small, we can a p evaluate when this limit Is reached and
 Figure 1 shows ihe results obtainedat the same Instrumsnbtion durlngsunrise pected for higher values of t: if its value
the €SO 50-om during sunrt6e on Sep- on April 24, 1!3Q2,and the value of 58 is 600 10" s, an underestimation by a
tember 9, 1991 [El measurements (52 6) IQ-' s was obtained factor 4 will prduce a difference of 0.05
artE.ed out with an EM1 978WB photo- T h w values are not much different mag for the same two &us. Hence, the
multiplier). The resulting value of the z from the value reported by the metnufac- possibility of applying a well-determined
con- Is 58 (f4) f 0' s;a less pre- turer (15 1 0 8):~ the 4 1 ratio causes value should not be oveilooked by an
cise, though In excellent agreement, de- daviatbns in Rmit cases only (0.005 mag accurate obsanrer, This p r d u r e atw
termintion (the rnaxJmum me was only bmswn two stars with a lumhosity allows us to measure the area ratios
5 lo9 wunts per second) was obtafnad ratio of 1:10 in the range 10~-10* with g m t precision: for example, in the
on September 5, 1991: s = 5%(f 19) counts per setxmd). HMVI, we natlm figure the intercept value is 58.6 f 0.1
1 r 9 s. The measure was repeated vvlth that much larger deviations are ex- (diaphragms # 1 and # 6).

