As an experiment, special holiday programs for primary school children were offered by the Carter Observatory during two different school holidays in 1995. One program focussed on Mars and the other on the Sun. This paper describes the two programs, expands on their strengths and weaknesses from different viewpoints, and (despite their overwhelming popularity) outlines the reasons why the Observatory has decided not to offer further holiday programs of this type in the foreseeable future.

The evidence in support of interstellar scintillation as the predominant cause of intraday variations at centimetre wavelengths is reviewed. A new evaluation of the highest brightness temperature implied for AGN is found to be consistent with the Doppler factors in typical jet models, but requires the scattering to occur within about 30 pc of the Earth.

Roughly 25% of the optical extragalactic sky is obscured by the dust and stars of our Milky Way. Dynamically important structures might still lie hidden in this zone. Various surveys are presently being employed to uncover the galaxy distribution in the Zone of Avoidance (ZOA), but all suffer from (different) limitations and selection effects. We illustrate the promise of using a multi-wavelength approach for extragalactic large-scale studies behind the ZOA, i.e. a combination of three surveys, optical, systematic blind HI and near-infrared (NIR), which will allow the mapping of the peculiar velocity field in the ZOA through the NIR Tully–Fisher relation. In particular, we present here the results of cross-identifying HI-detected galaxies with the DENIS NIR survey, and the use of NIR colours to determine foreground extinctions.

If the background universe is observed through a significant amount of diffusely distributed foreground dust, then studies at optical wavelengths may be severely biased. Previous studies investigating the effects of foreground dust on background sources assumed dust to be ‘compactly’ distributed, i.e. on scales comparable to the visible extent of normal galaxies. We show, however, that diffuse dust is more effective at obscuring background sources. Galaxy clusters are a likely location for ‘large-scale’ diffusely distributed dust, and its effect on the counts of background sources is explored. We also explore the implications of a hypothesised diffuse intergalactic dust component uniformly distributed to high redshift with comoving mass density equal to that associated with local galaxies. In this case, we predict a deficit in background sources about three times greater than that found in previous studies.

Although the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) was primarily envisioned as a tool for understanding the nature of the ‘high redshift’ universe, significant discoveries have already been made at lower redshift, z ∼ 0, through studies of stars in the Milky Way galaxy. We have begun to explore the nature of the Milky Way by detailed investigation of the publicly accessible SDSS archive, using spectroscopically targeted stars of special interest (e.g. field horizontal-branch stars, carbon-enhanced stars, and F- and G-type turnoff stars), as well as the stars originally selected as photometric and reddening standards. The first step is to use the SDSS data (which includes independently calibrated five-band photometry and spectrophotometry of individual stars) to derive reliable estimates of the stellar physical parameters, such as Teff, log g, and [Fe/H], for stars that have been observed to date. Of particular interest, at present, are the stars that are apparently associated with the Monoceros Stream (also known as the SDSS ‘Ring around the Galaxy’), for which we report derived metallicities. The techniques we have developed for derivation of the physical parameters for these stars are presently being applied to other stars in the SDSS database, including the Early Data Release (EDR), as well as the first official public database, DR-1. Here we report on the progress made to date, and comment on what might be explored in the near future from a dedicated extension of the SDSS survey (SEGUE) that specifically targets stars in the Milky Way.

Cosmic ray arrival directions at energies a little over 1018 eV have been reported to show an excess from directions close to that of the Galactic centre. That result was originally presented by the AGASA group and was later strengthened by an analysis of SUGAR cosmic ray data. We discuss here a second feature of the AGASA data, a deficit in roughly the Galactic anticentre direction.We interpret this as a result of cosmic ray diffusion past us. We find that the most straightforward interpretation of the data then requires that a strong magnetic field exists out of the plane of our Galaxy to distances of at least several kiloparsecs.

This Catalogue lists coordinates, X-ray fluxes in different energy ranges, magnitudes and colour indices, optical counterparts, orbital periods of binaries, pulsar periods and other characteristics of 226 X-ray sources (HMXBs, LMXBs, pulsars and galaxies) between δ = −73° and δ = +27°.

Giant stars make particularly useful tracer stars for halo substructure because they are very bright and very common. I discuss several projects that use giant-star tracers to search the Galactic halo for tidal debris from known Galactic satellites, including that from the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, and to search for tidal debris features from former, now destroyed satellites. Several cross-sections of the halo reveal it to be networked with extended, coherent substructures, indicating that it is likely to be predominantly made up of accreted satellites.

