A review is given of recent developments in the interpretation of the structure and heating of the solar corona, and of solar flares. An electric circuit model for a flaring magnetic loop is introduced, and used to discuss the closure of the current pattern. It is argued that cross-field current flow cannot be set up after a flux tube has emerged above the photosphere. The energy dissipated in a flare is attributed to a change in the inductance of the flaring loop, with the current remaining approximately constant. Emphasis is placed on the value of the resistance of the flaring loop, and on the associated inductive timescale.

Observations have been made, using the Epping 4-m radio telescope, of emission from the J = 1-0 transition of CO (115 GHz) towards the Southern Coalsack. The half-power beam-width was 2′.7 arc and the radial velocity resolution was 0.07 km s−1. The line was found to be distributed with varying intensity over an area of 63′ × 36′ arc. The mean radial velocity was −5.8 km s−1 and mean half-intensity linewidth 1.18 km s-1. A typical line temperature was 8 K with maxima exceeding 12 K. The results suggest a stable dark cloud region with no significant evidence of systematic motions.

The compound interferometer at Fleurs, N.S.W., consists of the separate arms of the Christiansen grating interferometer with the addition of two 45-ft dishes to each to give maximum spacings of 3710λ at 1415 MHz. The closest physical spacing is 60 ft and the spacings progress at 40-ft intervals to a maximum of 2580 ft as shown in Figure 1.

Observations of the Jupiter radio emissions have established that the radiation is normally received as bursts with two quite different time scales. The L bursts mostly have durations of 1-10 seconds, although extended bursts up to 100 seconds are sometimes observed. The S bursts on the other hand have time scales of milliseconds and fractions of a millisecond. Dynamic spectrographic observations have shown that both types are structured in the frequency-time plane although the frequency and time resolution used so far has been insufficient to investigate detail smaller than 50 KHz and 10 msec respectively.

Mass-loss has been incorporated into a series of evolutionary calculations of low to intermediate mass stars during Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) evolution. When helium shell flashes occur a superwind phase is a natural consequence of the mass-loss process. The structure of the stellar wind envelopes that result has been computed. The models may explain some previously curious features seen in OH/IR and CO line emission spectra.

A novel explanation for the origin of the cometary globules within NGC 7293 (the ‘Helix’ planetary nebula) is examined, namely that these globules originate as massive cometary bodies at large astrocentric radii. The masses of such hypothetical cometary bodies would have to be several orders of magnitude larger than those of any such bodies observed in our solar system in order to supply the observed mass of neutral gas. It is, however, shown that comets at ‘outer Oort cloud’ distances are likely to survive past the red giant and asymptotic giant branch evolutionary phases of the central star, allowing them to survive until the formation of the planetary nebula. Some observational tests of this hypothesis are proposed.

The propagation of extragalactic particles within our Galaxy has been modelled. The flux of such particles is below the observed cosmic ray flux at most energies when their power-law spectrum is extrapolated back from the highest energies. Also, we expect that the propagation of extragalactic particles through static magnetic fields in the Galaxy will not result in a flux change to match the flux of particles measured here within the Galaxy. However, if we were to consider the observed cosmic rays to be of Galactic origin, there would be a remarkable similarity between the required Galactic injection flux and the extrapolated extragalactic flux. We consider here whether the scattering of extragalactic particles in the Galaxy together with an associated energy perturbation might be sufficient for the extragalactic beam to result in the production of ‘Galactic’ particles and, hence, essentially all of the observed cosmic rays. This appears to be possible.

As part of an extensive southern survey of interstellar NH3 with the Parkes 64-m radio telescope (with a beamwidth of 81 arcsec), the (1, 1), (2, 2), and (3, 3) transitions have been observed towards the galactic centre molecular cloud G1.6-0.025. The cloud has an overall size of 10 arcmin, and contains several concentrations with differing velocities. It has several features also observed in other galactic centre clouds, e.g. high optical depths and kinetic temperatures above 50 K.

Thomson scattering in pulsar magnetospheres has previously been studied by several authors. The most distinguishing feature is the fact that the super-strong magnetic field (B ~ 1012 G) greatly affects the Thomson scattering process, resulting in resonances in the scattering cross-section (Canuto et al. 1971; Herold 1979; Chou 1986; Daugherty and Harding 1986). The important consequences of these cyclotron resonances are the increase in the photon mean free path in the scattering regions, and strongly affecting the angular distribution, and polarisation properties of the scattered photons (Chou 1986; Chou et al. 1989).

An optical astronomical facility is being established near Hobart where the emphasis is being placed upon spectroscopy. A 40 cm telescope and Coudé spectrograph is already operational, and the 100 cm instrument will be operational by mid-1973. In this paper discussion is restricted to the 100 cm instrumentation.

The edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 5793 has been observed at frequencies of 4860 and 14940 MHz with the Very Large Array. The corresponding half-intensity beamwidths in the final maps were 0.65 × 0.40 and 0.19 × 0.11 arcsec2. The maps show a continuum source close to the optical nucleus with dimensions of ≤0.01 and 0.04 arcsec in right ascension and declination. The average spectral index is –0.6.

Although scientific astronomy has a long and illustrious history in Australia, it was not until 1895 that the first astronomical society was formed. This was the New South Wales Branch of the British Astronomical Association (see B.A.A. 1894-5; Gale 1895a,b), and before the end of the century it was joined by others in Melbourne and Brisbane (B.A.A. 1897-8; Editor’s Note 1979; Ellery 1901:13; Thomson 1897). These societies and their predecessors, the Astronomy Branches of the Royal Societies of New South Wales and South Australia (Waters 1980), were the mainstay of astronomical activity – both professional and amateur – in nineteenth century Australia, providing as they did regular meetings, library facilities, and avenues for publication and celestial observation.

A great deal has been written about the mechanical design and the electrical characteristics of the Parkes radio telescope, but very little has been written about the pre-history — the factors leading up to the construction of that instrument. I want to spend a little time today describing some of the events which led to its being built.

Time-dependent convection theory and non-local convection theory are described. The difference between the convection theories results from the different treatment of the non-linear terms of the hydrodynamic equations. We have obtained a better understanding of the thermodynamic coupling between convection and oscillations in comparison to the dynamic coupling.