Radioactive Isotopes of Cobalt in SN 1987A

I.J. DANZIGER, P. BOUCHET, €SO

The question d the main sources of abundance would correspond to 4-6 ue detmhed from the botometric tight
energy input powering the late tlrne times the amount ~xpeotedon the basis cuwe by Suntzeff et al. (1991) and Wu-
d the solar values of the stable nuclides chet el atal.(1991 and others. This deter-
(> 900 days) bolomstric light ouwe of
SN 1987A has contJnued to be debated of mass 57 and 56. 0th~ enetgy sour- 5
rnhatbn of the CdsCo ratio was sub-
up to She present time p 1800 days). ces such as an e M d e d pulsar me sequently supported by the results of
The nature of this energy input has been also considered, but considerable Varanl et al. (1991) who used a near-
examined by determining by observatio- weight is given to the fact that the o b i n W llns of Go I1 at 1.5 11, the effects
nal means the bolometric light curve sewed light cunres approximate in of the temperature sensitivity on which
and then comparing it wlth hheoretisal shape the decay curve of S 7 ~with o an were considerably reduced by corn+-
predicttons. After day 530 when dust e-folding decay time of 391 days. son with an Fe II line of similar sxcbtlon
formed In the envelope most of the ra- The most direct method of d e m i n - level.
dioactive energy was released in the ing the m a s of %Go and 57Cohas b m As a consequence of these obswva-
infrared m i o n longward of 5 micram. mployed by group tD&W tlons the ESO gmup has always saught
This occurred because the opticstlly et at. 1991; Bou~hetand Danziger 1992) a different ~xplanatlonfor the e x w s in
thick dust proved very efficient at ther- aver the interval 200-600 days follow- the bolommc luminosity at late times.
malirlng the higher energy photons ing the explosion. This involves the me- The other direct method to determim
which emanated from the depwitbn In asurement of the Go 11 10.52 pm tine the massof 67Co (andalso independent-
the envetope of y-rays emitted as a re- emitted in the nebular phase where the ly *CO) l~ to meawre the flux of y-rays
sult of p-deeay of radioactive species, strength of this emission: tine Is insensj- produced by the radieactive decay. Be-
Unfortunately. when the dust reaches tive to temperature and comes from the cause some y-rays e s the envelope
~ ~
a temperature of approximately 150" K, predominant ton of cobalt during this and some are absorbed to support the
which iihad by day 1316, the bulk of the time This method allows the detmina- conventionally determined bolometric
radiatton occurs at wavelengths Eong- tion of 57Coat much earlier epochs than luminocrity, the interpretation of my
ward of 20 microns, the longest Infrared the method based on €he bolometric such measurement Is somewhat model
point measurable from ground-based light c u ~ e , at day 500 approxi- dependent. Nwettheless, the opaclty of
observatlom. Thus astronomers using mately half of the total mass of d a i t such an envelopeto y-ray penetration is
this technique are somewhat apprekn- would be in the form of "GO even ifthe thought b be well undergtoad.
slva about the accuracy of the derived original 57t56 ratio were similar to that Therefore, It is of parllculer interm
bolometric HgMcum, fat fair of c o w , expected W o m the solar ratio of stable that recently, new results from the
that Wing theoretical black body tern- nuclides of the ram mass. The detect- Oriented Scintillation Spectrometer Ex-
peratures and extrapolating into an abfe effect on the bolomeZric tight cuwe periment on the Gompton Gamma Ray
inaccessible region may not account occurs much later 1000 days) be- Ubwvatory have been announced by
wtrectly far all the energy beyond ob- cause "Go decays 3.5 times slower Kurfess et al. (1892) from observations
servable reach. than SBCoand afso deposits lower- mad^ during the Intervals days 1617 to
The two groups studying this late- energy y-rays in the envelope as a result 1628 and days 1767 to 1781. They re-
time behaviour, ESO and GTIQ, have of that dewy. port a detectton of y-ray emission f m
reported dmermces In 10 end 20 p lumi- At the Tenth Santa Cruz W o r M p an 57Co In SN 1987A consistent wlth &n
nosities at approxlmateiy the same date 8upemovae held m duly 1QS9 rJVOosley original amourrt equal to 1.5 times the
