It has recently been shown that the planet Mercury exerts a small control on relative sunspot numbers, the degree of control depending on the positions of the other planets.

This paper describes the results of extending the work to include all the planets.

As a working hypothesis we have assumed that gravitational tidal forces induced on the Sun by the planets may modulate solar activity and have accordingly calculated relative equilibrium ‘high tide’ displacements of the solar surface for each day from the positions, masses and distances of the first six planets. Although the tides are very slight, the mass of displaced material is appreciable and varies over the very wide range of nearly 5 to 1.

A total of 18 radio sources selected on the basis of steep low-frequency radio spectra have been searched for the presence of millisecond pulsars using the Molonglo Observatory synthesis telescope. The search covered pulsar periods down to 2 ms with a limiting sensitivity of approximately 10 mJy. No pulsars were detected.

In order to find the best observable diagnostics for the amount of internal extinction within spiral galaxies, we have constructed models for disk galaxies with immersed dust layers. The radiative transfer problem, including both scattering and pure absorption, has been computed for a range of model galaxies. This reveals a set of superior diagnostics for the opacity. These include the behaviour of the radial colour and luminosity distributions, the amplitude of the asymmetry between the near and far sides of the major axis, and their dependence on the orientation of the galaxy with respect to the observer.

The Narrabri Stellar Interferometer has been used to observe the binary stars α Virginis (April 1966) and γ 2 Velorum (January 1968).

An analysis has been made of events recorded in one year from the direction of the active galaxy Centaurus A using the Buckland Park UHE gamma-ray telescope. No statistically significant excess was observed over this period. Data collected between 1984 and 1989 show evidence for an excess of events from this direction at shower sizes in the range of 2 × 105 to 5 × 105 particles.

The star AB Dor (HD 36705) was first identified as an interesting object because of its strong Call H and K emission features (Bidelman and MacConnell 1973; Houk and Cowley 1975). It has a spectral class of G8 and appears to be a single star, since no radial velocity variations have thus far been detected, despite numerous attempts (e.g. Collier 1982; Innis et al. 1985a). Probably the most unusual and important feature about the star is its rapid rotational velocity, with a Vsini of 80 km s-1 (Collier 1982), which is more than 20 times that of a normal star of similar spectral class. AB Dor also shows a substantial photometric wave, commonly interpreted as indicating the presence of starspots. This wave has a typical amplitude of 0.05 to 0.15 magnitudes in V and a period of 0.514 days (e.g. Innis et al. 1985b). Combining this with the Vsini value gives a lower limit of 0.76 R⊙ for the stellar radius, while assuming the radius of a normal G8 dwarf yields an axial inclination of 60° ± 10°.

A new maser receiver, operating between 20 and 24 GHz and constructed by the radiometer group at the CSIRO Division of Radiophysics, was first scheduled for astronomical observations in December 1981. In good observing conditions the system temperature was as low as 60 K. In conjunction with the versatility of the 1024-channel correlator and the large collecting area of the Parkes telescope (the central 37 m illuminated at 22 GHz yields a ratio of flux density to antenna temperature of 9∼ Jy K-1) the total system is a very powerful new tool. Here we report some observations of naturally occuring celestial H2O masers which we have studied with this system.

In an IAU Symposium report, Spiegel has made mention of the basic reasons for the astrophysical interest in the problem of non-linear convection of a horizontal fluid layer heated from below. Unfortunately the two important parameters of this problem—the Prandtl number P and the Rayleigh number R take on ‘extreme’ values in the astrophysical situation and this presents immediate difficulties as far as the numerical solution of the basic equations go.

A K-band (18-25 GHz) reflected-wave ruby maser (Moore and Clauss 1979) has been borrowed from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory for radio astronomy use on the NASA 64-m antenna of the Deep Space Network at the Tidbinbilla Tracking Station, near Canberra. The purpose of the installation is to provide additional sensitive spectral line, continuum, and VLBI capabilities in the southern hemisphere. Previous measurements at 22.3 GHz (λ = 13.5 mm) determined that the Tidbinbilla 64-m antenna has a peak aperture efficiency of ˜22%, a well-behaved beam shape and consistent pointing (Fourikis and Jauncey 1979). Before installing the maser on the antenna a cooled (circulator) switch was added to provide a beam-switching capability, and a spectral line receiver following the maser was incorporated. The system was assembled and tested at JPL in late 1980 and installed at Tidbinbilla early in 1981. We give here a brief description and present some of the first line observations made in February and March 1981. Extensive line and continuum observations are planned with the present system and a program is under way to determine the telescope pointing characteristics.

For some years now, there have been suggestions that the nuclei of planetary nebulae are stars undergoing a final gravitational contraction to the white dwarf state. These have culminated in two important studies by O’Dell, and by Seaton and his collaborators, the results of which are indicated on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram of Figure 1. The temperatures and the distances—and hence luminosities—of the central stars are obtained from flux observations of the stars themselves and the surrounding nebular shells, the former by the Zanstra method, and the latter by that of Shklovsky.

The temporal behaviour of Rayleigh-Benard convection has attracted considerable attention in recent years, both from an experimental and theoretical point of view. Experiments (eg. Gollub and Benson 1980) have demonstrated a complicated array of non-linear behaviour, as well as the need for a model which will at least qualitatively describe what is observed.

While Uhuru’s contribution to X-ray astronomy in the energy range 1 – 20 keV (and more particularly 2 – 10 keV) has been most impressive, it remains true that satellite observations outside this energy range, and particularly at energies above 20 keV which are also accessible to balloon-borne instrumentation, have been somewhat disappointing. We cannot forsee any likely marked improvement in this situation for at least four years and we believe therefore, that balloon-borne payloads can continue to contribute significantly to the study of hard X-ray sources.

One of the quantities usually required when solving the equation of radiative transfer is the intensity of radiation emerging from the surface of the medium under consideration. For multi-dimensional situations however, the methods presented to date have been numerical, and these first calculate the so-called source function Sv (r, Ω) as a function of position r, angle Ω and frequency v. This is generally the most difficult part of the exercise since an integro-difierential equation must be solved. The emergent intensity is then determined by solving a relatively simple first order differential equation by any of the well known numerical integration schemes. However, if the emergent intensity is required at a large number of angles, frequencies, and positions on the surface of the medium, and this is usually the case, the amount of computing needed may be considerable.

Towards the end of February 1968 the astronomical world was staggered by a paper from the Milliard Radio Observatory at Cambridge announcing the discovery of an astonishing periodic phenomenon. The characteristics of the pulsating radio source—or pulsar as it came to be called—involved a fantastic multiplicity of time-scales. The duration of the individual events was measured in tens of milliseconds, the repetition rate was of the order of a second, the pulse amplitude showed drastic variations over times of seconds, minutes, hours and even months and, lastly, the stability of the basic periodicity indicated a time-scale of millions of years. A series of pulses from CP 1919, the first pulsar, is shown in Figure 1, and one notices here both the regularity of the pulses and the variation in their amplitude with time. When the individual pulses were observed on an expanded time-scale it was found that the pulses were made up of sub-pulses (Figure 2) and that there was considerable structure even down to a millisecond time-scale.