GPS and CSS radio sources are the objects of choice to investigate the evolution of young radio-loud AGN. Previous investigations, mainly based on number counts and source size distributions, indicate that GPS/CSS sources decrease significantly in radio power when evolving into old, extended objects. We suggest this is preceded by a period of increase in radio luminosity, which lasts as long as the radio source is confined within the core-radius of its host galaxy. We have selected a sample of nearby compact radio sources, unbiased by radio spectrum, to determine their luminosity function, size distribution, dynamical ages, and emission line properties in a complete and homogeneous way. First results indicate that the large majority of objects (>80%) exhibit classical GPS/CSS radio spectra, and show structures consistent with them being compact double or compact symmetric objects. This sample provides an ideal basis to further test and constrain possible evolution scenarios, and to investigate the relation between radio spectra and morphologies, orientation and Doppler boosting in samples of young radio-loud AGN, in an unbiased way.

A study has been made of the optical performance to be expected from an Antarctic Ritchey Chrétien telescope with a 2 m diameter primary mirror imaging directly onto a detector array in the K and L infrared windows. Near diffraction limited performance is provided across a flat 30 arcmin diameter field by compensating the astigmatism and field curvature with a meniscus lens which also serves as the Dewar window. With baffling inside and Narcissus mirrors outside the Dewar, extraneous radiation can be kept to a low level.

Measurements of cosmic ray directional properties at about 1015 eV in both northern and southern hemispheres confirm that those particles have a unidirectional anisotropy and are flowing along the direction of our spiral arm from the inner Galactic regions. On the basis of diffusive cosmic ray flow along the Galactic arms, the power required for the Galaxy to maintain this flow is below 1030 W.

We present simulated AXAF spectra of accreting white dwarfs, using parameters appropriate for magnetic cataclysmic variables. The very high spectral resolution that can be obtained with the High-Energy Transmission Grating of AXAF can resolve the keV X-ray emission lines that characterise the temperature, density and velocity profiles of the shock-heated emission regions of these systems. These simulations demonstrate that actual spectra will allow us to place constraints on the white-dwarf mass and the accretion rate of the systems. The high-resolution spectra also allow the measurement of the velocity of the accretion flow in regions close to the white-dwarf surface.

We present the results of binary population simulations of carbon- and nitrogen-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP and NEMP) stars. We show that the observed paucity of very nitrogen-rich stars puts strong constraints on possible modifications of the initial mass function at low metallicity.

Comet C/1850 Q1 (Bond) is one of a number of comets catalogued with parabolic orbits. Given that there are sufficient observations, 104 in right ascension and 103 in declination, it proves possible to calculate a better orbit. Some of the difficulties of working with 19th century observations, which show considerable scatter, are discussed. Rectangular coordinates, both of the comet and the Sun, are interpolated by a recursive version of Aitken's method, rendering unnecessary the need to specify an order for the interpolation. Comet Bond's orbit is slightly hyperbolic.

Luminous water maser emission in the 616–523 line at 22GHz has been detected from two dozen galaxies. In all cases the emission is confined to the nucleus and has been found only in AGN, in particular, in Type 2 Seyferts and LINERs. I argue that most of the observed megamaser sources are powered by X-ray irradiation of dense gas by the central engine. After briefly reviewing the physics of these X-Ray Dissociation Regions, I discuss in detail the observations of the maser disk in NGC 4258, its implications, and compare alternative models for the maser emission. I then discuss the observations of the other sources that have been imaged with VLBI to date, and how they do or do not fit into the framework of a thin, rotating disk, as in NGC 4258. Finally, I briefly discuss future prospects, especially the possibility of detecting other water maser transitions.

Galaxy-scale winds are poised to solve a number of ailments in modern cosmology. However, we know little about trends of wind properties with host galaxy properties. In an attempt to quantify the impact of galactic winds on their host galaxies and the environment, we are conducting a systematic survey of star-forming and active galaxies at z = 0–0.5. Preliminary results on the star-forming galaxies are presented.

The Taurus Tunable Filter (TTF) is a tunable narrowband interference filter covering wavelengths from 6300 Å to the sensitivity drop-off of conventional CCDs (∼9600 Å), although a blue ‘arm’ (4000–6500 Å) is to be added by the end of 1997. The TTF offers monochromatic imaging at the Cassegrain foci of both the Anglo-Australian and William Herschel Telescopes, with an adjustable passband of between 6 and 60 Å. In addition, frequency switching with the TTF can be synchronised with movement of charge (charge shuffling) on the CCD, which has important applications to many astrophysical problems. Here we review the different modes of TTF and suggest their use for follow-up narrowband imaging to the AAO/UKST Galactic Plane Hα Survey.

We report on the detection of HCO+ and 12CO emission in the rotational transition J = 1–0 in the vicinity of the shock front at the southern border of the supernova remnant RCW 103, where previous infrared observations suggest an interaction with a molecular cloud. The observations were carried out with the Australian Millimeter Radiotelescope at Mopra. We observed a depletion of HCO+ behind the supernova shock front. In addition, we studied the interstellar medium over an extended region towards RCW 103 based on archival λ 21 cm Hı line observations from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) and the Parkes Telescope. No atomic gas was observed in emission in coincidence with the molecular feature. This absence was interpreted in terms of self-absorption processes.