pouchet at al. 1991; Suntzeff et al. IMl),Damiger et al. (1991) announced solar value of the ratio of stable 57/56
1991). In spite of these dWemnc~sand that the €SO measurements pointed to nudides and lnconsistarnt at greater
the fect that they lead to somewhat dif- an original 57CoPBCoratio equivalent to than a 30 level with a value of 5 times
ferent belometric Iumtnwlties both t .5 times the %dm value of stable 57/56 solar.
groups agree that now there is radiation nuclides. It was stated there and subse- X-ray obwrvations searching for
from SN 1987A in excess of what would quently (Bouchet et al. 1991, 1892)that comptonizedy-ray radiation (Sunyaev &
be produced from the radioactive deaay these muits muid not accommodate a J, 1991) f m the WANT-FAIR Obsewa-
of &GO dane* Recently the CTlP grcrup value ofthis ratio m M$h asi 4. In addi- tory had previously pointed to an upper
(Suntreff et al. 1992) and others (Owak tion, this method also provided a deter- limit of I .5 solar.
et al. 1992) have ascribed this excegs to mination of the original mass of One should note also thal the most
the radioactive decay of *Go whose %o-0,070 Mg ~onSjStentwith the vai- preferred values of the S 7 ~ & o rat10
from me memy (woosley and Hoffmann
(1991) are in thei region of 1.6 times the
sok W e of the ratio for stable nu- ESO FELLOWSHIPS 1993-1994
dkles. This d e m e s s m weight b The Emapean SauUm l Obsermbry Intend8 to sward up to slx post-doctoral
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HIM, J.H., W*, A.R. l I 1 , &WT. J.
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GuAheffl PJ.B,, Phlltlps, M.M., El& J.H., De Felowehlp hPgwmma
m, D.b, Walker, AR. 1882, J. 2
Karl~Scht%irr~~tllld=~Be
Lstt. 884 td3. IE8W GARWING b. Miinchen, Gs#meny
SYrryaev, R.A, KanlowKy, AS., Efremov, 1
Y.V., Grebenev, SA, Kmnetsov, AV.,
Englhauser, J.. Dwbwehrer, S., Pietach,
w., Reppin, c.,~rusmper,J., m~na,
E., M W k . M., Mom 8.. & u M , R.
dOB1, in "Sumac* (Proc. d T t h Mot. Roy. Astr. Sm.
Allen, D A IQBO, haonhaon ed. S,E W a f % y {Spdnge? Vadag, N.Y.),
M a CM Gummer WoMhop) ed S.E. 245, $70. p. 202,
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Varani, BtF., Mebkr, W.P.S., Spyromllb, J., of Tenth Santg Cruz Summer Workshop) phy& J. bat. =,
U1.

An Intermediate Age Component in a Bulge Field

S. ORTOCANI, UniversEta di Padova, Italy
E. BICA, WniversidadeFederal do Ria Grande do Sul, Brazit
8.BARBUY, Universidade de Sib Paule, Braril

Much can bs learned about the galac- along its minor axis. These studies show fields along the major axis in the hope of
tic stellar populations and structure from a d o r n i ~ n told metal-rich population learning more about the transition halo-
studies of background fields. As yet, (e.g., Temdrup, 1988). disk.
bulge field studies have bean carried out It would be important to observe also Recently we have studied NGC 6603,
a rich open cluster towards the Galactic
bulge (1=13,8', b--1.37, and its
associated fidd at 5' north of the elus- -
-..
WGenbB.
The obswYaUens were out at
the IS-m D ~ WtelBScope, udrg f
E3O CCD 4k 5 and the Cousins V and I ",
filters. The redulctions were done in ei
standard way udng Midas and Oaophot
packages at ESO-Garchina. 1
Pn Figure 1 we show the results fw this 5
5' north off& fieM, where the iden-
Med steltar components are labelkd.
As expected from the low latitudeof the
field, we see a young main-sequence g
(MS) coming from the dkk. the mag- i
niWe range wgg* an age spread of
about 500 Mym along the blue MS. as
can be horn a comparison with t
a series d colwr-magniwde diagms %
(CMDS)f~ g a l d c CIU&WSof dif-
ferent ages by Mermtlliod (1981). A se-
quence of red giants parallel to the
young MS is present, corroborating this
8
age spread possiblltty, If dlfersntial red-
$
dening is not affecting muoh.
The bulge metakictr component is
revmld by a papulwa red horizontal I
bmch (HI31 typical of metal-rich old 8 am &,see eim awa seem xw am 7=aee
pwutations (e-g., Ortotmi, Bar&uy and
Eiiea, 1990. OBFJQO). This sequence is V-l
elongated and tilted and this effect Es
mu& by dlfferantial blmketlng andlor ~tgursI: v w (v-I)-ld of s t d e 5'
~ of NGC g ~ fl- lt9.89
~ b=-1.37.

