A graphical format has been adopted to depict some characteristic variations associated with the solar activity cycle up to 1988, for both the Zurich annual and monthly mean values over the respective periods from 1700 and 1750. Both low pass and band pass filtering techniques have been employed to smooth the data, the autocorrelation coefficients determined for a high number of lags to illustrate the secular modulation of the maximum values in each cycle and the spectral amplitudes computed to establish periodicities in the chronologies.

The observation of the X-ray sky from balloons, rockets, and satellites has led to the discovery of more than 100 X-ray sources. Optical and radio identifications have been made for about a dozen of these. A few X-ray sources are of extra-galactic origin, but the majority are objects in the Galaxy.

The grating ring response of the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope can be reduced by the installation of 60° phase switches into each of 176 signal paths of the antenna. A suitable voltage-controlled UHF phase switch has been designed and tested at 843 MHz. It consists of two varactor diodes in series with a microstrip. Although designed to provide only two phase states, the device works well as a continuous phase shifter with a coefficient of ∼3° per volt. Details of the design, performance and application to the radio telescope are given.

This paper presents results of CCD observations of DR Tau which show emission line variability.

Pulsar observations will be made with two new general-purpose transit radiotelescopes at present being built near Hobart.

It has been often suggested that the solar granulation is essentially a turbulent convective phenomenon. It is then worthwhile to investigate steady state, finite-amplitude convection in the outer layers of the solar convection zone. On the basis that the convection zone is turbulent, we will define an eddy viscosity; and for the present we will consider only the first 300 km of the convection zone. This value is predicted by van der Borght using an asymptotic analysis of convection at high Rayleigh number—provided we assume the horizontal dimension of the cellular pattern to be ˜1000 km.

When two stars are in orbit about each other, tidal forces cause an exchange of energy and angular momentum between the orbital motion and the fluid motion of each star about its own centre of mass. The orbit is progressively altered, and one or both stars may be catastrophically disrupted.

An experiment has been developed in order to map the submillimetre Galactic emission at four different wavelengths between 400 μm and 2 mm at an angular scale of 1°. A binocular telescope system has been realised by means of two off-axis wobbling parabolic mirrors, each one coupled to a two-channel 3He photometer. A first run of observations from Dome C is planned for the Antarctic summer 1995–96.

Using a network of ground-based stations stretching from Lae, New Guinea, to the Antarctic, and high altitude balloons and rockets, the Hobart cosmic ray group is studying several aspects of naturally-occurring high energy radiation.

Observations of the large-scale organisation of matter in the Universe are of great importance in present day astronomy. In the visible part of the spectrum such observations are mainly of the distribution of galaxies on the plane of the sky.

Direct and objective prism plates obtained using large Schmidt telescopes form the bulk of the material used. The direct plates provide the observations from which the surface distribution of galaxies may be determined and the prism plates and FLAIR, via redshifts, yield extragalactic distances and hence the three dimensional distribution of galaxies.

For large-scale surveys the measuring machines used need to be multi-purpose and fast such as COSMOS and SUPER-COSMOS at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh. More specific programs can make use of smaller, slower machines such as iris photometers and microdensitometers.

The method of analysing the data produced rely on seeking density enhancements in the general field of galaxies for cluster detection or using correlation techniques for analysis of the galaxy distribution.

A description is given of a southern sky catalogue containing 109 objects recently completed and an outline of some of the extragalactic projects underway using this large body of data.

The distribution of faint galaxies in a deep sample, down to a limiting magnitude of B ~ 21.5 in a region of some 30 square degrees of sky at the South Galactic Pole, is investigated. The sample was obtained from objective measurements made with the COSMOS automatic plate-scanning machine. The two-point angular correlation function shows positive correlation on scales out to ~1.5° and thereafter positive correlations on scales ~ 2.5° and ~ 5° indicating the presence of clustering in this sample on linear scales out to ~ 8h-1 Mpc and at ~ 13h-1 and ~ 27h-1 Mpc. On application of an algorithm for the detection of filamentary structure in the distribution of the galaxies, a negative result is obtained.

Mid-infrared spectroscopic data on SN 1987A are reviewed. This spectral region contains the fine structure lines of a number of ions, incuding the iron group elements, together with recombination lines of hydrogen and helium. From about 9 months all these lines and the continuum have been effectively optically thin, and the [CoII] line strength and development yields an estimate of the parental 56Ni mass of 0.071 M⊙, very similar to the light curve estimates. At one year after the explosion the velocities appropriate to the hydrogenic and ionic regions are ∼ 2000 km s−1 and ∼ 1500 km s−1, respectively.

Apart from an excess between 8–9 μm which appears to be due to molecular SiO, there is no evidence of departure of the continuum from free-free emission, and no sign of any emission from dust. From the free-free continuum an ionization fraction of a few percent is derived for the hydrogen/helium envelope; this provides relative transparency in the mid infrared while the bound electrons provide the X and γ-ray opacity which is still considerable at 15 months.

The appearance of neutral ions at 15 months indicates that the ejecta temperatures are cooling, and that dust formation may be imminent.

Work on the development and use of optical fibres as light guides in astronomical spectroscopy has been underway at the AAO for over a year now. The fibres used are step-index polymer-clad silica with a core size of 200 microns giving an aperture size of 1.3 arcsec at the AAT f/8 focus. They are optimised for data transmission with losses below 5dB/km at a wavelength of 800 nm. The blue transmission is somewhat lower, typically 500dB/km at 300nm and 90dB/km at 400nm but over the short 2m length used these attenuations give transmissions of 79% and 96% respectively.

8.4 GHz linear polarization maps, obtained with the Parkes radio telescope, are presented for six southern supernova remnants. These results are compared with published and unpublished polarization maps at 5 GHz to derive the magnetic field direction and Faraday rotation measure distribution.

These results are part of a program to map the magnetic fields in galactic supernova remnants and complement our program to obtain high-resolution maps of galactic SNRs using the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope; five new Molonglo maps are presented here.

The interpretation of the radio burst from SN 1987A as an expanding synchrotron source is briefly reviewed.

This paper describes some of the space science programs currently underway and planned in Japan.

The mechanism by which planetary nebula (PN) shells are ejected is still subject to considerable uncertainty. It is generally assumed that the precursors of these objects are low mass (M< 5 M⊙) asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, and that the nucleus of a planetary nebula (NPN) is undergoing a final gravitational contraction to the white dwarf state. The shell consists of some or all of the remaining unburnt (though not necessarily uncontaminated), hydrogen-rich material out of which the star was originally formed.