- - - - -

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SClEN~SfIASYRONOMEWtlYSICIST(SOFTWARE)
REF, ES01591
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w,wdm*-bBsBdtBj Expefiente wlfh th OCDmgln~wxdd be an FEaZPber mquhmer$s
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UIWJI data m d y & mhmenf for the European users of HST. This dtrrnment ts based an e nehuMk of UNW mechbnsa ~nnfng
M l W , S ' P S O W , l D L , m d a m t l e r B f a t f h a r ~ w M ~ ~ M W H S T d g i t a m & y Its Bthetaskdths5i3S
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Apptldwrs - wng the atm3-m- mfiwme number - ahoukl bi4 s u b m ' rts
~ as pamlbh. Appllcatlon forms am be
~~mm
Euw-mmObsgsvatory
PmanRelMm-n (IRd Oeneral S d c m
KartSaf,-hlld-SWe 2
MU46 Qamhlng be1 Ma-, Glemmy
 differential reddening effects. Some by the fact that an important fraction of
ESO, the European Southern Observa-
tory, was created In 1062 to.. . stab-
bulge giants are also present tn the dIa- the sbllar populations h the LMC bar
llsh and operate an astronomical gram. are of intermediate age (Blca et Ed.,
observatory In the southern hemisphere, Totheleftof t k M S a t V - 2 1 mg,a 1092).
quipped with powerful Instruments, clump of possible blue HB might be More fields at different latitudes end
with the alm of furthering and organking associated wlth a metal-poor compo- longitudes across the bulge would be of
collaboration in astronomy.. . It is sup- nent (such as top-mdalljcib globular grmt interest to reveal the spatial distri-
ported by elght eountrlas: Belgium, clusters) or a hot component of the bution and ages of stellar poputatlons, in
Denmark, Franm, Germany, Italy, the bulge metal-rich population. order to better understand the bulge-
Netherlands, Sweden and Swltzerfand. An interesting result is the presence of disk transition.
It operates the La Silla observatory In
the Atacama desert, 600 km north of
an intermediate age turn-off (TO)at (V-l)
= 2.7 and 20.4 c V < 22, which could be
Santlago de Chile, at 2,400 rn altitude, References
where fourteen optica! telescopes with interpreted as an old disWthick disk po-
pulatton, or s bulge-disk transition com- Bla,E,ChriB, J.J.,DOttati,H.:lW,Al,ln
diameters up to 3.6 rn and a 15-rn sub-
plltlrnetre radio telescope ($EST) are ponent. Another p ~ ~ b l I Iis t yto asso- P-.
Blltz. t,Spergel, D.: 1991, ApJ 379,03?.
now in operation. The 3.5-m New Tech- ciate this intermediate age component Memllliod, J.C.: 7981, A&AS 41,467.
nology Telescope (Wt)became opera- to a pmlbte bar system in the central Ortohi, S..Barbuy, B., Bica, E: f890, A&A
tional in 1990, and a giant teteseope parts of the Galaxy (Blitz and Spergel, 298,362.
(VLT-Very Large Telescope), consist- 1991). This latter powibllity is supported Tmdrup, DM.: 1988, AJ 98,884.
ing of four 8-rn telescopes (equivalent
aperture = 16 rn) IS under wnstruciton.
It will be erected on Paranal, a 2,600 rn
high mountain In northern Chlle,
approximately 130 km south of the clty Contents
of Antofagasta.Elght hundred scientlsts M.-ti. Ulrich: Bigger Telescopes and Batter Instrumentation: Report on the
make proposalseach year for the use of 1W2 ESO Conference .......................................... 1
the telescopes at La Sllla. The ESO
Headquarters are located In Garchlng,
-
Rhcardo Glaoconi ESO's Next DirectorQenerat ........................ 1
P. Dierlckx and W. Ansorge: Mirror Container and VLT 8.2-m Dummy Mirror
near Munich, Germany. It ls the sclentl- Arrive at REOSC Plant .......................................... 6
fie-technical and admlnlstrative centre
of ESO where technical development
J. M. Beckers: Introducingthe First VLT Instrument ScienceTeams ..........
8
M. Sararin: PARSCA 92: The ParanalSeeing Campalgn ................... 9
programmes are cartfed out to provide
the La Sllla observatory wlth the most The Editor: Mew R.E.O.S.C. Polishing Facillty for Giant Mirrors Inaugurated ....
10
advanced Instruments. Them are atso G. Mlly et al.: Distant Radio Galaxles ................................. 12
extensive facllltles whlch enable the The Edltor: European Planetarlans M w t at. ESO Headquarters ..............
15
scientlsts to analyze their data. In Eu- The VLT Tale .....................................................16
rope ESO employs about 150 intema- A Giant VLT Model for Seville ........................................ 17
tlonal Staff members, Fellows and As- P. Bouchet 'bt al.:ESO Exhibitionsin Chile-a Tremendous Su-a ......... 18
soclates; at La Sllla about 40 and, In R. West: The Youngel Visitors Yet ................................... 20
addttbn, 750 local Staff members. R. West: A Moat ImpressiveAstronomy Exhlbition ........................ 21
Announcement of ICO-f 6 Satellite Conferehceon Active and Adaptlve Optics 22.
The ESO MESSENGER Is published D. Altoln and T. b Bertre: &trommlcal Observationsin 2001 ............... 22
four times a year: normally In March, H . - W . M ~ ~ k 1 9 1 4 - I 9 9 2..,..,...,............................,.. 23
June, September and W r n b e r . €SO H.4. BWer and B. Fuhrmann: The Sonneberg Plate Archlve ............... 24
also publishes Conference Proceed- L 0.Loddn: A Scrutiny of HD 82623 and HD 96446. ...................... 26
ings, Preprlnts, Technical Notes and H. Zodet: A Panorama of la Sla ..................................... 28
other material connected to Its aactlvl- StaflMovemeats.................................................. 29
ties. Press Releas6a Inform the media P. A Caraveo et at.: On the Optical Counterpart of P S R W d 9 3 ............ 30
about particular events. For further In-
E. Poretti and L Mantegazza Doing Research with Small Telescopes: Fre-
formation, contact the ESO Information
Service at the following address: quency Analysis of Multiperiodic 8 Scuti Stars. .......................33
EUROPEAN
O.Hdnautetal.:HalleyBa~ktoNml ................................ 36
D. Proust and H. Qulnfana: Spactroscopic Obsewatlons in the fluster of
SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY GataxlesAbellf61 .............................................36
Karl-Schwanschlld-Str.2 The Editor: Russian Rocketsand American Cornets ......................39
0-8046 Garching be1 Mhnchen
-
New ESQ Preprinb (March May 1992) ................................ 39
Germany
................. 40
R. Rast: Close Encounters with Ice W l s of a Second Kind
Tel. (089) 32006-0
Telex 5-28282-0 eo d ..................... 40
I. Ferdn: On the Natureof the Sinetttta-Hainaut Object
Telefax: (089) 320 23 62 .................... 41
R. Rastet al,: Unidentified Object Over Ghlle Identified
lps@:eso.org(internet) H. Biihnhardt: On the "UnidentifiedObject Over Chile" ....................
42
ESO MC0::IPS (decnet) A. Mowwood et at.: First Imageswith IRAC2............................42
H.-Q. Grothues and J. Glochermann: The Influence of the Pinatubo Eruption on
The ESO Messenger:
t h Atmospheric
~ ..............................43
&tinctlon at it Stlla
Edltor: Richard M. West N. Whyborn et al.: 360 GHz SIS Receiver Installed at SEST ................. 45
Technlcat edWor: Kurt Kjtlr A Qilliotte: FineTelesoops ImageAnalysis at La Silla ..................... 46
A. Gllliotte el at.: The Dust War....................................... 46
Prlnted by ~nlverskiit~ts-druekerel
Dr. C. Wolf IL Sohn
G.Richter et at.: Adaptive Filtering of tong l i t Spectra of Mended Objects ... 48
E. Porem: The Determination of the Dead-Time Constant in Photcrel&ric
HeldemannstraBe 166
Photomet* .........................................,......... 52
8000 Miinchen 45
Genany I. J. Danzipr and P. Bouchet: Fladioactlve Isotopes &Cobalt InSN 1987A .... 53
ESQFeltowships1993-1994 ........................................ 54
ISSN 0722-6691 S. Ortolani et el.: An IntermediateAge Component in a Bulge Field ........... 54
*VacancyIn Barchtng: SclentistlAstronorner/Physiclst [software) ............. 55